Opposition politics worrying

Inter-party jostling in Kenya have become the rule rather than the exception within the opposition ranks and more so in the CORD coalition.

Several years of experience in a pluralist political environment notwithstanding, none of the mainstream opposition parties today has been able to cut for itself an image of a serious contender in the provision of an alternative government.

Unlike the case in the last election, the CORD coalition and the opposition in general will face the next election without the benefit of the transition razzmatazz and euphoria.

I now perceive the establishment of coalition market as anarchical political engagement which negates the basic tenets of democracy.  It is founded on the fallacious notion that the coalition fabric is composed of like-minded persons whose beliefs, aspirations and appreciation of issues can be represented by a single personality.

The conventional understanding of democracy is one in which diverse objectives, political faiths, points of view as well as the various shades of opinion are given liberal room to take root.  This is not so in ODM, a CORD coalition partner, remember what happened to Magerer Lang'at?

To impress on a person whose presidential ambitions has been failure after failure is to deny the multiplicity of opinions room to flourish in an independent environment.

Amid this entire din, one wonders whether unity within an entity composed of these fragmented elements is really feasible.  In my view, ODM party in particular and CORD coalition in general will only hold for as long as the coalition's presidential candidate has not been nominated.

Once this is done, there will certainly be a falling-out (being seen now); following which it will become evident that all the talk in support of the coalition was mere lip-service.