MP’s attack on Mudavadi driven by vendetta

What you need to know:

  • President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto tricked ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi into a pact that never was.
  • Mr Bosire relapses into a personal tirade against Mr Mudavadi, who was the victim of deception.
  • Mr Bosire depicts a confused state of mind when he paints Mr Uhuru and Mr Ruto as heroes who got the better of Mr Mudavadi.
  • To Bosire, Mr Mudavadi paid for his misadventures, and deserved to be conned because he betrayed the Opposition and defected.

If I were approached to join a chama and Kitutu Masaba MP Timothy Bosire was a member, I would decline for reason of not wanting the company of an extremely dishonest fellow.

This dishonesty manifests itself in a vendetta disguised as an opinion published in newspapers last week (Daily Nation, Thursday 21, 2016, page 18).

Mr Bosire sets out to denounce deceit or what he calls dirty tricks in Kenya’s politics. At a glance, he picks on how President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto tricked ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi into a pact that never was, as an example of such trickery that is worth condemnation.

However, Mr Bosire relapses into a personal tirade against Mr Mudavadi, who was the victim of deception. By losing focus of what he thought he wanted to say about the perpetrators, Bosire ends up admiring such deception rather than condemning it.

This mischief ignores that Mr Mudavadi was whistleblowing and decrying the Kenyan fashion of admiring leaders who lack integrity.

Mr Bosire depicts a confused state of mind when he paints Mr Uhuru and Mr Ruto as heroes who got the better of Mr Mudavadi, yet in the same breath, pretends to be contemptuous of leaders he claims acquire power through dishonesty.

Who, for instance, is Mr Bosire referring to when he claims “they propagate corruption, negative ethnicity, short-changing of each other and other vices, which have over the years badly undermined democracy and national leadership”?

Mr Bosire apparently sought to condemn UhuRuto, but his feelings for Mr Mudavadi blinded him into character assassination. I doubt that the public agrees that Mr Mudavadi exhibits “myopic and selfish leadership”. None can be more myopic than Mr Bosire who incredibly claims “Today’s Mudavadi is a pale shadow of the Mudavadi who was ODM deputy party leader”.

To him, Mr Mudavadi paid for his misadventures, and deserved to be conned because he betrayed the Opposition and defected. How Mudavadi did that is not clear.

CHOOSES SELECTIVE MEMORY

But if Mr Bosire is referring to Mr Mudavadi leaving ODM in 2012, then he deliberately chooses selective memory to besmirch Mr Mudavadi. For a person to whom democracy rhetoric is second nature, Mr Bosire ought to tell truth that Mr Mudavadi left ODM for lack of democratic space when the likes of him insisted only Mr Raila Odinga, as party leader, would be the presidential candidate.

The likes of Mr Bosire care less whether Mr Raila wins elections; they were and are terrified his absence would seal their fate.

Nonetheless, only someone suffering political dementia would jeer that Mr Mudavadi “called for it” if he is sincerely aghast at “sungura mjanja operatives” in Kenyan politics. Mr Bosire reminds me of the outrageous story of the slave owner who blamed the slave for being enslaved.

It isn’t doubtful that Mr Bosire is in denial when he claims to be part of “progressive alliances fighting to liberate the suffering majority” and wouldn’t acknowledge he’s married to what he falsifies as “bad politics of communities and clans, which have no place in today’s Kenya”. As a national official in ODM, he owes his position to the same “bad politics of communities”.

As a member of Cord, he knows that the coalition is welded by the same “bad politics of communities” mantra. By definition, Kenya politics is driven by ethnicity. But Mr Mudavadi can least be accused of the same.

For sure, Mr Mudavadi has appealed to the western region to support his second stab at the presidency. But western is home to Luhya majority, Teso, Sabaot and Luo. His can hardly be termed an ethnic appeal.

It is a regional appeal out of knowledge that only when he has their support can he attract support from other regions.

The fact that his ANC party is winning the hearts and minds in the region at the expense of ODM is what is attracting criticism from Mr Bosire.

But why the venomous attack on Mudavadi by Bosire after so many years since they last met? Bosire’s bitterness is personal.

His recollection of events leading to Mudavadi’s departure from ODM is hence distorted by desire to cheat. First Mudavadi didn’t “stray” or “lure” ODM delegates. Mudavadi was campaigning among ODM delegates in anticipation of party nominations. This was after ODM NEC, NGC and Parliamentary Group met at KBC Karen in 2010 and endorsed Raila and Mudavadi to compete for the presidential ticket.

Second, it was certainly not in 2012 because it was 2011 that I met a decrepit but cantankerous fellow in a Kisii Hotel alleging to be an ODM official from Nyamira. It turns out that fellow was Bosire whose mission was far from advising; it was pure extortion.

GOBBLED FOOD

His main concern even as he gobbled food that soiled his torn jacket was how much “facilitation” was due to the delegates. He vehemently argued against Nyamira being “counted with” Kisii delegates. He was roughed up after officials refused his handling their “transport refund”.

It isn’t doubtful that Bosire is in denial or is suffering from delayed student adolescent bigotry when he claims to be part of “progressive alliances fighting to liberate the suffering majority” and wouldn’t acknowledge he’s married to what he falsifies as “bad politics of communities and clans, which have no place in today’s Kenya”.

As a national official in ODM, he owes his position to the same “bad politics of communities”. As a member of Cord, he knows that the coalition is welded by the same “bad politics of communities” mantra. By definition, Kenya politics is driven by ethnicity. But Mudavadi can least be accused of the same.

For sure, Mudavadi has appealed to the western region to support his second stab at the presidency. But western is home to Luhya majority, Teso, Sabaot and Luo.

His can hardly be termed an ethnic appeal. It is a regional appeal out of knowledge that only when he has their support can he attract support from other regions.

The fact that his ANC party is winning the hearts and minds in the region at the expense of ODM is what is attracting nonsense from Bosire.


The writer is the private and press secretary of Amani leader Musalia Mudavadi. [email protected]