I wish Wamalwa were around to quip more

Death is a bad reaper, fond of picking the pearls of the earth. We all miss the political gem, Christopher Michael Wamalwa Kijana.

Mike was a true voice of reason that we badly need right now. I wish he were around to poetically quip that the country is suffering “Raila mania and Raila phobia”.

We have those who adore the PM and those who fear him to a point of forging alliances to prevent his presidential bid.

I imagine the former VP urging us to rise above this myopia and let our politics be issue-oriented and not driven by personality cults.

Many still remember Kijana’s quip that “life begins at 40”, when we were marking our 40th anniversary since independence and surely, the life of the Kenyan nation seems to have just began.

We now have a new constitution which Wamalwa would have summed up as “history written in golden letters”.

Mike would have reminded MPs not to allow power to enter into heads and water down the achievements of a new constitution.

He would never have been party to the schemes of mutilating the Political Parties Bill that was aimed at ending the culture of party-hopping and forging of alliances before and after elections to suit personal rather than national interest.

The intellectual would have quoted George Orwell’s Animal Farm: “The pigs have suddenly turned human beings (with reference to reforms) and this is likely to compromise the letter and spirit of reforms.”

As we remember Mike, let us also ponder about his ideals.

SAMSON MUKALO,

Limuru