Are Uhuru, Raila the biggest risk to their own peace deal?
President Uhuru Kenyatta (left) and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga. PHOTO | KANYIRI WAHITO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
The President voiced his disinterest in Mr Odinga’s push for constitutional changes, stating he was instead keener on executing his “Big Four” development agenda.
While delivering a lecture at the Oxford University in London, Mr Odinga said all presidential elections since 2007 were conducted irregularly and rigged in favour of the “establishment’s candidate”.
Deputy President William Ruto considers the referendum push a “project of election losers” and has lambasted Mr Odinga for implying that Mr Kenyatta was rigged to power in the 2013 and 2017 polls.
Bungoma County Senator Moses Wetang’ula, has praised the President for refusing to back Raila Odinga’s constitutional push
Two “careless” statements by President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Premier Raila Odinga last week appear to have handed politicians opposed to their new-found camaraderie an opportunity to wedge a rift between them and rubbish their “building bridges” pact.
Speaking in Nairobi during a round-table forum with members of the Private Sector Alliance, the President voiced his disinterest in Mr Odinga’s push for constitutional changes, stating he was instead keener on executing his “Big Four” development agenda. Only a day earlier, while delivering a lecture at the Oxford University in London, Mr Odinga said all presidential elections since 2007 were conducted irregularly and rigged in favour of the “establishment’s candidate”.
Apparently buoyed by President Kenyatta’s stand, Deputy President William Ruto has particularly moved in fast to dig in. The DP considers the referendum push a “project of election losers” and has lambasted Mr Odinga for implying that Mr Kenyatta was rigged to power in the 2013 and 2017 polls.
CONSTRITUTIONAL PUSH
And Mr Odinga’s political ally now turned foe, Bungoma County Senator Moses Wetang’ula, has similarly praised the President for refusing to back the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader’s constitutional push. Speaking in Tongaren constituency during a burial ceremony last weekend, the Ford-Kenya leader mocked Mr Odinga for being “an isolated man”.
On the flipside, the Orange brigade is unhappy with the President’s remarks but has instead opted to target the DP, whom the Odinga-allied legislators accuse of allegedly holding the government hostage: “The biggest threat to our democracy, our progress and stability, are people who have questionable credentials. That is what Ruto is,” claimed the MPs in a press statement.
While there has been unease in both camps allied to the President and to the former Premier over their much-hyped March 9 handshake, there has been relative caution and suppressed reaction, particularly because the two leaders have been extremely guarded on the matter. But their recent “slip of the tongue” has poisoned the situation and hardened positions. Which begs the question: are Mr Kenyatta and Mr Odinga the biggest threat to their own new baby?
BUILDING BRIDGES
A member of the 14-member Building Bridges Initiative confided to the Sunday Nation his concerns over the “unfortunate statements” by the two leaders. “Such utterances risk hampering the entire exercise. We only hope that this team can be expanded to accommodate a secretariat that will, among other tasks, manage strategic communication for the initiative and also guide the two leaders to remain guarded and only read from the same script.”
However, National Assembly Minority Chief Whip Junet Mohamed, a close ally of Mr Odinga, was point blank: “I want to caution the President that there are people within Jubilee who want to expand his Big Four Agenda to Big Five Agenda, by including the 2022 elections on the list. That will be the biggest risk to the Building Bridges Initiative. If he does not nip that in the bud early enough, the country risks going back to a divisive, electioneering mood”.
But Jubilee allied Kericho County Senator Aaron Cheruiyot thinks the political environment is too poisoned for the Building Bridges Initiative to survive. He blames this on the Orange party leader: “I think these gentlemen (Mr Kenyatta and Mr Odinga) are parting ways soon. Unless Mr Odinga sobers up and stops his tour of lies (claims that 2013 and 2017 presidential elections were rigged), then this thing of building bridges will collapse”.
CONFLICTING POSITIONS
The conflicting positions by Mr Kenyatta and Mr Odinga’s backers are key challenges that the two leaders must surmount. Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu is alive to the reality that those who didn’t agree with the handshake on either side will be more willing to fall back to their different camps, than to try to move beyond the disagreement, together.
“The President and the former Premier’s responsibility now is to make their respective troops move forward to unity rather than fall back to their respective camps,” observes Mr Wambugu.
Mr Odinga’s statement that presidential elections have been rigged since 2007 has been perfect fodder for legislators to retreat to their camps. And Mr Ruto, for instance, has cleverly played up Mr Odinga’s sentiments to demonstrate justification for a “them versus us” narrative. The DP has pointed out that Mr Odinga disrespects the President, and that he must concede that “Jubilee won the 2017 poll fair and square”.
Senator Cheruiyot opines that Mr Odinga is playing 2022 politics with the handshake. The vocal legislator says that if the Orange party leader wants the Building Bridges Initiative to succeed, he should keep off 2022 politics and instead “take up the job he was promised” in the handshake deal. Pressed to divulge the details, Mr Cheruiyot said he was not at liberty to do so.
Dismissing suggestions that the handshake was about creation of positions for Mr Odinga and his co-principals in Nasa — Wetangula, Kalonzo Musyoka and Musalia Mudavadi — Mr Mohammed says the deal was about ending ethnic and political hostilities and uniting Kenyans. The Suna East MP was the sole legislator who accompanied Mr Odinga to the signing of the pact at the President’s Harambee House office.
REFERENDUM
“I think we are also reading too much into the President’s statement on the referendum. He has an agenda to deliver to Kenyans, which he has coined as the Big Four. But on the hand, he must also leave behind a cohesive and united country. That can be achieved only by addressing the nine points flagged in the memorandum he signed with my party leader,” says Mr Mohammed.
During his State of the Nation address to Parliament on May 2, the President made curious remarks. He stated that when he and Mr Odinga met earlier in the year, they agreed to work together to strengthen the unity of the country and that they hoped to emphasise that collaboration comprises both competition and disagreement.
“We did not immediately solve all Kenya’s most pressing problems, nor did we see eye-to-eye on every proposed answer. It is important to emphasise that unity doesn’t mean unanimity. Mr Odinga and I stood together, not because we agreed on every item of politics or policy, but because we agreed that Kenya belongs to all of us,” he said.
Kenyans have already seen where they have agreed, especially on project branding, operations and establishment of the working committee.
Says Mr Wambugu: “I think we are now seeing the areas where they didn’t agree; and referendum is clearly one of them”.
