Debate on whether the country needs to have a national dialogue has been on going. The leadership of CORD first tabled the proposal at Uhuru Park during a public reception for former Prime Minister Raila Odinga on his return from a long tour of the US.
But in an effort to bastardise the proposals, the Jubilee coalition leadership tore in with arguments and tried to redirect conversation around it to minimise its importance to Kenyans. President Uhuru Kenyatta trivialised the matter further by turning it into a “cup of tea at State House” sideshow.
It’s not my intention to join the myopic crowd that doesn’t see sense in this noble agenda. National dialogue is a permanent requirement for good socio-political health of any country, including Kenya.
I did not support CORD’s proposition for “national dialogue” with the Jubilee government. This is because I knew Jubilee government operatives would not appreciate the meaning and importance of such an engagement.
My position is that the Jubilee coalition needs serious talks within its ranks in order to save the country from more problems.
The truth is that the coalition, which is in power, is caught up in a threateningly simmering political volcano scenario that will require a very small trigger to erupt, with devastating consequences. When a volcano explodes, the origins and the trigger do not mater; what is known and what gets noticed is the devastating effects.
Today, listening to any debate between a TNA legislator from Central Kenya and any of their URP counterparts from Central and North Rift regions, even the most ill informed of laymen will notice an ongoing battle with a hardening of positions. The most recent was a live news debate between Kabando wa Kabando (Mukurweini MP) and Alfred Keter (Nandi Hills MP). The rift was clear.
It doesn’t matter that Deputy President William Ruto and his top disciples, Kithure Kindiki and Kipchumba Murkomen, are swearing on rooftops at the top of their voices that all is well within Jubilee, or that suspicions are no longer present. The truth is that there is a growing feeling of betrayal and isolation by the URP wing of the coalition within the government.
DP Ruto’s assurances only serve to reassure the TNA side and even to embolden them to continue discriminating URP more. It is no different from Tom Mboya’s strong defence of the first government of Kenya at a time when Mau Mau remnants and a big population from Coast and Western parts of the country were complaining about being marginalised.
Ruto’s assertions can also be compared to Mwai Kibaki’s (then Moi’s Vice President) infamous quote: “Trying to remove Kanu from power is like trying to cut down the big mugumo tree with a razor blade” in 1990, just before Kibaki himself was consumed by the then raging anti-Kanu, Opposition wave.
Both Ruto and Uhuru know that they won the Kalenjin vote by promising voters a government of two principals. When it turns out that Ruto has either been forced to play second fiddle or, as Keter puts it, “has been compromised,” the Rift Valley feels extremely betrayed.
Skewed senior Government appointments in favour of one region in the country, corruption, betrayal of political deals and failure to deliver election pledges are all shaking the foundations of the Jubilee coalition.
The writer is Member of Parliament for Kitutu-Masaba
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