For NASA to move on, it must frankly talk about January 30

In the best interest of the National Super Alliance (NASA), the boil that is Raila Odinga’s fabled “swearing in” must be opened up and the pus squeezed out. This drama has been played out of context and proportion. You would imagine that it was part of Kenya’s crowning constitutional ceremonies, at the end of an election cycle. Yet this manifestation was at its best only a piece of performed hyperbole. It was supposedly a statement to the Jubilee fraternity that Raila and NASA had a following and they should be listened to. Yet the goal was different.

The ceremony was supposed to place Jubilee on the weighing scales of legitimacy. While a verdict on Uhuru Kenyatta’s acceptability should have been returned, the guns – instead – turned horribly inwards. The original intent was lost, the enemy redefined. Simmering internal hostility went into a crescendo. Allegations of betrayal and insults have since flowed freely. Political subalterns have called NASA principals “cowards” and “traitors.”