Why vacillate? If your answer is No, do not make overtures of friendly chats. Your No! should be final. It should not be subject to review or reinterpretation. It should be the law! The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy has made its position as clear as it is ever going to get: they want a "national dialogue" on terms of engagement that will be hammered out between it and Jubilee and they want it on or before Saba Saba, the 7th July 2014.
CORD has a long list of "issues" it would like to have hammered out during this "national dialogue." Quite rightly, Jubilee sees no point in engaging with a gang of extortionists who have been unable to get their way since their beloved presidential candidate flounced off to the United States for a three month "sabbatical." Moses Wetangula, Minority leader in Parliament, managed to survive the shock loss of an election challenge. Kalonzo Musyoka, former Vice-President, let his mouth betray his mindset, that is, the only difference between him and his bugbears in Jubilee is that he was caught insinuating some very unpatriotic thoughts. The only bright spot in the CORD universe, before it is hijacked by self-serving windbags, is that one of their own has a very talented daughter, a talent that was rewarded by the Academy of Motion Pictures and Arts.
Until the triumphal return of the leader of the CORD to Nairobi, Jubilee was running out of scandals to reveal. Gado, the eponymous Nation cartoonist, captured the zeitgeist with his pair of "guru" editorial cartoons. Social media, especially Twitter, were considerably less restrained. Suffice to say everyone in Uhuru Kenyatta's Cabinet needs the hide of a rhino in order to even get out of bed in the morning.
Which brings us back to why the President invited the Leader of the CORD to a pleasant chat. There is no reason to sit down and "chat" with the man raining chaos on your government. Your principle task, whether it is pleasant or not, is to demolish your enemy without mercy. Raila Odinga simply needs the right amount of rope and the right circumstances to guarantee that Kenyans will never elect him to high office again. He just does not realize it yet. Neither, it seems, does Uhuru Kenyatta and his bevy of "advisors" and "special consultants."
Every government, even a well-oiled one like Angela Merkel's in Germany and Stephen Harper's in Canada needs a reshuffle; some reshuffles come earlier than others. Uhuru Kenyatta's honeymoon ended with the Westgate siege. Ten months later, the list of missed political opportunities keeps growing. In the spirit of separation of powers, the President permitted harebrained discussions in Parliament, championed by the Majority Party no less. The lunacy over official titles and flags only roused him to action when the Bill was presented for his assent. Why he doesn't seem to have a trustworthy relationship with his majority leaders remains a mystery, but it contributes massively to his political headaches at the hands of his own party.
If his party, and by extension his advisors and consultants, can permit the creation of a demon-seed such as the flags and titles Bill, there is no chance that they have a clue as to what Raila Odinga is thinking or what he intends to do. It is why Mr Kenyatta seems very much like a lawyer this past week: "On the one hand, we will not dialogue with you outside of the established channels; on the other hand, since you brought this up why don't you pop by for a nice chat and we'll see what we can do, eh?" It is time to choose and among the choices he makes is whom he fires and whom he redeploys in his Cabinet; whether or not his Majority Leaders continue to enjoy free rein; and whether or not he still wants to be seen as Mr Nice Guy or he wants to be President, whether or not we love him. In the words of Toby Ziegler, "They'll love us when we win!"
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