The week’s Nasa developments: And the damage is already done
Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka addresses media after receiving new members on March 31, 2017. Opinion is divided on whether he is on his way out of Nasa. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Muthama has been a major Wiper pillar before he was sidelined for seeming to lean on the ODM side.
- Opinion is divided on whether Kalonzo is on his way out of Nasa or has opted to bring the entire house down.
Tuesday, March 28: Kalonzo Musyoka presides over a Wiper political aspirants’ meeting at Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi where he declares that at 63, his ambition to become president cannot be held back – by anybody.
He vows he will no longer be “Mr Nice Guy” and that henceforth the gloves will be off.
He claims Nasa knows he can beat Jubilee, then he wonders, “why delay naming the presidential candidate?”
It is not clear how he links his age, and Nasa, and beating Jubilee, and his inexplicable ambition.
Tuesday, March 28 (afterwards): Kalonzo gathers together major Kamba political leaders to Emali in Makueni County where they declare, as one, that he is “Tosha” for Nasa.
They make it clear this is the irreducible minimum they expect from the coalition. Heavyweights like Charity Ngilu who have feuded with Kalonzo for years lead the chorus.
Tuesday, March 28 (earlier): A meeting of Nasa principals in Nairobi aborts when Kalonzo fails to show up.
Wednesday, March 29 (earlier): Musalia Mudavadi, who has been speaking indulgently about Nasa as “his” baby, chides Wiper over the latest turn of events. ODM, meanwhile, keeps a studious – if deeply pained – silence.
Wednesday, March 29: Kitui West MP Francis Nyenze, who is the Minority Leader in the National Assembly, drops a political bombshell that reverberates nationally and totally numbs other Nasa partners, particularly ODM.
The Wiper MP has called an extraordinary press conference where he declares that if Kalonzo is not named Nasa’s flagbearer within seven days, the coalition will die.
STILL IN NASA
ODM stalwarts get into a mighty fury over Nyenze’s insinuation that Nasa will be reduced to a “Nyanza Super Alliance”.
Wednesday, March 29 (afternoon): Wiper MPs led by Senator Hassan Omar of Mombasa hold a press conference re-affirming their inclusion in Nasa.
Very pointedly, they do not distance themselves from what the Minority Leader had said. Instead, they blame Nasa rivals for “double standards”.
Wednesday, March 29 (later): Omar releases another statement, widely circulated in social media, saying Nyenze will call a press conference the next day to “clarify” his utterances due to “public anxiety”. He restates Wiper’s inclusion in Nasa.
Wednesday, March 29 (time unclear): The Star newspaper manages to reach Machakos Senator Johnston Muthama, who criticises Nyenze and then reportedly breaks into the lyrics of a popular gospel song: “Soon, and very soon, you are going to know the boss.”
Muthama has been a major Wiper pillar before he was sidelined for seeming to lean on the ODM side.
Thursday, March 30: Nyenze does not hold the hotly awaited press conference. Instead, he speaks on the phone to Citizen TV station standing by his earlier remarks.
Thursday, March 30: A hyped ODM rally planned for Kibra featuring the D-starred Governor Ali Hassan Joho of Mombasa is cancelled. Joho says this was because of the Budget reading in the afternoon.
Thursday, March 30: Meanwhile, Raila Odinga is in Kisii town attending a health care conference and afterwards puts up a brave face and says Kalonzo is in Nasa “to stay”.
JOHO'S GRADE
He has spoken to him, he suggests. Kalonzo is nowhere to respond to the frenzied media inquiries, nor is anybody else of note in Wiper.
Friday, March 31: Kalonzo resurfaces and backs Nyenze’s remarks.
Opinion is divided on whether Kalonzo is on his way out of Nasa or has opted to bring the entire house down.
Either way, the damage is already done. Even if Kalonzo is named the flagbearer, I can’t imagine Raila’s flock waking up on August 8 to vote for Wiper, or vice-versa.
* * *
Politics aside, the saga of Ali Hassan Joho boils down to this: Was a KCSE certificate forged to give a C+ grade to allow admission to university?
Who did it? The fact of the matter is that a D- grade cannot give entry to any public university, nor any reputable diploma college.
The route to a diploma and onward to a degree is a minimum C grade. With a C- one can do a diploma and rise to a Higher National Diploma. Not a university degree.
Even the much abused Module II (parallel) courses at public universities require a minimum of a C+ grade. The university that admitted Joho has some explaining to do, not our courts.
