Cabinet reshuffle shouldn’t be the night of long knives

By Otuma Ongalo

It was the night of the long knives, assuming President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s recent Cabinet reshuffle plot was done under the cover of darkness.

It was a plot because the reshuffle was not executed for the good of the country, but to safeguard the principals’ political interests and that of their cronies. You don’t execute such plot in broad daylight even with the assured privacy of State House, or wherever. You don’t do so with a straight face unless you’re one of the individuals that Kamukuywa folks say are beyond shame.

For the uninitiated, the Night of the Long Knives took place in Nazi Germany in June 1934, when the Adolf Hitler regime carried out a series of political murders. Leading figures of the Nazi Party faction were murdered. Many of those killed were members of the Sturmabteilung (SA).

Hitler moved against the SA and its leader, Ernst Röhm, because he saw the independence of the faction as a direct threat to his political power. He also used the purge to attack or eliminate critics of his new regime as well as to settle scores with old enemies.

The Raila-Kibaki reshuffle plot bears the hallmarks of The Night of the Long Knives although no blood was shed. In one fell swoop, Mutula Kilonzo was sent packing from the Constitutional Affairs docket.

The zeal, enthusiasm, and passion that he exhibited in the new Constitution implementation process melted in the heat of political ambitions of the principals and their cronies.

He was perceived to be a thorn in the flesh over the cases facing Kenya’s post-election suspects at the International Criminal Court but this was just one of the storms he had to weather as the Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister.

You do not have to consult the oracle to know that in Mutula’s tribulation is Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka’s glee that he has shunted from the limelight an individual who has been consistently ruining his chances at the G7 Alliance high table through his docket.

Any time Kilonzo attacked Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto over their The Hague cases, he was perceived to be speaking for the VP. And Kibaki was not at peace either for Kilonzo had become ‘untamed’ due to his latter day penchant for going against the official stand in many aspects and attacking his political soul mates.

Though he was not sacked, his exit from the Justice docket is a blow to the great hopes for the implementation of the letter and spirit of the new Constitution. Saboti MP Eugene Wamalwa has been handed the docket to ensure Kibaki and company easily have their way in the new Constitution and justice is perceived in PNU perspective. I don’t doubt Wamalwa’s ability to deliver but how can he, when he was sworn-in at the altar of sycophancy?

In one fell swoop, former Tourism Minister Najib Balala is now paying the price of going against herd mentality. The dreams he had in rebranding Kenya as a favourite tourism destination became a nightmare when he failed to rebrand ODM and its lords. A minister’s dream for the nation is useless if he or she doesn’t massage the ego of benefactors. Balala dared to express an independent mind contrary to the hallowed ODM’s policy of uncompromising loyalty. You do not call Raila a dictator in the Orange party and at the same time expect to savour the fruits of the nusu mkate and nusu mkeka.

That is the folly of not knowing people and understanding that ODM iko na wenyewe. Many of the political firebrands of yesteryears have long realised this and that is why they worship the ground that Raila treads on.

Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi should watch out for Balala’s fall might as well have been a warning shot to him for daring to dream big.

However, Balala should exit gracefully instead of dragging Islam in his sacking. He was Minister for Tourism and not Muslims Affairs.