Who will save ODM from itself?

The King is naked. The tragedy is, nobody is courageous enough to tell him so. Those who stand up to talk, unsurprisingly, cheer him on as immaculately dressed. They do so with a fatalistic template, which is to brand dissenting voices as wamenunuliwa (they have been bought). I am talking about CORD leader and ODM supremo Raila Odinga. Let us count with our fingers the leaders who have been ‘bought’ from ODM. Kalonzo Musyoka, William Ruto, Musalia Mudavadi, Najib Balala, Joseph Nyaga and Charity Ngilu. The latest ‘small fish’ to have been bought are Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba and Paul Otuoma (MP Funyula). Really? Granted they may have been bought, but question is; isn’t disdain for alternative voice making it easy for them to be bought?

If there was one thing ODM could learn (which it can’t) from the IPSOS survey released yesterday, is that there is a leadership gap in this country, but unfortunately that void cannot be filled by it. The IPSOS reveals that 49 per cent of Kenyans feel this country is headed in the wrong direction. The startling contradiction is President Uhuru Kenyatta, the captain of this ship heading towards the wrong direction, gets a flattering approval rating of 68 per cent. Well, the survey is not comparing President Uhuru with Raila. However, it is not rocket science to see that Kenyans feel “we can do with what we have (President Uhuru).” In short, there is resignation that Raila cannot help the situation.