It’s OK Kingi wants a party, but it’s not for the people

Maverick politician Raila Odinga is being disingenuous when he brushes aside the coastal region’s agitation for a political party by dangling to them the promise to inherit the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party when he retires. It won’t happen because that is not how political party successions are scripted in our part of the world.

He alleges that a coast-based party will isolate the region because it will not have a national outlook, which is partly true. And that the key advantage of being patient will be that they will have a ready-made national party to inherit. Correct but not convincing. 

The really honest segment of the message Mr Odinga had for the coast people was the implied admission that he “owns” ODM, for as long as he remains party leader.

But he knows, as does Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi, that he (Mr Odinga) cannot promise to hand over the party to anyone. There are many within ODM that feel more entitled to succeed Mr Odinga and will do everything to ensure that happens. Chances are that person will come from ODM’s assured base of Luo Nyanza.

Mr Kingi is fully aware that political relevance at the highest level is measured by the numbers one can galvanise for a cause. He looks at his life after retirement as governor and he is in a panic, like the other two-term governors that will now join the ranks of senior but retired politicians. He must recreate himself. He wants a party to leverage for relevance — and political parties earn you an invite to Kenya’s high table of eating chiefs.

Owners of tribal political parties

The constitutional changes promised by BBI at the Executive level make this even more poignant. The recent picture of President Kenyatta, Mr Odinga, Mr Musalia Mudavadi, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, Ms Charity Ngilu, Mr Gideon Moi and Mr Moses Wetang’ula coming together in a symbolic coalition to drive the BBI campaigns told it all. If you were not there, you were irrelevant and can only wait for crumbs to be thrown your way once the choice parts have been distributed.

Mr Kingi must have looked at that picture with great chagrin. The only reason he was not there is that he could complicate the mathematics. 

He is currently useful as an important cog for ODM’s ambitions at the coast. But not as an ambitious individual coming to the table with his own knife to cut or demand a good slice of the pie.

But truth be told, he is not different from the other senior politicians strutting the stage as national leaders. They can only do so because each of these guys has “their own” largely tribal-based political party they have no intention of relinquishing.

On the contrary, someone like Mr Wetang’ula is fighting like a cornered cat to save his Ford Kenya because once it goes, so does his relevance. 

Tribe of the party leader

It is impossible to map Mr Mudavadi in the political equation without his ANC, or Mr Musyoka without his Wiper. Ditto for Governor Alfred Mutua’s Chap Chap party.

Deputy President William Ruto miscalculated when he sanctioned the dissolution of URP and it is clear he is missing it big time as he battles for space within Jubilee. He is lucky that he has generated sufficient momentum to drive the UDA to be a national party with a core constituency in the Kalenjin dominated Rift Valley.

The bottom line is that the political party is the base organising unit that you start with — and it will almost always initially (and mostly thereafter) be populated by the tribe of the party leader. Only ODM and Jubilee were able to build brands across tribes. Gideon Moi’s Kanu is a pale shadow of the one-party behemoth it once was and hardly qualifies for the tag national.

The irony is that the stronger the party (hence the party owner is) the less he will give up power. It is futile, therefore, for anyone to expect an endorsement or inheritance from Mr Odinga.

No one hands over power, certainly not at the party level. Mr Odinga plans to run ODM for a long time. Mr Kingi knows this and must create space for himself. It certainly is not for the coast people, because in Kenya, it never is for the people. But since that is the way the gaming table is set up, let him fabricate his own party.

The writer is a former editor-in-chief of the Nation Media Group and is now consulting. [email protected], @tmshindi