Don’t be in a rush to return, Kofi, you are as gullible as all of us

By Denis Galava

When a woman is in labour and the baby is in breech position, the midwife does not turn to the husband and congratulate him for a job well done.

She rushes the mother-to-be to the theatre for an operation to save two lives.

Yet, Kofi Annan has just done that.

We have been in labour for reforms for 18 months and when time came for delivery, the baby was in breech position. Instead of the midwife pressing the emergency button, she turned to the husband and patted him on the back for a job well done.

It sounds cynical but the midwife is Annan, the husband the two principals, and the mother and baby whose lives are at risk are Kenya and our national aspirations.

Annan found the pace of reform painfully slow, but instead of chastising the principals, the good old diplomat gave them an encouraging nod.

He might have chosen to communicate his disproval as softly as he could muster, but that recognition of an effort that is not tangible has been misconstrued to mean we are on track.

Our leaders operate by Sherlock’s Holmes maxim that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. In other words, to them it is not for nothing that Annan returned a mild if not favourable verdict. He must have had reasons, and those reasons do not have to be recited to the public like the rosary.

Speak to any minister with presidential ambitions today and you will tire of the lullabies on how the Government is sparing no effort to make our lives better. Others take it a notch higher and say that the President and the Prime Minister mean very well for Kenya, but some sadists within the regime are sabotaging them.

This is one of those lies that have been repeated so often that even the US and the EU have bought it.

Kibaki and Raila are no captives. While the President may appear in public as a laidback chap who would do better with a good cartoon strip than saucy Nigerian movies, behind that bland look is a crafty mind. We must clap for him for effortlessly making the public believe that he is a pushover.

Ask Martha Karua and you will hear of a man who never lets a chance to humiliate a friend-turned opponent pass. Look at the way he steers through controversies and you will see a chap who knows self-preservation is the surest way to success.

Raila, on the other hand, may not be as combative as many would love him to be, but he is not a prisoner of renegade Kalenjin MPs, as some posit.

History shows that when Agwambo wants something, he goes for it. The trappings of power and expectations of a nation might have weighed him down a bit, but it has not killed the puff adder instinct in him.

Ask Ringera, Kimunya and Kivuitu and they will tell you there’s no greater opponent than one who is spoilt for choice of proxies.

Raila has learnt that every leader needs brilliant, tested minds to walk his talk and this is why he has turned his former critics — Dalmas Otieno, Anyang’ Nyong’o and James Orengo — into his foremost defenders.

Therefore, if the reform process is stalling, it is because Kibaki and Raila are not yet decided on what they really want done. Everything else is hot air.

And that is why Annan’s visit was bad for reform. Bad in the sense that the principals pulled the wool over his eyes and made him believe there was a clique undermining reforms.

The trip coincided with a flurry of stage-managed activities on reform and peace building, which created a mirage of action being taken. It’s this mirage that showed a semblance of progress to Annan, and to which he gave a tacit nod.

When it eventually emerges that nothing really changed, Annan will be left with egg on his face, and Kibaki and Raila will blame saboteurs and Annan for not doing enough to help them advance the reform agenda.

What better excuse would the two musketeers need to flaunt their reform credentials?

Thumbs up for the principals for proving that you can fool all the people, all the time.

—The writer ([email protected]) is Senior Associate Editor, Weekend Editions