Power of handshake and the games politicians play

There are many ways of greeting people and the handshake is the most common. Some greetings imply power or social relationship. Unusual greetings, especially political ones, elicit curiosity and search for hidden meanings. The one between President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga is one such handshake.

The preliminaries to that handshake were long and tortuous as the Kenyatta and the Odinga families, represented by Uhuru and Raila, collaborate and quarrel over direction and positions.

The old Kenyatta, Jomo, had recruited the old Odinga, Jaramogi, into anti-colonial politics. When Jomo was in jail in the 1950s for Mau Mau related activities, Jaramogi kept the anti-colonial fire burning.

Since Raila reported for earthly engagements 16 years earlier than Uhuru, he repeatedly refers to Uhuru as “my younger brother”. The two “brothers” like talking about each other and both worked under Daniel arap Moi’s political tutelage.

Raila plunged into politics first and, after flopping badly in the 1997 elections, sought out Moi.

The two shook political hands and ganged up seemingly to adjust the 1992 Moi induced constitutional changes and make it “friendly” to the two. Removing the two term limit would enable Moi, who knew how to “win”, to continue being president and in return realize Raila’s power ambitions of becoming an unelected prime minister.

 Unable to attain individual political desires, partly due to Simeon Nyachae’s rebellion within KANU, Moi and Raila turned their political daggers on each other.

PECULIAR FALLOUTS

There were also the 2002 handshakes with peculiar fallouts. Moi endorsed Uhuru rather than Raila, leading to the first serious Uhuru-Raila collision.

Raila shook hands with Nyachae, who appeared to be funding the Rainbow rebellion, and entered an MOU. Since Nyachae was going nowhere, Raila ditched him by jumping to Mwai Kibaki’s winning NAC side in a separate handshaking MOU to form NARC. As expected, Uhuru lost.

Uhuru hardly enjoyed his job as leader of the opposition because Raila somehow usurped that role in his new power feud with Kibaki.

Forgetting the NARC handshake, the two competed at BOMAS and the 2005 Banana and Orange referendum. Raila, the star of the Oranges, shook political hands with Uhuru, Kalonzo Musyoka, William Ruto, Musalia Mudavadi, and several Western powers and NGOs/Civil Societies hoping to oust Kibaki. Although the bananas lost, Kibaki stayed put as he declared that there was no constitutional vacuum because all that Kenyans had done was to reject a draft document.

2010 CONSTITUTION

The referendum fragmented political leaders who turned on each other in preparation for 2007. Uhuru left Raila and gravitated towards Kibaki’s camp which had problems figuring out what it would call itself.

With Charity Ngilu "hiding NARC in her political handbag", such Kibaki supporters as Moses Wetang'ula, Kivutha Kibwana, Raphael Tuju, Martha Karua, George Saitoti, Nyachae, and Uhuru debated whether Kibaki’s official party should come from above or below.

They came up with PNU from above, barely three months before the election. The oranges also split between Raila and Kalonzo oranges. Since Raila’s side, calling itself “Pentagon” was strong, Kalonzo announced he was “katikati” between Kibaki and Raila. Kibaki won narrowly but, unlike Uhuru in 2002, Raila refused to concede defeat.

Circumstances forced Kibaki and Raila to shake hands as they reluctantly formed a bloated nusu mkate government that virtually gave Raila “real power”.

He used it to drive the 2010 constitution which created new institutions, to be manned by “friendly” officials, that appeared tailor made for Raila presidency.

In the ensuing referendum, Raila, Kibaki, and Uhuru were on the same side but Kalonzo acquired a new nickname, “watermelon”, red inside and green outside. Raila, with promises of future support, then convinced Kalonzo to play deputy only for Uhuru to show up and take the 2013 prize, despite Euro hostility.

That Uhuru victory over Raila was prelude to the Wetang'ula, Mudavadi, and Kalonzo disappointment in 2018.

Probably driven by strong anti-Uhuru political animus, the three displayed political naiveté and became cogs in Raila’s ODM political wheel. Kalonzo, insisted he was the presidential candidate and did not want to be called “water melon” again.

He, on receiving additional promises, turned around and once again signed up as Raila’s deputy. Wetang'ula secured his Bungoma senatorial seat as Mudavadi supervised the Raila campaign.

Once again, Uhuru beat them. Raila went to Harambee House to shake Uhuru’s hand and cut political deals. Wetang'ula, unable to go mundu khu mundu with Raila, watched ODM senators oust him from being Senate Minority Leader.

As Kalonzo and Mudavadi begged for chance to shake Uhuru’s hand, ODM functionaries silenced them. The three men should have known better than to expose their political gullibility, believing in Raila’s handshake.