How Raila can be more effective in holding government to account

What you need to know:

  • Whether Dr Njoroge’s position has sound backing in law is up to the courts but with the electoral team’s experience, Mr Odinga’s interactions with government bureaucracy seem palpable.
  • Each time a government door is banged in his face, Mr Odinga loses his efficacy as an “enigma”, the very edifice of his national appeal as a pre-eminent politician in Kenya. Essentially, he is being “normalised”.
  • This kind of treatment is bad for his image, which is what the poll team, and now the Central Bank, have exposed him to.
  • Mr Odinga must seriously look around him and decide if he is surrounded by the kind of strategic and tactical minds that can outmanoeuvre their peers in government.

When Central Bank Governor Patrick Njoroge declined to meet former Prime Minister and Cord leader Raila Odinga in mid this week, it was yet another blow to the national stature of the man who has come to represent the “official opposition” even though that political institution does not exist in the country’s constitutional architecture after 2010.

Perhaps, taking the cue from the electoral commission, which has twice snubbed Mr Odinga, the governor categorically stated he is not willing to meet Mr Odinga because, as he alleged, the information sought by the Cord leader was “privileged under banking laws, and cannot be disclosed to third parties”.

Whether Dr Njoroge’s position has sound backing in law is up to the courts but with the electoral team’s experience, Mr Odinga’s interactions with government bureaucracy seem palpable.

Each time a government door is banged in his face, Mr Odinga loses his efficacy as an “enigma”, the very edifice of his national appeal as a pre-eminent politician in Kenya. Essentially, he is being “normalised”.

"COMMONER"

In some strange way, he is allowing himself to be treated as a commoner.

This kind of treatment is bad for his image, which is what the poll team, and now the Central Bank, have exposed him to.

If this trend continues, soon the Interior Cabinet Secretary will be summoning him to record statements.

Not that he hasn’t attempted it before or won’t be excited to repeat it.

A government machinery that just three years ago was at his beck and call, and whose policies and programmes he would labour to explain to lawmakers, and the country every Wednesday during the “Prime Minister’s Time” in Parliament, now seems to have shut him out completely.

It is like someone sent an internal memo to all government agencies on how to deal, specifically, with Mr Odinga. It is like he is back to the mid 80s again.

Be that as it may, if there is a memo, sadly, the challenges he is facing right now can be traced to the 2010 Constitution, which created a grotesque creature - a cross-breed between a monitor lizard and wall gecko - as a system of government.

The new institutions the Constitution created did not envision another “opposition arrangement” outside the two houses of Parliament.

In layman’s terms, the “opposition” would be the party that does not form the majority in Parliament.

It would be led by the Leader of Minority, who would be the highest-ranking opposition member.

Mr Francis Nyenze, the Wiper MP for Kitui West, currently occupies this seat. In the Senate, again, the Leader of Minority would be the highest-ranking opposition member. The current occupant is Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula.

NOT FULLY UTILISED POWER

These two men, though constitutionally recognised as the leaders of the opposition, are yet to fully utilise this power.

This is the tragedy of the political opposition in Kenya today.

On the one hand, Mr Nyenze’s influence within and beyond Parliament is not as major as that of Mr Odinga. His political persona is that of a legislator.

On the other hand, Mr Wetang’ula is torn between his fledgling presidential ambition, his “third principal” place atop Cord and his official, constitutional role as the Senate minority leader.

So far, they are yet to achieve what is required of them as high-ranking opposition leaders in Parliament.

Mr Odinga, though the de facto leader of the opposition, has no de jure status.

He lacks the human resource and informational access that the two leaders of minority in Parliament have, and which they haven’t fully utilised.

By law, Mr Odinga represents no specific constituency. As Dr Njoroge put it, he is a “third party”.

Which brings us to the all-important question: what can he do, politically, to hold the government accountable?

Forget the legal gymnastics. Those stunts anyone with access to money, or who understands the rubrics of law, can undertake.

Activist Okoiti Omtatah has been highly successful in litigating against the government.

How can Mr Odinga hold a government, unwilling to be beholden to him, accountable? The answer lies in two places.

TROOPS IN PARLIAMENT

One, his troops in Parliament should wake up and report to duty. There has to be a semblance of opposition in the two houses of Parliament. Forget the whistling jokers.

The Opposition in Parliament must organise itself in such a manner that the constitutional hierarchy and deference is appreciated. Then they must hold the government accountable.

This will mean radically restructuring parliamentary opposition. The opposition in Parliament, not outside it, is what the constitution envisaged.

This is the body that the constitution empowered, alongside several State agencies, to check and balance the political system.

Two, Mr Odinga must seriously look around him and decide if he is surrounded by the kind of strategic and tactical minds that can outmanoeuvre their peers in government.

Make no mistake, President Uhuru Kenyatta is surrounded by the best of the worst, both citizens and foreigners. He is surrounded by brains, brawns and egos.

For the last three years, they have held their forte. When you add this to the glitz of top notch PR and a president who turns into a tribal overlord in Kiambu in the morning, a cultured statesman in Nairobi at noon and fast-rising African leader in the eyes of the global order in the evening, Mr Odinga must get the best, the very best.

Mr DBM Mosota is a partner with MMA Advocates