Keep personalities out of Raila-Kalonzo pension issue

Eric Arthur Blair who most of us know as George Orwell, the author of the novel ‘Animal Farm’ had this say of politics; ‘in our age there is no such thing as keeping out of politics.

All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia’.

Last week, President Uhuru Kenyatta refused to assent to a bill that would have given former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka pension, ostensibly because they are still active in politics. As usual, in expressing esprit de corps, some Jubilee conformists could be heard lamenting that the government will not finance Raila’s 2017 campaign.

The two gentlemen’s proposed pension does not fall under the general definition of regular pension, or even severance pay.

This was to be an Occupational pension specifically created by the government to benefit the two leaders who served under a unique system of government dictated by circumstances, and which died a natural death immediately the 2010 Constitution came into effect.

While acquiescing that politics is about lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia; attributes of the Jubilee-CORD engagement today, there is this folly of deliberately refusing to acknowledge the thin line between holding public office, for which one is entitled to a pension after leaving, and politics.

In part, Wikipedia describes politics as ‘a variety of methods employed in politics, which include promoting or forcing one’s own political views among people, negotiation with other political subjects, making laws, and exercising force, including warfare against adversaries. Politics is exercised on a wide range of social levels, from clans and tribes of traditional societies, through modern local governments, companies and institutions up to sovereign states, to the international level’.

From this definition, the narrow confines from which those opposed to the pension payment, and especially from the Jubilee side want us to view the whole issue can only be a product of hatred, evasions and schizophrenia borne of an unexplained dread of an individual. At some point Jubilee cheer leaders attempted to change the Constitution expressly to bar Raila from contesting the presidency on account of advanced age. It never occurred to those fronting the myopia that they, too, were aging and at 70 years, could themselves feel better placed to lead this country.

Some legislators exhibit a morbid fixation with Raila, yet the same individuals consumed by this loathing have the audacity to preach to Kenyans the need for reconciliation, love and peace. You cannot preach water, drink wine and expect to be venerated.

The Deputy President’s day in office is never complete without a now jaded and dreary line, ‘wale jamaa wa vitendawili’. And then MP Aden Duale and Senator Kipchumba Murkomen take the refrain to express their undying loyalty to the DP William Ruto. When you add in MP Moses Kuria’s outbursts and a few other incomprehensible legislators, you get an objectionable mix.

High office holders often get false airs of importance and invincibility. They get to believe sitting on the highest perch makes them the brightest stars in the constellation even when there is no evidence of such grossly misplaced beliefs. Today, I would pay a fortune to know what goes on in the minds of Blaise Compaore, Charles Taylor, Hosni Mubarak, Laurent Gbagbo and Mohamed Morsi. They were once very full of themselves.