Cord wasting chance to display credentials as alternative leaders

Coalition for Reforms and Democracy leaders launch the Okoa Kenya Bill at Bomas of Kenya, Nairobi, on April 23, 2015. The same thing happened with the Okoa Kenya initiative. There was a great deal of noise from those behind it and a great deal of time, energy and money were wasted. FILE PHOTO | EVANS HABIL | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The only logical end to this cynical effort, in my view, is to embarrass the President and allow some foul-mouthed fellows to score cheap political points.
  • A few days before two poor fellows died after imbibing a contaminated brew in Gatundu North, I had already resolved to denounce the return of the killer liquor, not only in in Kiambu County at large.
  • Or could it be that the easy money a few crooks in authority made proved to be too irresistible and they decided to look the other way, again? It appears the war on illicit liquor is already lost before it was truly waged — in the President’s backyard.

Commenting on Kenyan politics has never been for the faint-hearted.

Indeed, it is akin to walking on a mine-field, not knowing when the buried incendiaries will blow up in your face. In many cases, unfortunately, the voices of those with anything intelligent to say are often drowned out by those with nothing to say.

The result is often a cacophony that does not add value to our lives.

Politics to us has become a form of war in which the losers become diehard enemies of the winners, the polarising effects of which will not wear off until the tables are turned, if ever.

And even if they are, the next set of rulers will likely continue on the same path with even more fervour. If this is what Kenyans understand by democracy, it seems to me to be a very wasteful preoccupation which will keep this country in the shackles of poverty for eons to come.

CHEAP POLITICAL POINTS

What, for instance, has been happening on the political front of late? Today, we are asking when, not if, the sitting president should be impeached.

We already know how it can be done, the numbers required, and so on, and like other Kenyans, I have been on tenterhooks waiting for it to begin.

However, except for the purported movers of the motion who are talking as though it is a foregone conclusion, we already know the attempt will be futile. But, hey! What’s wrong with a little harmless fun while waiting for El Niño?

The only logical end to this cynical effort, in my view, is to embarrass the President and allow some foul-mouthed fellows to score cheap political points.

In other words, the impeachment motion is already stillborn, but it will still be flogged hard. Isn’t there any other way to correct the government than to stage melodramatic scenes?

The same thing happened with the Okoa Kenya initiative. There was a great deal of noise from those behind it, a great many insults poured forth from the lips of our political saviours during rallies, and a great deal of time, energy and money were wasted.

Today, those few talking about referendum are lone voices crying in the wilderness.

FAKE LABELS
For the most part, the Cord Coalition has garnered for itself formidable credentials as an opposition, but it is too busy wasting them on opportunism.

A few years ago, it preached revolution to remove Jubilee from power. Today it is pinning its hopes on the disruption caused by the teachers’ strike continuing, aiming its arrows at Anne Waiguru, and talking about impeaching the President.

Has consistency become a foreign word to those who would rule us in the future?

A few days before two poor fellows died after imbibing a contaminated brew in Gatundu North, I had already resolved to denounce the return of the killer liquor, not only in in Kiambu County at large.

I even obtained proof that the makers of the poisonous concoctions had resorted to “packaging” the stuff in innocent-looking bottles, complete with fake labels, which one can peel off with finger-nails, something you can’t do with a genuine label.

It is said the liquor is being “manufactured” in Kariobangi South — where, allegedly, the only thing that can’t be counterfeited is life itself — and then sold secretly to the parched addicts of Kiambu.

WAR LOST

On two separate occasions, I have come across guys who could not have been drunk on anything else, but swore they were high on a “local” brew taken during an important traditional ceremony.

I never heard of traditional ceremonies being held in the middle of the week.

It is apparent these deadly brews have returned like a ghost, which won’t be exorcised. When I remember the fervour with which the county administrators and MPs fought the menace, I wonder.

What could have gone wrong so fast, even after changes were made in the county’s administration, and police chiefs shuffled?

If those who made the liquor in their country’s ditches are now “importing” the stuff from Nairobi, surely someone should know by now.

Or could it be that the easy money a few crooks in authority made proved to be too irresistible and they decided to look the other way, again? It appears the war on illicit liquor is already lost before it was truly waged — in the President’s backyard.