KANU
A v KANU B. Is this what the Second Liberation has come down to? Daniel
Toroitich arap Moi famously predicted that KANU would rule for a
hundred years. I see no reason to doubt the prescience of his words. In
the current environment, the only true outsider is Raila Odinga;
everyone else is an orphan of the system that brought low what was once a
promising nation. Look at the leading lights on both sides of the 2013
contest: Kalonzo Musyoka, Uhuru Kenyatta, Musalia Mudavadi, Henry
Hosgey, Sally Kosgei, William Ruto, Chirau Ali Mwakwere...the list is
depressingly long. Look at the pronouncements of the men that seek to
rule and you hear the faint echoes of Baba Moi's exhortations down the
years.
In 2010, Kenyans ratified a Constitution that was supposed to give us a complete break with the past. We failed to reckon with the entrenched self-interest of the KANU orphans. When they failed to set back the efforts of Nzamba Kitonga and his CoE, they decided on a Plan B: make it difficult as possible to implement the document in letter or in spirit. Now we are left with the depressing thought that regardless of how government is organised in 2013, KANU will somehow still be calling the shots.
But we have an opportunity. Regardless of how much you love or loath the Prime Minister, and despite the disappointment he has engendered in his role as the second most powerful man in the Executive to date, Mr Odinga keeps the promise of change alive. It is not without reason that many seasoned Kenyans will appreciate the years of unlawful detention Mr Odinga was subjected to. It is with good reason that we recall his efforts in 1997 and 2002 to keep Baba Moi honest. Mr Odinga, for all the vitriol directed at him, has managed to do what Daniel Moi did: become the central focus of all forces determined to make an impact on the political arena that we call Kenya. In his absence, Kenya will flounder on the rocks of vested interests, corruption and business as usual.
Kenyans are faced with a stark choice. Either they choose to move forward, warts and all, or they revert to tired old men and women without an ounce of shame in their skeletons. Uhuru Kenyatta has proven a hard nut to crack. The scion of Kenya's founding president, Mr Kenyatta has a devoted following among the power-brokers in Kibaki's kitchen cabinet. But even they have come to the realisation that it is futile to elect Mr Kenyatta to succeed Mwai Kibaki: the indictments at the ICC will complicate the fragile recovery Kenya is undergoing five years after the events of 2007/08. They have hit upon a Plan B (though some think it was the Plan A). It is alleged that they sponsored the formation of Musalia Mudavadi's UDF and now they are attempting to foist Mr Mudavadi as the compromise TNA/URP/UDF candidate to face-off against Raila Odinga in 2013. They refuse to read the mood of the nation, especially the young and the marginalised.
In 2002 when KANU was brought down by the combined efforts of Raila Odinga and the LDP rebels, it was not because Kenyans simply rejected the perpetuation of Moi's rule through The Project aka Uhuru Kenyatta; it was because the promise that we had made to ourselves in 1963 was about to be realised. But Moi was much cannier than we anticipated. Somehow, even with the utter destruction of Kenya's Independence Party, he managed to ensure that it was his policies that were applied, it was his philosophies that held sway. Suspicion and betrayal marked Mwai Kibaki's first term; and it is suspicion and betrayal that marked the Coalition Government. In all this, Mr Odinga adapted to the changing circumstances, keeping his vision alive in the face of such stark odds.
Now he is in the winter of his political career and he has only one chance to make his final play. Mr Odinga has demonstrated that he understands Kenya's position in the world; that it is not just about local politics. He has managed, despite sabotage and back-stabbing, to keep the name of Kenya in the good books of world capitals. That he has supped with devils with a long spoon is not to be gainsaid, but he had no choice. The political arena is for realists and idealists alike but it is the realists who make things happen and the idealists who whinge and wring their hands in despair.If Mr Odinga succeeds in 2013, and if his coalition enjoys a majority in Parliament, and if it also controls a majority of the Counties in Kenya, Mr Odinga has the chance to forge ahead without the baggage of KANU ideas to wear him down. This is not the case for a victory by the TNA/URP/UDF alliance. The Jubilee Alliance, attempting to co-opt fifty years of Independence, is the least well-intentioned party in Kenya and it is in our best interests to reject KANU and its off-spring once and for all.
In 2010, Kenyans ratified a Constitution that was supposed to give us a complete break with the past. We failed to reckon with the entrenched self-interest of the KANU orphans. When they failed to set back the efforts of Nzamba Kitonga and his CoE, they decided on a Plan B: make it difficult as possible to implement the document in letter or in spirit. Now we are left with the depressing thought that regardless of how government is organised in 2013, KANU will somehow still be calling the shots.
But we have an opportunity. Regardless of how much you love or loath the Prime Minister, and despite the disappointment he has engendered in his role as the second most powerful man in the Executive to date, Mr Odinga keeps the promise of change alive. It is not without reason that many seasoned Kenyans will appreciate the years of unlawful detention Mr Odinga was subjected to. It is with good reason that we recall his efforts in 1997 and 2002 to keep Baba Moi honest. Mr Odinga, for all the vitriol directed at him, has managed to do what Daniel Moi did: become the central focus of all forces determined to make an impact on the political arena that we call Kenya. In his absence, Kenya will flounder on the rocks of vested interests, corruption and business as usual.
Kenyans are faced with a stark choice. Either they choose to move forward, warts and all, or they revert to tired old men and women without an ounce of shame in their skeletons. Uhuru Kenyatta has proven a hard nut to crack. The scion of Kenya's founding president, Mr Kenyatta has a devoted following among the power-brokers in Kibaki's kitchen cabinet. But even they have come to the realisation that it is futile to elect Mr Kenyatta to succeed Mwai Kibaki: the indictments at the ICC will complicate the fragile recovery Kenya is undergoing five years after the events of 2007/08. They have hit upon a Plan B (though some think it was the Plan A). It is alleged that they sponsored the formation of Musalia Mudavadi's UDF and now they are attempting to foist Mr Mudavadi as the compromise TNA/URP/UDF candidate to face-off against Raila Odinga in 2013. They refuse to read the mood of the nation, especially the young and the marginalised.
In 2002 when KANU was brought down by the combined efforts of Raila Odinga and the LDP rebels, it was not because Kenyans simply rejected the perpetuation of Moi's rule through The Project aka Uhuru Kenyatta; it was because the promise that we had made to ourselves in 1963 was about to be realised. But Moi was much cannier than we anticipated. Somehow, even with the utter destruction of Kenya's Independence Party, he managed to ensure that it was his policies that were applied, it was his philosophies that held sway. Suspicion and betrayal marked Mwai Kibaki's first term; and it is suspicion and betrayal that marked the Coalition Government. In all this, Mr Odinga adapted to the changing circumstances, keeping his vision alive in the face of such stark odds.
Now he is in the winter of his political career and he has only one chance to make his final play. Mr Odinga has demonstrated that he understands Kenya's position in the world; that it is not just about local politics. He has managed, despite sabotage and back-stabbing, to keep the name of Kenya in the good books of world capitals. That he has supped with devils with a long spoon is not to be gainsaid, but he had no choice. The political arena is for realists and idealists alike but it is the realists who make things happen and the idealists who whinge and wring their hands in despair.If Mr Odinga succeeds in 2013, and if his coalition enjoys a majority in Parliament, and if it also controls a majority of the Counties in Kenya, Mr Odinga has the chance to forge ahead without the baggage of KANU ideas to wear him down. This is not the case for a victory by the TNA/URP/UDF alliance. The Jubilee Alliance, attempting to co-opt fifty years of Independence, is the least well-intentioned party in Kenya and it is in our best interests to reject KANU and its off-spring once and for all.
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