How Jubilee lost plot on Eurobond

In the Eurobond saga, Opposition leader Raila Odinga has kept the Government quite preoccupied. The sustained responses to his allegations are mind-boggling.

I would, if I were at the Treasury, taken a different style; If there is no smoking gun, no need to waste time talking back because it keeps Mr Odinga in the news.

The Cord coalition has tied up the Government in knots. And what Mr Odinga has consistently done is throw a bone at the Government-leaning MPs to chew over as he marches on to 2017. So what is all the hullaballoo about the $2 billion Eurobond proceeds?

Come to think of it, the Opposition doesn't really have to prove anything because the questions it is raising on the Eurobond are purely audit issues which the Constitution allows them to query.

One strategy for any Opposition party is to remain relevant by all means. And to do they have to keep the Government on its toes, which is healthy for a democracy.

However, so far Mr Odinga has not really given any tangible evidence on the allegations of the misuse of the Eurobond funds. If you look at Mr Odinga's choice of words and the people he named, those are the legally mandated with overseeing the complex process of budget making.

The strategy about raising questions on the $Eurobond will no doubt give something to the Jubilee politicians especially the so-called "Sky Team" to talk about over the weekends in funerals or at the many fund raisers.

Yet this is exactly where Mr Odinga wants them. Any time Jubilee politicians criticise Mr Odinga, unknowingly, they make him and his style of politics popular. A majority of Kenyans especially those in the rural areas don't really understand what Eurobond is.

Recently at a public Baraza in Isiolo, I asked the public whether they understood what Eurobond is and most had no clue what the Eurobond is all about. Even me, a politician and seemingly learned as I might think I am, cannot adequately explain what the whole debate is all about.

Yet the Eurobond has been trending for long on social websites and other media. In the last few months, the Cord coalition has gotten a new lease of life because they seem to have reclaimed some territory in as far as opinion of the public is concerned.

The recent resignation of Anne Waiguru is mainly attributed to Mr Odinga's persistent proclamation on corruption within the Devolution ministry.

In the end, the Cabinet Secretary succumbed to the predatory nature of the Opposition's vile attack on her and by extension, the Government. That is the Opposition for you.

Let me tell you; the Opposition have really figured out the game in the run-up to the 2017 General Election. And Eurobond is one of them.

What is more, this debate is not likely to die any time soon.

Not when the easily excitable Jubilee politicians keep making a subject of their public baraza attacks on Mr Odinga.

And as they do that, the Opposition will be waiting for March, the fourth quarter of the Government's financial year, when the national government might face a renewed cash crunch due to stress at the Exchequer triggered by repayment of the sovereign debts, low revenue collection and a high cost of buying the US dollar.

You might wonder why has the Opposition ran off with the story? From the scramble at the Treasury to explain away the Treasury jargon, one notices that the Government has lost the initiative to the Opposition. And it is because the people have little or no clue about what is happening.

A better strategy would have been to quickly educate the public on the necessity of borrowing and what such terms as sovereign debts mean. What was it necessary to issue the bond and why in Europe of all the places? The truth of the matter is all governments borrow to balance their budgets and sometimes this causes volatility in the market.

Many countries including strong economies like the United States have running debts. At $18 trillion dollars, you could say the US has borrowed way beyond its means. But then, it still remains the world's strongest economy. The debates in the American Congress and Senate are just similar to ours; sometimes leading to what they call a government shutdown. Lastly, a Somali proverb goes: "Nin walan haduu qoslo, nin fiyow na wuu qosla". Loosely translated it means; if a mad man laughs, a clever man also laughs.

The Government protagonists ought to avoid looking like the mad man who ran away with the clothes of the man taking a bathe down the river. A bystander will not make out who the sober man is if he were to run after the madman.

The Sky Team should refrain from turning the Eurobond issue into fodder for their weekend attacks on the Opposition. It makes it hard for the public to know who is engaging in politicking for the sake of it.