Raila’s chances to remain at the top

As the most popular politician in Kenya who stands the greatest chances to succeed Mwai Kibaki as the country’s next President, Raila Odinga, has very serious choices to make to remain at the top. First he has to prove to the people that he genuinely opposes corruption, which has been a major stumbling bloc to the country’s social, political and economic progress. Then he has also got to prove that he has nothing to do with tribalism, the one quality of leadership that has created more problems for Kenya than it has solved. And lastly he has to prove to the people that he truly believes in justice for all Kenyans and not just for the privileged class.

For Raila to prove that he sincerely opposes all forms of corruption he must stop all the junior ranking members of his political party, ODM, from attacking Dr. P.L.O Lumumba’s commendable efforts to fight corruption. The threat from ODM’s junior MPs to disband the KACC if it doesn’t expose the corrupt PNU leaders the way it has exposed the ODM ones is seen as originating from Raila himself who obviously would not like his party to be seen as the only corrupt one in the country.

But if Raila wants to continue getting the support of the common mwananchi, he must be seen to fight corruption in all its forms, even if it exits in his own party. Raila’s popularity will shoot up to the ceiling if he is seen to support Lumumba’s efforts by publicly warning all ODM top leaders to step down from all public offices , even the offices held in the party, the moment they are suspected by Lumumba to be corrupt.

If he takes such a stern measure against corrupt leaders in his own party and the Ministries administered by ODM politicians, then he will have the moral obligation to loudly ask the suspected PNU corrupt leaders to follow the ODM example. Right now he should be among the first Kenyan leaders to ask Charity Ngilu to step aside while Lumumba is subjecting her to his investigation.

Rather than appearing to oppose Lumumba’s efforts through uncalled for threats, he should be addressing the country both as the ODM leader and the Prime Minister by solemnly undertaking to never tolerate corruption in all its ways, shapes or forms now and in future. That way he will be telling Kenya the kind of President he will be when he takes over from Mwai Kibaki.

Rather than appearing to orchestrate the unnecessary shadow boxing against Lumumba’s good work the Prime Minister should be making sure all the people working under his leadership, whether in the ODM or the Government, exercise their duties in the spirit of the new Constitution’s Chapter Six on leadership and integrity. He should be calling up on all leaders in all political parties and indeed all public offices to demonstrate respect for the people and bring honour to the nation and dignity to the offices they hold just as the new Constitution calls for.

To remain on top of the ladder of popularity Raila has also got to emphatically condemn tribalism in the country, which is threatening to balkanize the nation into hostile ethnic cocoons seeking political powers through tribal unity rather than through ideological conviction. Kenyans know very well that whenever tribal nationalism triumphs, bloodshed follows along the pattern of ethnic clashes that followed the messed up 2007 elections. Whenever Kenyans agree to be manipulated by tribal chauvinists, they end up picking up pangas, bows and arrows in defence of people who have no interest of this country at heart.

The blood Kenyans poured for the sake of the same tribal chauvinists during the post election violence of 2008 has hardly dried up, yet calls are now being made to Kenyans all over again to unite in defence of more or less the same leaders who made people fight only a few years ago. The so called leaders have no shame what so ever when they openly talk of the KKK alliance that is expected to bring the Kikuyus , Kambas and Kalenjin people together to help the same chauvinistic leaders remain in power without going through a proper democratically organized free and fair election.

Kalonzo Musyoka of ODM-Kenya , William Ruto of ODM and Uhuru Kenyatta of Kanu are hoodwinking the Kikuyu, Kamba and Kalenjin people that they want to unite them to form the next Government whose main purpose is to fight against Prime Minister Raila Odinga. They don’t tell the people of Kenya what political platform will bring them and their followers together.

Kalonzo has made the Kamba people believe ODM-K is their political party, Uhuru Kenyatta leads Kanu without Kikuyu followers who belong to all sorts of political parties under the umbrella of PNU and Ruto is the Deputy Leader of ODM where he feels like a square peg in a round whole and from where he wants to pull out all the Kalenjins. Though he has not publicly announced his next political move, it is believed he intends to take all the Kalenjins into an amorphous organization called United Democratic Movement (UDM) which he dreams will be his political ladder into the future leadership of this country.

Kenyans know very little of UDM. They have not seen any election manifesto from it. They don’t know its policy on education, employment or land. All they know is that it will be the main party for the Kalenjin people whose leaders are united to promote two important themes: strong opposition of Raila Odinga’s leadership and the rejection of the new Constitution of Kenya.

Modern day Kenya is crying for a political party based on an ideology that clearly and unambiguously supports the constitution that has just been promulgated. The dream of Kenyans’ future leadership is based on principles found in their new constitution which they have just overwhelmingly endorsed. Raila Odinga’s chances of taking over the leadership of Kenya after that of Mwai Kibaki depend entirely on how strongly he opposes tribalism and supports the democratic principles enshrined in the new constitution.

It so happens that Raila has just announced his party ODM intends to hold countrywide grassroots elections. His continued popularity and the people’s continued acceptance of his party will depend entirely on how free and fair those grass-root elections will be. If his party seeks the assistance of the IIEC to organize truly free and fair elections, totally based on ideology and party manifesto whereby leaders are chosen on the basis of their ability to interpret these principles, rather than on the basis of which tribe or clan they belong to, the popularity of the party among all Kenyans is guaranteed. That single move by the Prime Minister is bound to prove to the wananchi that he indeed is the statesman they have always suspected him to be.

Last but not least Raila’s position as the future President of Kenya will be guaranteed by his unwavering stand for justice for all Kenyans. This he can do by unequivocally supporting Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s move to prosecute people he suspects of having masterminded the post election violence of 2007-08. Indeed, like most democrats, Raila is expected to champion the principle of everyone being innocent until proven guilty.

All the same, as the leader of ODM and the Prime Minister of Kenya, he should be among the first to demand that anyone who has been mentioned by Moreno-Ocampo should resign from all the party or public offices they hold. The individuals named by Moreno-Ocampo are going to be prosecuted in The Hague in their individual capacity and not as holders of either public or party offices.

If it is true, like Moreno-Ocampo would have us believe, they actually masterminded the bloodbath that followed the 2007 elections, then they acted against the well known principles of ODM and the Government. Parties and Governments do not plan mass murders, individuals do. And when they do so, they go against the well known party or Government principles. When a policeman is trigger happy and shoots to kill, he is committing a crime as an individual. If he is doing so as a result of obeying orders given to him by a superior officer then that superior officer is equally guilty individually.

As a political party ODM has no known principle of solving its problems through mass murders and arson. If there is an individual within the party who planned such criminal activities then he, as an individual, should answer charges against him at the ICC. Kenyans know that very serious crimes were committed in this country following the 2007 disputed presidential elections. Whether those crimes amount to crimes against humanity Moreno-Ocampo should be the one to prove before the ICC. He is convinced he has enough evidence and he is also backed by the majority of Kenyans and Raila Odinga should be one of those Kenyans if he really wants to be the next President of this great nation.



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