Could they be powerless?

You know they have run right out of ideas when the police ban constitutionally-protected activities like political rallies "until further notice." Whether the Presidency was involved in the decision to ensure that Raila Odinga's homecoming did not turn into a Hero's Welcome we will never know. Whether it is the kneejerk reaction of a Majority Party bereft of fresh ideas or seeking hither and thither for a fresh burst of momentum will remain a mystery only time will reveal. There is the teeny tiny possibility that the Inspector-General of Police and the Director-General of National Intelligence may have intelligence  that al Shabaab and like-minded elements will use the presence of jubilant crowds surrounding one of Kenya's true heroes to commit even greater atrocities than they have over the past 14 years.

 

Mr Odinga's absence from Kenya has been felt, and not just in the listing CORD ship. Without Raila Odinga, Jubilee was at risk of cannibalizing itself in the search of enemies. But in a classic case of a love/hate relationship, mandarins acting like party apparatchiks cannot seem to decide whether to show the Doyen of the Opposition love or not. The ban on all political rallies and processions seems to point to the dominance of the hate side of the equation this go around.

 

The administrative machinery of the Government of Kenya seems stuck in the 1970s, at the height of the paranoia of the Kiambu Mafia surrounding the late Father of the Nation, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. Francis Kimemia was quite probably the last true senior functionary to run his department in the manner and style that both Jomo Kenytta and Daniel Moi preferred: as a weapon to be wielded against the "enemies of the State."

 

The Inspector-General, the Interior Principal Secretary and the Cabinet Secretary are cut for them the same cloth, though they do not seem to have the same aura of commanding authority that Francis Kimemia demonstrated when he was the acting Head of the Civil Service during the transition period between the Kibaki government and the Jubilee one. They seem to go out of their way to demonstrate that they have power; they do not seem to have the capacity to exercise that power with decisiveness or precision. If it was a comedy, theirs would be the Kenyan version of the classic Keystone Kops from the silent movie era.

 

The last true strongman was surely Moi. He wielded the instruments of power like a conductor conducting an 88 piece orchestra. He knew when to offer the carrot and when to use the stick; he knew which political levers to pull in order for the people to do his bidding. The people always did his bidding until the revival of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, the rise of Oginga Odinga, the turncoating of Kenneth Matiba, Charles Rubia and Mwai Kibaki, the pressure from the World Bank and the IMF, and the desire for an exit strategy that allowed him to retain his massive wealthy and stay out of the klink. Jubilee, despite being ardent students of the KANU Way, are neophytes at this game; fourteen months into their reign and they are still treated with barely-concealed contempt. The sheer lunacy of the No Political Rallies Rule by Mr Kimaiyo betrays the fear that Jubilee may not actually have power to wield.