Columnists should leave the Vice-President alone
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By Kaplich Barsito This is in response to Okech Kendo’s article, They are afraid of and for Kalonzo, in The Standard of Thursday, October 22. The piece was a blatant attempt to lower the Vice-President’s standing. Kendo takes issue with the Veep’s remark that he would have done far much better in the Rift Valley and by extension the elections in 2007 had there not been a plot to urge (William) Ruto to stand for president and later give way for Raila Odinga. That little development contributed to balkanisation of the country. Mr Kendo then moves to poke fun at Kalonzo’s eight per cent return in the 2007 polls, never mind that others have done far worse in their first run for president. Kendo is unwilling to let go of the 2007 elections and the formation of the ODM-Kenya/PNU coalition. When Kendo christens the PNU coalition an "alliance of blood", the columnist walks in the company of radio stations that fuelled the post-election crisis. A partisan media was a critical component of the build-up to the crisis last year and the intolerance and recklessness that was all over then should, for the benefit of the nation, be avoided. Kendo chastises the VP for being ready to deal with PNU in the middle of blood and teargas and goes as far as calling Kalonzo an accomplice of a 2007 plot. The VP was categorical during the campaigns that he was willing to work with the winner of the elections. How come Kendo makes no mention of the losers who, with the full knowledge that in the state the nation was in, there could be no such thing as peaceful protests? Any protests would lead to death and violence, yet they went ahead to plan and rouse their supporters to stage demos to advance their bargaining stake at the negotiating table. Why the pointed criticism in one direction? Why the never-ending obsession with one aspect of the post-election period that was not directly related to the violence? In rather creative fashion Kendo then uses John Michuki to cast Kalonzo in negative light as though Michuki were the devil incarnate. He goes on to call Michuki a snake ready to coil around the VP’s political future. Just because John Michuki appreciates the formation of the ODM-K/PNU coalition does not make him Kalonzo’s right hand man or ideological twin brother. Rather creative As Kendo rightly puts it, Michuki was in the ‘Banana’ camp during the referendum but he forgets to remind Kenyans that the Kalonzo he calls a ‘status quo kid’ was a leading light of the ‘Orange’ camp. Why does he turn a blind eye to historical fact? After Kendo, came Kipkoech Tanui, ‘The Standard’s Managing Editor, Daily Editions, with a largely similar piece barely 24 hours later titled: Kalonzo: How not to win an election (The Standard Friday October 23). Mr Tanui, to give the devil his due, canvassed the same points as Kendo, but in a more restrained fashion. Mr Tanui claims to rarely talk about the Vice-President and with no ability to eavesdrop on his private conversations, I concede the point but his column invariably always finds a way to talk about the Vice-President even when the subject matter is of a different nature. His regular readers, I am sure, will concur. Further, Tanui claims it is only President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga who can unite Kenya since they won majority of the vote in 2007, but the appropriate response to that he provides himself when he notes that Kenya’s problems since 2003 have revolved around the President and the Prime Minister. Maybe it is time someone else had a crack at this riddle. If the VP sees the need for reconciliation and is willing to do the legwork, what is the problem? —The writer is Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka’s personal assistant.