With BBI being fought by civil society, Ruto’s 2022 run is clear
What you need to know:
Nasa is on life support and will not be a factor in 2022 unless revived and refashioned to stand on its own without Mr Odinga’s towering leadership.
Without the challenge of Nasa or a similar broad-based coalition, Mr Ruto on the Jubilee ticket facing a splintered opposition will have a clear run.
- Kenya Tuitakayo confirms that the civil society has rejected the BBI and stepped out of Mr Odinga’s shadow to push the reform cause from the outside.
The Building Bridges to Unity Taskforce of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition leader-turned-ally Raila Odinga has come out of hibernation to announce a nationwide series of public hearings beginning next week.
In its statement, the team co-chaired by Garissa Senator Yusuf Haji and academic Adams Oloo seemed keen to dispel the notion that it was a mere appendage of the improbable political rapprochement between the President and the former (yes, former) Opposition leader.
It stressed that its programmes will be inclusive, before launching into NGOese gobbledygook about “bilateral and multilateral interface working consultations and engagements.…”
PREMATURE DEMANDS
There will be many who will disagree that hearings staged by the BBI satisfy demands for an open and inclusive national dialogue. The taskforce will still have a hard time persuading critics that it is more than just a tool of the Uhuru-Raila ‘handshake’ deal.
Indeed, its work is not made easier by the fact that it has landed smack in the middle of internecine conflict within Jubilee revolving around the increasingly divisive presidential succession wars. The camp of Deputy President William Ruto is clearly suspicious that President Kenyatta has reached out to Mr Odinga as a device to sabotage their man’s State House prospects come 2022.
Mr Odinga has further muddied the waters with premature demands for a referendum even before the taskforce has collected views from the public and proposed areas of reform that will require constitutional amendments.
LITTLE CREDIBILITY
Entanglement in Jubilee power plays undermine and rob the BBI of any little credibility it might have had. This will explain why, even as it launched its timetable for public hearing, groups that felt betrayed and excluded had already signalled a launch of their own reform programme.
The Kenya Tuitakayo (The Kenya We Want) movement, launched on Thursday last week, a day before the Building Bridges announcement, is fronted by civil society activists previously seen to be firmly in Mr Odinga’s camp.
Kenya Human Rights Commission executive director George Kegoro and former Ethics and Governance permanent secretary John Githongo were among civil society luminaries seen as extensions of Mr Odinga’s political machinery in the run-up to last year’s elections.
BELATED REALISATION
They were also key in the #Resist campaign following on Mr Odinga’s boycott of the repeat presidential election.
But they were blindsided by Mr Odinga’s decision to abandon agitation and instead seal the ‘handshake’ deal with President Kenyatta.
If they had been left floundering in the dark, Kenya Tuitakayo serves as confirmation that activist elements of civil society have rejected the BBI and stepped out of the former Prime Minister’s shadow to push the reform cause from the outside.
It is a belated realisation that political players cannot be relied upon to lead the struggle for a just society beyond narrow and myopic self-interest.
UNASHAMED SYCOPHANTS
Whether this new push can replicate the Ufungamano spirit that drove the 1990s fight for a new constitutional order remains to be seen. Civil society of today pales in comparison to the selfless and focused activism of yore with many key leaders embedded in partisan politics.
The movement would also be hamstrung by lack of resources as key Western donors are content with the political status quo.
As for the religious groups, which were vital to the broad activist coalition that forced political players to the table in 1997, the less said the better. Most of them are now unashamed sycophants, at the service of the political leadership.
BETRAYAL ANGER
Can Kenya Tuitakayo find allies in the remnants of the political opposition?
Mr Odinga’s ‘defection’ left the National Super Alliance denuded of leadership. His Nasa co-principals — Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, Mr Moses Wetang’ula and Mr Musalia Mudavadi — were outraged by his deal with the President but are yet to show whether their anger was at his betrayal of opposition principles or their exclusion from the handshake.
Mr Musyoka has since clearly been angling to catch the President’s attention while Mr Wetang’ula seems to be gravitating towards Mr Ruto.
LEADERSHIP VACUUM
Mr Mudavadi, the most outspoken of the trio in calling the government to account, will soon be getting his audience with the President. The outcome of the meeting will reveal whether he is also ‘in the pocket’ or if he has it in him to fill the yawning vacuum in opposition leadership.
Nasa is on life support and will not be a factor in 2022 unless revived and refashioned to stand on its own without Mr Odinga’s towering leadership. Without the challenge of Nasa or a similar broad-based coalition, Mr Ruto on the Jubilee ticket facing a splintered opposition will have a clear run.
[email protected] Twitter: @MachariaGaitho
