Nasa leader Raila Odinga (right) and Senate Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen welcome each other during the burial of Willy Kaino Kilimo, the father of ODM Treasurer Ogla Kakani, at Chebai, Elgeyo-Marakwet County, on March 17, 2018. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
17.March 2018
Summary
- If Mr Odinga cared so much about peace, love and unity, he would have recognised Mr Kenyatta’s presidency a long time ago.
- Mr Mudavadi said he was aware of a Jubilee strategy to have them abandon Nasa.
In the coming weeks, ODM party leader Raila Odinga will go around the country trying to sell his newfound 'bromance' with President Uhuru Kenyatta to his followers.
The narrative is most likely to depict him as the usual enigmatic political schemer on top of the political game.
Even the March 9 handshake at Harambee House will be wrapped in a cloak of mysticism, an act of rarefied political manoeuvre that only Baba can pull off.
Yet this might turn out to be one of the simplest moves Mr Odinga ever made in his long political career.
JUBILEE ONSLAUGHT
On December 27, 2017 the young Nation reporter Patrick Lang'at wrote about a plot by Mr Kenyatta’s ruling Jubilee Party to split the opposition coalition Nasa by March.
On December 27, 2017 the young Nation reporter Patrick Lang'at wrote about a plot by Mr Kenyatta’s ruling Jubilee Party to split the opposition coalition Nasa by March.
The story quoted an unnamed Jubilee operative mentioning the March deadline and exuding confidence that the target will be met one way or the other.
“The idea is to ensure that by March Nasa has been split and Raila is isolated. There are many ways of achieving that target,” the source said.
The obvious way was, of course, to raid the coalition and poach the Nasa co-principals Kalonzo Musyoka, Musalia Mudavadi and Moses Wetang’ula.
NASA LEADERS
In the Nation story, Mr Mudavadi said he was aware of a Jubilee strategy to have them abandon Nasa and that he had himself been approached by some leaders in the rival camp.
In the Nation story, Mr Mudavadi said he was aware of a Jubilee strategy to have them abandon Nasa and that he had himself been approached by some leaders in the rival camp.
But it is what the National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale said that was quite telling.
“His [Raila’s] Nasa co-principals have up to March to decide on his political retirement or if he is running in 2022… For Raila the retirement package is in place to enjoy as provided for in the Deputy President and other State Officers Retirement Act, 2012.”
Given his hawkishness, one can read anything in Mr Duale’s views, including his allusion to a carrot-and-stick approach that Jubilee took in its dealings with the Nasa leaders behind the scenes.
PEACE
But it will take an incredible amount of opposition fanaticism to dismiss them in light of Mr Odinga’s handshake with Mr Kenyatta and the ‘noisy and messy divorce’ in Nasa – both events appearing programmed to meet a March deadline.
Mr Duale’s accurate prediction of the Nasa unravelling in March also debunks the myth that the Harambee House handshake was the work of some political magic by the ODM leader or an inspired decision by a statesman keen to see the country united.
If Mr Odinga cared so much about peace, love and unity, he would have recognised Mr Kenyatta’s presidency a long time ago.
The simple explanation is that Mr Odinga, sensing the looming betrayal by his Nasa compatriots and finding himself increasingly cornered by an aggressive Uhuru police state, chose to turn himself in first.
The surrender could as well be tactical, but it is surrender all the same.
jkotieno@ke.nationmedia.com @otienootieno
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