Involve the Opposition in national politics

Since the return of ‘Baba’ from a three-month “sabbatical” in the United States, there has been a curious surplus of political energy that calls attention more to the Opposition’s specific role, than even the perceived failures of the Jubilee coalition.

While Kenya is facing numerous challenges concerning security, economic growth and governance issues, the Opposition has nearly convinced the public that we are in the midst of a crisis.

This crisis has been carefully contrived by a combination of actual events, facts and rhetoric from both sides of the political divide.

To illustrate, while it might appear insensitive to reduce the deaths of Kenyans to statistics, the number of those killed due to terror attacks pales in comparison to that of Kenyans who die daily from disease, road accidents or even illicit brews.

RELEVANCE-SEEKING STRATEGIES

Depending on which side of the political divide one sits, the Opposition swiftly sought to help “address the crisis” by resorting to elaborate and inflamed public rallies aimed at forcing dialogue with the ruling coalition.

However, much of what is being witnessed in the prevailing political discourse has more to do with Cord leadership’s strategy of ascertaining its relevance before the 2017 elections than addressing the actual needs of Kenyans.

Indeed, the manner in which the dialogue agenda was hastily dropped at the much-hyped Saba Saba rally is evidence enough that the Opposition was never ready for, nor even desired this dialogue.

Now, the latest call for a referendum neatly falls into another relevance seeking strategy. Contrary to the rhetoric in public podiums, funerals and press conferences, there is very little for Wanjiku to take home from the referendum.

However, for the Opposition and especially for its leader, Mr Raila Odinga, there were few options in a context that renders almost obsolete an election loser.

A GRIM POLITICAL FUTURE

To understand this, we need to go to the new Constitution which, for no clear reasons, recreated the zero-sum game that was the hallmark of the old.

The loss to Jubilee was not just crushing because of the inadequacies and incompetence of the IEBC or the low voter turnout in Cord strongholds, but also because of the reality of being excluded from all formal forms of political engagement for another five years.

For a man used to the limelight and public space in all its forms, the political future was grim.

Indeed, only the spectacular political paroxysm that we are now seeing can assure Raila of the kind of attention he was used to, and the possibility to displace, even if momentarily, other significant political players from the public imagination.

It is in this light that I see the continuous calls for ‘dialogue’, ‘referendums’, and ‘mass rallies’. It might also be the reason why Kenyans should brace themselves for seasons of never-ending political competition and hip gyrating public rallies.

Kenyans need to talk about how to reposition losing opposition candidates into formal national politics. This might help avoid another epoch of political drama long after elections are over.

Dr Omanga is a Media Studies lecturer at Moi University’s School of Information Sciences