Political playing field promises to be just as interesting in 2019
What you need to know:
Uhuru’s visit to Nyanza had obvious reminders of Moi’s visit in 2001.
- The same signals are being sent. Substitute the Kanu-NDP “co-operation” with the “Handshake”.
He is talking in the same language this time round. You can read between the lines.
After Jamhuri Day President Uhuru Kenyatta visited Raila Odinga in Kisumu and also made a symbolic pass-by at the Odinga family home in Bondo. The visit had vivid parallels with President Daniel arap Moi’s tour with the same Raila and to the latter’s same Kisumu base in late 2001. That was at the height of the “co-operation” between Kanu and Raila’s National Development Party (NDP), which started as amorphously as the Uhuru-Raila “Handshake” did.
COHABITATION
That Kanu-NDP “co-operation” culminated in a merger that saw Raila appointed secretary-general of Kanu. Moi had received a rapturous welcome in Kisumu in the same style Uhuru got a fortnight ago. For those who remember the “co-operation” days, Raila was playing a game of stealth with Moi’s Kanu. The idea was to worm himself, using his NDP, into the hierarchy of Kanu. The end-game was the Moi succession. The farthest he went was when he was bulldozed into becoming Kanu secretary-general.
However, in retrospect, the whole chess game was actually Moi’s. This was what transpired when Moi suddenly unveiled Uhuru to be his successor in 2002. What happened next to Kanu is a well-known story. And Raila moved on, as did everybody else.
Uhuru’s visit to Nyanza had obvious reminders of Moi’s visit in 2001. The same signals are being sent. Substitute the Kanu-NDP “co-operation” with the “Handshake”, which was consummated on March 9 this year. Back then, Raila was explaining himself by talking of forging national unity through his cohabitation with Kanu, which had a rather brief life. He is talking in the same language this time round. You can read between the lines.
KANU-STYLE
The jury is out on whether Uhuru is playing the same hand as Moi. But one can see where Raila is coming from. He was and still is dealing with entrenched political forces he has at different times done political battle with. Raila is a politically adventurous animal. He seeks opportunity in the most unexpected ways. Call it “co-operation”with Kanu, or the “Handshake.” There is always drama and risk involved.
The parallels between the “co-operation” and the “Handshake” are pretty clear. What is different is the lay of the land. Kanu of those days, despite nominal multi-partyism being in existence since 1992, remained a veritable monolith. Jubilee is a fragmented house, never mind the facade of Kanu-style unity it presents. You could read that starkly from comments made at the Maragoli Cultural Festival post-Christmas, which Musalia Mudavadi hosted.
Like Moi before him, Uhuru is presently thinking primarily of his succession. With Moi, the certainty was that the successor had to come from Kanu, though what happened in the end was totally unexpected. With Jubilee, there is no such certainty, certainly not after the “Handshake.” Uhuru has since been behaving most ambiguously. The speeches made at Musalia’s function only intensified the ambiguity. Apart from the usual coterie of Musalia and Uhuru hangers-on, the presence of Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana was quite curious.
Around the same Christmas period, Raila was in his Bondo backyard where he commented that he is not interested in the 2022 succession, and he doesn’t want to be bothered about it. The foremost people who took Raila’s comments with a pinch of salt were Deputy President William Ruto’s henchmen in the Rift Valley. On the other hand, Raila’s lieutenants are sending very different messages from their master’s stated stand. In the middle of it all, Uhuru had slipped away to Mombasa for his Christmas holiday.
The coming year — 2019 — promises to be just as politically eventful as this closing one has been. Raila’s older brother, Oburu Oginga, spoke of “bigger things” to come after Uhuru visited Bondo on December 14. Anyway, the elderly man has a penchant of sometimes getting carried way. He had spoken in similarly effusive language about the fruits of the Kanu-NDP “co-operation.”
Amid all this frenetic political activity, Uhuru’s Mt Kenya power base is watching events with a very keen eye.
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Uhuru’s early campaign against dangerous brews clearly did not work. Surveying the village landscape across Central Kenya during the Christmas period, it was apparent many youths are still beholden to these deadly brews. In olden days, the pretence was that poor rural folk could not afford expensive bottled liquor. These days, they enjoy the concoction with none of those pretences.
The second thing the government must take urgent action about is boda bodas. There is a hell of a lot of indiscipline in this sector. True, the boda bodas have become an essential component of rural economic life. Everybody hires a boda boda to move around. But the riders don’t give a hoot about other motorists, or even about pedestrians. Somebody must instil some order in this chaotic business.
Otherwise, to all Sunday View readers, young and old, modest and immodest, wealthy and poor, I wish you all a Happy New Year.
