Uhuru needs to separate politics from business in Raila oath rage
Miguna Miguna (left) at Githunguri police station on February 2, 2018 after his arrest. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
Mr Miguna remained in custody on Friday despite his lawyers having managed to obtain a High Court order for his release on bond.
- Just as Jubilee supporter sees the clamour for reforms as a personal insult to Mr Kenyatta, his opposite number in Nasa believes it will sweep his leader Raila Odinga into power.
Mr Kenyatta should be concerned about perceptions that he is personally benefiting from the State crackdown on the opposition and independent TV stations.
The heavy-handedness with which security agents have been seen to move against NRM and its leaders raises eyebrows.
It has been tough being associated with the National Resistance Movement (NRM) the past few days.
Two days after Interior Minister Fred Matiang’i proscribed the movement that advocates civil disobedience and economic boycott in its push for electoral justice, a heavily armed police squad on Friday broke into the Nairobi house of Miguna Miguna, one of NRM’s more vociferous leaders, grabbed him and drove him to a police station in the neighbouring Kiambu County.
Mr Miguna remained in custody on Friday despite his lawyers having managed to obtain a High Court order for his release on bond. Pictures published in the newspapers and social media showed a local mob massing around Githunguri Police Station and demanding they be let in to lynch him for disrespecting President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The majority of people living in this area are die-hard supporters of Mr Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party, of course. Media reports suggest that heightened activity at the police station had aroused curiosity in the neighbourhood, explaining the mob’s presence. Mr Miguna’s comrades insist it was a mobilised crowd.
ELECTORAL JUSTICE
Whatever the case, the Githunguri crowd’s sentiment highlights a dangerous personalisation of issues that has clouded the opposition’s agitation for electoral justice.
Just as the ordinary Jubilee supporter sees the clamour for reforms as a personal insult to Mr Kenyatta, his opposite number in the National Super Alliance (Nasa) believes it will sweep his leader Raila Odinga into power.
Perhaps the two protagonists should be honest with their followers and tell them what this is really all about. The two sets of supporters need to come to terms with the fact that sooner or later the political elite will agree on some kind of electoral reforms before 2022 anyway.
Mr Kenyatta should be particularly concerned about perceptions that he is personally benefiting from the State crackdown on the opposition and independent TV stations following the mock swearing-in of Mr Odinga as the people’s president on January 30.
MAJOR BENEFICIARY
The shutting down of the three top independent TV stations – Citizen, KTN and NTV – over live coverage of the Nasa ceremony at Nairobi’s Uhuru Park has left K24, which is part of the Kenyattas’ media empire, as a major beneficiary.
As in the Miguna case, the three TV stations remained off-air despite a Thursday High Court order suspending the decision by the Communications Authority of Kenya to switch them off. The heavy-handedness with which security agents have been seen to move against NRM and its leaders raises eyebrows as well.
Among the products and services that the movement has in the past asked its members to boycott are those of Brookside Dairies, another firm in which the Kenyattas have interests.
The local milk giant has in the past five years registered huge growth and consolidated its position as market leader. NRM will most likely see its current travails as the empire fighting back.
[email protected] @otienootieno
