It’s not clear just what Cord hoped to achieve at the cacophonous rally
What you need to know:
- The Cord leader and fellow luminaries repeated the regular array of very good reasons why the Jubilee leadership is failing itself, and Kenyans
- Instead of the opposition taking advantage of Jubilee’s failings by offering alternative policy prescriptions, it is flailing out aimlessly.
- What will Cord do if the President leaves it at that and does nothing towards convening the national dialogue?
Bob Marley will always get me going.
“I have to run like a fugitive/ to save the life I live/ I’m gonna be Iron, like a Lion, in Zion”
Those immortal lyrics blaring from the speakers at Uhuru Park last Saturday are still ringing in my mind.
Otherwise, to date, I can neither decipher rhyme nor reason for the Cord alliance ‘homecoming’ bash thrown for Mr Raila Odinga.
It was billed as the mother of all rallies, a ‘million man’ gathering that would shift tectonic plates and herald the beginning of the end for the government of President Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto.
It turned out to be a damp squib. Just the thought of assembling a million people at Uhuru Park was always wildly optimistic.
There’s not even enough space unless the teeming throngs occupied every square inch of the park, including the artificial lake behind the grandstand.
Granted the opposition had its moment in the sun by pulling a still impressive and excited crowd, but too much of what would have been the crowning moment of Mr Odinga’s welcome home after nearly three months in the United States was drowned in the sheer chaos and disorganisation.
INCOHERENT MESSAGE
The din forced him to put aside his written speech and resort to his tried and tested ways of working up a crowd.
But the message delivered, added to the remarks earlier from his Cord co-principals Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetangula and others, granted an opportunity to rabble-rouse, was confusing, disjointed and uncoordinated.
The Cord leader and fellow luminaries repeated the regular array of very good reasons why the Jubilee leadership is failing itself, and Kenyans: The Anglo Leasing payments and return of mega-corruption, dictatorial tendencies, ethnic profiling in the fight against terrorism, extra-judicial executions, public appointments skewed towards the ‘ruling tribes’, poverty and unemployment, rampant insecurity, tourist flight, frayed relations with Western partners, failure to deliver on key campaign promises — all these are real public interest issues that should have the Jubilee administration on the ropes.
The UhuRuto administration is faltering and desperately looking around for external scapegoats, in good old one-party regime style inciting the people against imagined enemies.
Instead of the opposition taking advantage of Jubilee’s failings by offering alternative policy prescriptions, it is flailing out aimlessly.
Those who paid attention to the Uhuru Park rally must have left unsure whether the opposition is calling for mass action — riots and demonstrations — as a means of toppling the government; preparing the ground for a legitimate stab for power come the next elections; or demanding a place at the eating trough.
The fact that Mr Odinga had to come out the following day and clarify that Cord was neither intending a violent putsch nor asking to be accommodated in a coalition government is proof of how incoherent the message was.
POISONOUS VOICES
That leaves the demand for a national dialogue as the key outcome from the Uhuru Park rally. However, dialogue is usually based on a ‘come, let us reason together’ approach, rather than demands and threats.
Cord, frankly speaking, is not in a position to issue ultimatums and as long as it is itself a divided house.
Its forces in Parliament and the wider political arena are pulling in different directions, with most MPs and governors more interested in eating crumbs from the Jubilee high table than in playing the role of a government-in-waiting.
President Kenyatta diplomatically responded to the Cord demands by stating that he has always been ready for dialogue.
But what will Cord do if the President leaves it at that and does nothing towards convening the national dialogue? And what will the agenda be if the dialogue is called?
True, there are many issues of healing and reconciliation that could be on the table, as well as a united approach in the war against terrorism.
However, I fail to see how Cord expects to play a part in helping realise the Jubilee election manifesto.
I suspect President Kenyatta will sit on his hands and wait for Cord’s move. If it is another public rally, all I ask is that they keep the likes of Mr Johnstone Muthama and other poisonous voices as far away from the microphones as possible.
