You are Government.

It is with profound shock that one realises he has never faced the "full force of the Government" while engaged in robust political negotiations over one thing or the other. We do not, of course, mean that we have never voted; but it comes, truly, as a shock to realise that in the decades one has taken up space, in one form or another in Kenya, that neither Raila Odinga not James Orengo nor William Ruto nor Uhuru Kenyatta nor the late Tony Ndilinge inspired one to go out into the streets, banner in hand, to face down the rungu-wielding riot police in the name of political combat.

A little bit - a smidgen, really - of education and suddenly one can look down his nose at the men and women who have none, while throwing elbows and climbing the greasy pole that is Kenyan politics. Some have done it smart; others have behaved like hooligans (inspiring their "supporters" to do the same). Many more have done the simple job of articulating their peoples' problems and taking those problems "kwa wakubwa Nairobi."

Until the repeal of section 2A of the former constitution, it was easy to be inspired and seduced by political rhetoric; after all it was aimed at us by a perfidiously iniquitous system that had had its time in the sun. But, as Wallace Kantai points out in the Business Daily, we have always shown promise and each and every time that the promise was to be realised, we fell short. Sometimes we fell ignominously short. And so it came to pass after the repeal of section 2A.

The Forum for the Restoration of Democracy and the Democratic Party became, in the words of a wag with a perverse sense of humour, briefcase political parties and they spawned a hundred imitators. The Age of Cowboy Contractors gave way to the Age of Briefcase Politics. Kenya has been paying for that folly ever since.

What was once seductive and inspirational now sounds cynical and depressing. Kenyans no longer want to be reminded of their glory days, when the "economy was at par with the Asian Tigers." Kenyans do not want to be promised the sun and the moon if only if they were to choose "youth and fresh ideas" over "wisdom and experience." We've had enough of slogans. It is time for one or the other: to govern and to stop campaigning.

Whether CORD will admit this or not, when they refer to "the Government" they are referring to themselves. The Government of Kenya is Parliament, the National Executive and Willy Mutunga's Judiciary and as hard as it is to hear, Uhuru Kenyatta is the head of that government. Without a credible opposition, even the minority one that CORD is, there is no government. Mutahi Ngunyi's Tyranny of Numbers hypothesis is not a fait acompli to take their disgruntlement outside Parliament, but a reminder that even while in the minority, the majority must listen to them; whether the majority chooses to accommodate them depends entirely on whether the minority's view resonated with anyone outside of the briefcase. Therefore, whether they admit it or not, Uhuru Kenyatta cannot govern without the opposition, and the Opposition cannot point fingers at "the Government" without accusing itself.