Letters

As aimed, Miguna distracted ODM

The campaign momentum was almost peeled back with Miguna Miguna’s book, Peeling Back the Mask: A Quest for Justice in Kenya. By any standard, Miguna is a very bright man. It calls for an intelligent brain to weave such a read.

First things first. What formed the basis of the decision to appoint Miguna as Premier Raila Odinga’s official advisor on coalition matters? Who advised and recommended to Raila that Miguna fitted the bill to be his official government advisor?

Except for Otieno Kajwang’, Fred Outa and the residents of Nyando, the rest of the Luo nation has been very cautious commending on Miguna’s revelations. PM Raila remained cool until when he instructed his friends through Friends of Raila (Fora) to reply to Miguna.

Miguna’s pride, IQ and sophisticated humour reveals and presents a real Luo man in the traditional context. I absolutely have no beef with Miguna’s overbearing mien, that is Ja-Nyando at his best!

A flashback on former PS John Githongo’s Anglo-Leasing dossier and the Kikuyu’s reaction over the issue is a vital and valid comparative case study. It is indeed true that Githongo, a former PS of Ethics and Governance in President Kibaki’s Narc government, almost scuttled Kibaki’s presidency.

How did the Kikuyu nation react? Did they demonstrate at Githongo’s rural home, burn his effigy and ‘coffin’? No, it never happened. Central Province was stunned and remained quiet praying for the whole thing to cool down. That’s what happened.

No saints

The emotional impatience among the Luos to react to Miguna’s book has been hard to bear. Interestingly, the blaring responses against Miguna have not negated the latter’s description of Raila’s persona as ‘disastrous in structured meetings... a good listener... he isn’t a good organised leader, manager or administrator.’ No leader is a saint anyway. Were Miguna’s revelations about Raila’s character and emotional stability in bad spirit?

As a socio-political analyst, I see Miguna’s book as the unseen giant annex and big footnote of Raila’s revised autobiography, Raila: An Enigma in Kenyan Politics. This is because when the PM will revise his autobiography, there are issues in Miguna’s book that he, Raila, must capture.

Sarah Elderkin, ODM’s media consultant, penned a swift rejoinder which pulled out as a good journalistic device aimed at toning down the robust humour and stings that characterise Miguna’s pen.

Unfortunately, Elderkin majorly focused on side shows and went for Miguna’s personal character. However, I was delighted when she defended the PM that it was not strange for a man like Raila to weep publicly.

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