Kenyan politics is getting richer and more colourful by the day. It is getting richer and more enthralling not just in its mechanics and contours, but also in its language and lexicon.
As a result, new words and phrases are being invented to describe new political formations and conglomerations.
Take the word “Project”, for example. What exactly does it mean? Is it conservative, progressive or neutral? Is it fluid or stationary?
Does its thrust and meaning depend on the Projector? Like whether that person was former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, former President Daniel arap Moi or President Mwai Kibaki?
When President Kibaki went down to Kisumu the other day to formally open the new international airport there, both James Orengo, the Lands Minister and Jakoyo Midiwo, the MP for Gem, publicly pleaded with him to support Raila Odinga’s presidential bid.
“Rudisha mkono”, they said. Say “Raila Tosha”, in reference to the declaration Raila made in 2002 at Uhuru Park in Nairobi that did so much to make Kibaki president.
Were those gentlemen asking the President to turn Raila into his “Project?” And when Kibaki failed to respond, what message did those ODM leaders think he was passing?
Received wisdom within ODM has it that the forces around State House and President Kibaki generally epitomise reaction, corruption, electoral fraud and impunity. If this is the case, then why would such top ODM guns publicly plead with the President to support Raila’s presidential bid?
What business should ODM have seeking the support of those whom, in its view, symbolise reaction, corruption, electoral fraud and impunity? Isn’t there more than just a whiff of grand hypocrisy here?
We go out to seek the support of those whose politics we claim we detest. We singularly fail to get that support. So, overnight, we turn all our guns on those we perceive, rightly or wrongly, to have received such support! Interesting stuff, this!
But there is another contradiction in this ODM-Musalia Mudavadi tiff that cannot have escaped close observers of the Kenyan political landscape.
