It is the feasting that motivates our leaders, not morals or principles

Suddenly, Tanga tanga movement’s most loquacious aides have gone mute. And just as suddenly, the ruckus about slaying the dragon of corruption has died down. Last Friday’s arrest of Evans Kidero was just for show; the DPP, DCI, EACC and the Executive appear to have run out steam. Their tyre got punctured, which now makes the Tanga tanga movement’s hint on possessing a dossier on the rival gang believable. The subtle hint took the wind out of the Kieleweke gang’s sails.  

Whatever slackened the Jubilee gang war cannot be good for Wanjiku. It is not in the interests of the gangs that Wanjiku should know what mischief both parties have been up to. Were that to happen, there is the possibility it could trigger a reaction that Jubilee is not keen to see happen, particularly not when the cases of Algeria and Sudan are still so fresh. But it is no brainer that Jubilee is a nemesis on Kenyans.

Not only has it run the country down, burdened it with debt, it is mendacious. Nothing illustrates this more than the incoherence coming out of State House in regard to the recent China trip, SGR loan, intrigues around the deuced attempt by the government to get ailing Kenya Airways take control of JKIA, and conflicting reports on economic performance indicators from agencies of the same government.

The tragedy is that politically, Kenyans are vulnerable orphans. Our only hope, the opposition, is dead. Baba was the mortician on that fateful day on March9, 2018.  The handshake will be our undoing yet, having trussed up Kenyans and delivered them to Jubilee’s dungeons.

Stockholm syndrome

Where before Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto were as thick as thieves, and that was because of the threat of ICC, Kenyatta and Raila Odinga have assumed a camaraderie ostensibly inspired by their need to get Kenya out of quagmire, but in reality,  inherent desire to protect their turfs from upstarts entertaining big ideas.

They do not love Kenyans; rather, they love what they have and would do anything to protect it. By a twist of fate, their staunchest supporters; those ready to put their lives on the line in the defence of their two timing idols, are the lowliest of the low in whom the Stockholm syndrome is omnipresent.The handshake replays last year’s clandestine arrangement in the Democratic Republic of Congo between Joseph Kabila and Felix Tshisekedi, sons of a former president and a fierce opposition leader who once served as a Prime Minister; Laurent Kabila and Etienne Tshisekedi.

So discredited was President Joseph Kabila after he practically run DRC to the ground, he knew with certainty he would face jail the moment he left the cover and protection of the presidency. His attempts to change the constitution to run for a third term were thwarted. Kabila and Tshisekedi are ‘royal blood’, but there was this hustler in Martin Fayulu trying to upset the apple cart.

Opposition leader

Hastily, Kabila and Tshisekedi put their differences aside and rekindled the old friendship they had growing up. Because elections in Africa are never won, there was a conspiracy by the incumbent to hand the win to someone who would not expose him to ridicule, and that is how Tshisekedi became president.

Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga are sons of a former president and opposition leader who also served as a vice president; Jomo Kenyatta and Oginga Odinga. And the hustler who thought he could upset the apple cart is wily William Ruto. If what Maina Kamanda insinuated recently had seen the light of day, Kenyatta would be out. One wonders; is that possibility what gave him the appearance of nonchalance towards his deputy lately?

Besides defusing the political tension shortly after the contested 2017 general elections, what else has the handshake achieved?  To wholly credit the prevailing tranquility to the handshake is myopic. Even without it, the Government would have used its machinery to cow and crush any sporadic violence over an electoral outcome inside one week. All that would have been needed was state sanctioned violence, blocking water, food and electricity supply to trouble spots and within two days, nobody would have had the strength to lift their hands.

Yet despite the handshake, the supply of the aforementioned has not increased. Crime still rules. Drought and starvation are ravaging Kenyans. Tribalism is still evident. Taxation and more taxation without corresponding pay rises is the new normal; from fuel levy that increased transport costs and food commodity prices to the ill thought out housing tax that is nothing more than a rip off. 

Rather than take sides with the poor Wanjiku, ODM MPs, especially, now are government apologists. They have even made Aden Duale redundant and speechless. It is nauseating, but then, who said politicians have morals or principles? They are in it for the feast, period.

Mr Chagema is a correspondent at The [email protected]