Why Uhuru-Raila handshake has hurt common Kenyan

The now internationally popular handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his erstwhile arch-rival, Opposition leader Raila Odinga, seems to have brought about relative calm in Kenya.

But that is only true if you are looking at calm and peace from a worldview of absence of street protests, Raila putting the country on the edge by swearing himself in as the “people’s president”, economist David Ndii pushing for some parts of the country to secede or some Coast leaders proclaiming that “Pwani si Kenya” (the coastal region is not part of Kenya).

SYMBOLICALLY

The handshake was a major relief to many Kenyans. The nation was on the brink of collapse following a contested ‘double’ election and government mandarins appeared clueless on the way out. But when the two sons of Kenya’s major political dynasties stepped out on the steps of Harambee House side by side and symbolically shook hands, the country exhaled.

The calm may be comforting to the ruling and working classes. But to those whose every waking day marks a continuation of yesterday’s struggles for basic survival, it is superficial, temporal and dangerous to them and their children. Ask the genuine hustlers tucked away in Kibera in Nairobi, Bangladesh in Mombasa, Majengo in Nyeri or Kondele in Kisumu.

OPPORTUNITIES

They will tell you that the Uhuru-Raila truce was the worst thing that could have happened to Kenya, a blow to the face that dashed their hopes of a country where opportunities are up for grabs to all who dare to dream and take action regardless of their tribe or the social stratum.

To the young unemployed Kenyans, the handshake was an abortion of dreams that they were ready to push until they were birthed. It took away the chief midwife, who had for years urged for the conception of the seed of a Kenya many wanted. A Kenya where the rulers are servants of the people. A Kenya of equal opportunities. A nation of the rule of law. A country where development is equitable.

MIDWIFE BOLTED

They knew the midwife was focused on the prize. Even after losing battle after battle in his quest to actualise the dream, he soldiered on, and many rallied behind him on the way to the ‘Promised Land’. But come March 9, 2018, the midwife bolted, leaving the unborn ‘new’ Kenya unattended in the womb.

The handshake was like a shepherd leading his flock to a land of plenty and then, from the blues, abandoning them in the wilderness and crossing over to ‘Canaan’ alone.

RUNAWAY MESSIAH

By extending the hand of truce, Raila abandoned millions of Kenyans who had long believed that he was the man chosen to lead Kenya to a better tomorrow. They are wandering in the wilderness — lost. They are collapsing, one by one, under the burden of heavy taxes that the runaway ‘messiah’ has supported and defended. The searing economic sun has brought upon them disease, crime, desperation and poverty.

When ‘Raila the Shepherd’ led them, he valiantly fought for their rights. But now, he has zipped up his mouth, and when he unzips it he defends those whom he used to oppose.

RHETORIC

To Maina, Ochieng’, Amina and Kamene, while the handshake helped to deflate the tension that threatened to blow away Kenya, it has hurt mwananchi, since rendered voiceless with the silencing of the Opposition and its goals, which Raila fought so hard for. It heralded the monolithic Jubilee rule that always has its way and is blind to the situation in the country and deaf to the cries of ‘Wanjiku’.

Raila could have eased the tension without sacrificing the tenets of fairness, rule of law and justice that he fought for. He quit the race midway, within sight of the tape, brusquely yanking Kenya back to one-party rule and rendering his ODM, Wiper and other ex-Nasa outfits walking-dead outfits.

His talk of being scared of crocodiles at ‘River Jordan’ is just a pile of rhetoric that will not take away the heavy taxes from kerosene that Wanjiku uses for cooking and lighting.

Mr Ngare is the Editor, Taifas. [email protected].