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Is Cleophas Malala inviting shackles of doom upon his political life?
Cleopas in the Bible is the man who asked another: “Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn’t know what happened?”
Cleophas Malala, on the other hand, is the man who, on Friday, was the target of ODM leader Raila Odinga who suggested that the Kakamega senator is somehow a visitor in Luhyaland. “Tell him that the grandfather of his father is buried in Ugenya. He is from Ugenya. And the grandfather of my father is buried here in Matungu,” said Mr Odinga in his address at Bukhungu Stadium, giving Mr Malala the name “Omondi” for good measure.
It became an issue of who is more “visitor” than the other after Mr Malala earlier declared Kakamega his “bedroom” in a speech that drew the wrath of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission because the sharp-tongued senator had suggested locking Mr Odinga out of Bukhungu. “If you want to say ‘Raila tosha’, why can’t you go to Kondele or Siaya or Yala?” Mr Malala had asked. “We say Kakamega is a no-go zone.”
Mr Odinga fired back on Friday: “Some people don’t understand what Azimio is. They are saying that we should go to Kondele. They don’t understand.”
That a man who made a debut into politics by winning the Mahiakalo member of county assembly seat on an ODM ticket in 2013 is now trading shots with the founder of ODM—and going as far as holding a parallel event clashing with Mr Odinga’s in the same county like he did on Friday—is something worth noting.
Mr Malala was born in 1985 when Mr Odinga, who turns 77 on January 7, was serving a six-year jail term after being detained without trial following the botched 1982 coup.
Had this been a play like the ones Mr Malala used to direct for a living, this would have had the markings of a tragi-comedy, with characters having tragic flaws, hubris, fighting forces bigger than them and whatnot.
In Act I scene II of that play, another character wiould show up. That would be Mr Francis Atwoli, the secretary-general of the Central Organisation of Trade Unions, who last week went as far as threatening to curse Mr Malala.
“I am the one who made him senator,” said Mr Atwoli. “Tell that young man to tread carefully because if I curse him, he won’t be a person anymore.”
But as he spoke ahead of the match at the Mumias Complex on Friday, Mr Malala made light of Mr Atwoli’s threat.
“Some of us can convert those curses into blessings, Atwoli,” he said. “Don’t be a person who threatens people every time.”
In a play, this might probably be given the same dramatic effect as Julius Caesar being warned of the Ides of March and not getting too worried about it. But in politics, it is a different ball game.
Mr Malala says all this is due to his championing the cause of Amani National Congress (ANC) leader Musalia Mudavadi, his party leader, whom he calls the unquestionable political supremo of the western region.
Even in his threat of cordoning off Bukhungun from Mr Odinga, he wanted Mr Mudavadi to be the one issuing permission.
It gets interesting when one flashes back to January 18, 2020. On that day, parallel events were planned for Bukhungu and the Mumias Complex. Then, Mr Malala was an outspoken backer of the Building Bridges Initiative and Mr Odinga was in attendance alongside Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya and Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa, among other leaders. A side allied to Deputy President William Ruto was to gather at the Mumias Complex, but the event was thwarted by police.
“Recently, you heard me give an order saying there will only be one meeting and it will be at Bukhungu,” Mr Malala said.
Then, he was good friends with Mr Atwoli and one photo online shows the camaraderie between them. Today, Mr Malala appears to have gravitated to the opposite side from where he was in January 2020. But his brand of politics means he clashes with people at every turn. Not too long ago, he wasn’t in Mr Mudavadi’s good books and had to publicly apologise to him.
But Mr Malala isn’t new to controversy. As a high school student at Sunshine Secondary School, he was expelled by a board chaired by former President Daniel arap Moi for leading a rebellion against the principal. He lasted as a law student at Moi University for just a semester then left because the “environment there was not conducive to me” as he said in a past interview.
Now gunning for the Kakamega governor seat, might he have invited shackles of doom upon his political career or does he know something and we are the only visitors in Kakamega?
