By endorsing Muthaura Appointment, and Rejecting Dida, Raila makes new costly political gambles

 
January 5, 2014
By Dikembe Disembe
“Where there are critical resources to be managed, the appointees are from Gikuyu, Embu and Meru communities and where there are bones in the meat, appointees are from either the Kamatusa (an amalgamation of Rift Valley’s Kalenjin, Maasai, Turkana and Samburu communities – a term coined during the Moi era) group or from other communities. This way, it would be hard to fight corruption.” – Dalmas Otieno.
By supporting Muthaura’s appointment, Raila is just entrenching corruption. Let’s not forget that President Uhuru sacked Prof Shaukat who was among the last people to be appointed by the Grand Coalition government as the board chair of Lapsset. Prof Shaukat was appointed in March last year. His term was to end in three years time. What experience does Muthaura have better than Prof Shaukat?
Ni ugwiji upi? Ni hekima gani? What? How?
While Uhuru is consolidating his constituency, and winning new grounds, Raila continues to weaken the left – his base. Granted, Raila did not make the appointments. But Raila as the ‘official’ opposition leader needs to point out the manifest flaws in Uhuru’s appointments. To turn around and become the chief government apologist is wrong.
Prof Shaukat comes from the coast. Did Raila listen to what the coastal communities are saying? Or for CORD, the coast is locked under key? Waiting, like Luo Nyanza, for Raila to be president? What message is Raila sending to that bloc? The guys in Mombasa County who voted ODM to the last man?

Or we forgot about the ‘face of Kenya’? Because, really, Muthaura’s appointment only shows the smelling anus of kenya!
When Uhuru sacks a professor (project planning and management) from a project implementation job and what is dangled is ‘Muthaura’s experience’, what does that mean? when Raila shares that view, what does it mean? When this professor happen to come from a region with one of the lowest rates in education, what message is sent to that region? politically?
You know, they used to say the coast region have not gone to school. That they are lazy. That they do drugs. People like Prof Shaukat went to school to change that. They got education to be role models of sorts. To convince children of that region that if they work hard in school and succeed, they can be part of the mainstream. . .they can work any job that were for long associated with ‘upcountry’ people.
You know, it is such mindless appointments that make people regroup in “councils” – whether Mombasa Republican or ‘Coast People’s Association’. People regroup so as not to be muted. People regroup to remind the appointing authorities that the national cake is not just about “experience” alone.
Muthaura’s appointment is wrong, not because of anything else but the accompanying narrative. Muthaura was at the top of Kibaki state apparatus. . .what is his record? What is he experienced on? Muthaura is accused of planning senseless violence where thousands of poor people’s children were killed, raped and maimed. Those accusations came from an independent local commission – Waki Commission – which triggered the events leading to the ICC. . .how did his case end? More deaths!
Let’s die too but these are facts. Raila’s relatives and or close family may not have perished in that ‘state-sponsored’ mayhem. He became a “PM” over massive deaths. Recycling Muthaura into public service – a man condemned into oblivion by this dark past – is an insult to the collective conscience of relatives and survivors who gave their last breath for Raila. Even more egregious, Raila opposes the appointment of Dida.
“You can’t lead the people if you don’t love the people,” said Cornel West. I may add, you can’t lead the people if you think the people are idiotic all the time, or gullible always.
So we have a million reasons to want to forget about Muthaura. When I say ‘we’ I mean those in the left. I mean those who believe in Kenya for all. I do not mean political opportunists or sanctimonious pretenders. I do not ‘wanasiasa bandia’. I do not mean sellouts.
If Raila is now on the right, that’s okay. But he needs to exit fully so that we in the left can reorganize. There is nothing wrong with being in the right. All his types are in the right. I mean those who sympathize with the status quo. The reactionaries, name them – all in the right.
You can’t be on the right and on the left at the same time. You will cause confusion. We saw it in 2007. We also saw it in 2013. I, for once, can’t wait for it in 2017! So Muthaura’s appointment, as endorsed by Raila, is still wrong!