Kibaki, Raila aside we need new law

By Kipkoech Tanui

I do not know what President Kibaki and Prime minister Raila Odinga think of each other in private but freedom allows us to guess. I say in private because in public we say what we want others to hear, not what they ought to hear.

Reflecting on the messy 2007 presidential elections, especially how the Executive was cunningly used to lynch the Electoral Commission, I do not doubt at heart Raila feels cheated.

Maybe when he looks at Kibaki, the man he catapulted to the Presidency in 2002 while on a wheelchair, the heart boils with anger and regret.

Maybe he has not forgotten how, together with fellow Orange Democratic Movement Pentagon members, he was teargassed at Ligi Ndogo Grounds as they gathered to bury 20 youths gunned down by police in Kibera. That was probably the time Kibaki was looking for Kalonzo Musyoka to give him a portion of the loaf as Kenya burned.

We could say Kenya has healed and reflecting on this dark past is to take the nation back. To those who say this I will tell them that is not how the mind works.

I do not need to be told what Raila thinks of the many youths, some school-children, shot dead in cold blood by police in ODM strongholds such as Kisumu, Eldoret and Kakamega as Kibaki and his men strove to entrench themselves for a second term.

I imagine, and which Raila has often said, Kibaki is a political fraudster who would rather ride on others’ wings than fight for himself; a thankless leader who, once he has crossed the swollen river, won’t look back to see if the rest of the pack are safe; a man who thrives on the decoy and is unbothered by what is happening around him and is not tribal and ambitious.

I recall an MP from Central Kenya who, to those he trusts, says: "If you see me doing something for Kibaki, know that he has paid me in advance. He is not the kind of guy you invoice after delivery of goods or services. He will have forgotten you and moved on."

Seat upgrade

I was once told how Raila arrived at the airport as a wheelchair-bound Kibaki was being flown out to London in 2002. His handlers had put him in the crammed economy class.

The deputy captain questioned why no one though of upgrading his seat. Looking around and with no sign those closest to Kibaki were willing to take the first move, Raila pulled out his credit card and handed it to the ticketing officer. Again it is not the money but the man.

Yes, I know Raila is a shrewd politician who can sacrifice his other share of the loaf today in the hope of getting the king-size family loaf tomorrow.

He also appears to me to be viciously nationalistic and can let go his temporal interests for the sake of the nation.

He could be many things but neither a coward nor a master of deceit — even though his Machiavellian approach to politics has made him appear so. He can also be impatient in a party and jump ship too often.

Deciphering Kibaki’s mind on Raila can be interesting. First, he probably is to him kale Kajaruo. You see as the people of Central Kenya said of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga even after he gave his whole to Kenyatta, the sons of the lake fancy lofty titles, being held in high esteem and being the talking point.

This logic, which I pray isn’t true of Kibaki, is similar to Napoleon Bonaparte who said men could be ruled by toys. The General meant that with a simple medal of honour to a military officer, you win his heart and soul. He could die for you in the battlefield in trying to gratify you for the decorative ‘toy’ you put on his uniform.

If Kibaki, therefore, looks at Raila from Napoleon’s lenses, he would be the kind of guy you give ‘toys’ and carry on with ‘ethnicisation’ and balkanisation of Kenya’s powerbase. In public you would say tuko pamoja and are sharing power 50-50 per cent, when you mean you have him where you want.

I can also imagine Kibaki at times finds himself wondering if he should have yielded to international pressure to share the loaf he already had in his ‘no-admission’ kitchen with Raila and his team.

This could be more pronounced when his former golfing buddies drop by for 4 o’clock tea on the lawns of State House. I will not help anyone buttress the fallacy there is amity between them and 2012 Kibaki will reciprocate Raila’s endorsement.

Today, I do not really care who is fooling whom, if any of them is that gullible.

All I want is a new constitution for my country and if it is their cat-and-mouse games that would take us there, the better. I just hope they will be able to silence their loudmouthed lieutenants whose wagging tongues might divide Kenyans and kill the reform process.

Hangers-on

It is these big-tongued men and women who felled Richard Nixon when they decided to bug the Democratic Party headquarters and lie on oath while destroying evidence.

Kibaki and Raila should be wary of these hangers-on of whom Gerald Ford later exclaimed: "The political lesson of Watergate is this: Never again must America allow an arrogant, elite guard of political adolescents by-pass the regular party organisation and dictate the terms of a national election."

As to what Kibaki and Rail think of themselves, time always is the good and fair judge.

The writer is The Standard’s Managing Editor, Daily Editions.

ktanui@standardmedia.co.ke

 

 

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