No one is neutral and if they say they are, well, I have a bridge in London you might want to buy. One of the most important relationships in Kenyan politics has been between Kenyan businessmen and the ruling party, its senior-most officials and its senior-most representatives in Government. This relationship has been a fact of life since the Queen of England granted the Imperial British East Africa Company a charter to operate in East Africa. The lowering of the Union Jack in 1963 did not alter one iota of this relationship. Kenyan (and sometimes foreign) businesses and Government are intertwined like the tendril-like formations of mangroves' root systems. The Kenya Private Sector Alliance's declaration that it is independent and neutral is a facile attempt to pull at our patriotic heartstrings in order to frustrate the National Super Alliance's calls for boycotts of companies associated with the ruling alliance. It will persuade very few Kenyans because Kenyans are not morons. Whether the boycotts work will depend on how many Kenyans think that it is worth the fight. That number is not as large as Nasa seems to think nor as small as the Jubilation dismisses it as. But what Kepsa has done has only added fuel to the fire. It might live to regret its "press statement".
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