Handshake jitters: Uhuru walks tightrope in bid to calm nervous ODM wary of betrayal

ODM leader Raila Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta.

On Wednesday evening, information began filtering through the cracks. President Uhuru Kenyatta was at the Nairobi residence of ODM leader Raila Odinga. Coming in the wake of open shows of discontent among ODM bigwigs on the status and fate of the Bridging Bridges Initiative (BBI), the canard got pundits wondering. What could be afoot?

ODM was feeling used and cheated. It seemed ready to bring down the BBI temple on everyone. In the interest of the BBI and other strategic interests in the Jubilee Party, there was need to appease the Orange party, at least for now. The President seemed to be on an appeasement mission.

That the political arena is troubled, with sundry suspicions and grave bad blood, is not in doubt. The space has been awash with unending tears and recriminations. Allegations of betrayal within various formations are in overflow. Almost everywhere, everyone feels cheated, used and dumped by one partner or the other. President Kenyatta is easily seen as the highest common factor in these dramas of betrayal through use and dumping.