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NAIROBI: Americans say the deal is not done until it is done. The Kenyan political class seems unaware of this reality. If it were, the birds would sing less melodiously than they are doing. For, they would remember this time in 2001. We were on the edge of the homestretch to the 2002 elections. The air was at once redolent with political anxiety and merriment. President Moi would be retiring after nearly twenty-four years at the helm. Who would succeed him? The talk of succession was here, there, everywhere.
People saw opportunities. Raila Odinga led the National Development Party (NDP) into dialogue with Kanu. The blossoming outputs of the dialogue burst into fruition in March 2002. Kanu and NDP fused into one party. Hitherto Kanu stalwarts fell by the wayside, ceding space to the new NDP kids on the political block. Joseph Kamotho, the fiery party secretary general, became a party nobody. His bosom friend Prof George Saitoti, the nominal number two in the party and accomplished captain of doublethink and doublespeak, also became a party nobody.
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