Open letter to the Rt Hon Raila Amolo Odinga
April 04, 2011 |
BY MOSES KURIA
Sir, let me start by apologizing for addressing you through an open and public letter. I would have wanted to seek an appointment to meet you in your office which, laudably, you have managed to refurbish to the standards of an emperor’s royal palace. However, since you appear to have some insatiable affinity for publicity, I thought to give you free, unsolicited promotion by addressing you through an open letter.
Bwana Prime Minister, this week must be really a special one for you. I have no doubt that come Thursday 7th April and Friday 8th April, your eyes will be glued to live TV coverage of the proceedings at the International Criminal Court at The Hague. I can imagine you will be surrounded by a coterie of your surrogates and sycophants. I can envision the number of Champagnes that will be popping on that day, the hi-fives that will be exchanges, the hugs, the self-elation and self congratulations. I can see you making a short speech to your guests, thanking them, especially James Orengo, for a job very well done. I can even remotely hear you quoting the late Hon Kijana Wamalwa and saying, “Ladies and Gentlemen, our grand march to State House is now unstoppable”. As you sip into your finely brewed Chivas Regal, I imagine you will be reminiscing on how far you have come, and how the respectable doyen of opposition politics the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga must be happy from heaven, satisfied that you have fulfilled his dream of occupying the revered House on the Hill, State House.
Son of Adonijah, allow me to take you back, down the lane of memory. In your own approved biography, you have admitted plotting to violently overthrow a legitimate government of Kenya. As you celebrate your victory in scheming to drag your opponents to a foreign court, you must be counting it as yet another ‘minor’ collateral damage in your pursuit for power. After all, what is the ICC compared with your heroic attempt to grab power during the 1982 coup ? It is reported that you wrote a thesis on the art and science of making nail bombs during your university days. Surely as you bomb the political terrain with one machination after another, this thesis must be coming in handy.
Sir, if the late Hon Kijana Wamalwa was alive today, he would be telling the six innocent Kenyans you have conspired to take to The Hague that they are treading on a trodden path. In 1994, you meted untold violence on the late Wamalwa in your quest to take over control of FORD-Kenya after the passing away of your father. Your empty rhetoric nowadays can only be matched by the number of stones that were thrown by your supporters in Thika during that fateful FORD-Kenya elections day.
In 1997, you abandoned Mwai Kibaki, Kijana Wamalwa, and Charity Ngilu and joined Daniel Arap Moi after losing the election. True to your character of looking for short-cuts to power, you thought that you would be Moi’s successor automatically. When that did not happen, in 2002 you decided to shout “Kibaki Tosha” even though you knew very well that Kibaki was winning anyway. You must have reckoned that Kibaki is a softer target for you to overthrow. Within 24 months of that declaration, you were already planning a coup to remove Kibaki from State House and install yourself through the handpicked Bomas delegates.
Jakom, you will recall that in the run up to the 2007 General Elections you used to tell Kenyans that the Kibaki government was mistreating the Kalenjin people by evicting them from Mau. Today, when it suits you, you have no qualms throwing women and children from the forest to create even more Internally Displaced Persons. I have no doubt in my mind, sir, that by your actions and utterances, by your designs and by default, the post-election violence that followed the 2007 General Elections was executed according to your script. As the losing Presidential candidate who refused to accept defeat or go to court, in the eyes of rightly thinking Kenyans, you were the root cause for the worst violence ever to befall our nation.
Today, the Kalenjin people who voted for you to the last man have become the objects of your never-ending machinations. I recall the camaraderie you used to have with Joshua Sang during the numerous times he hosted you in his morning show “ LEE NE EMET” or “What the World is saying. I am sure that to Sang there was only one World and his world was you, Hon Raila Odinga.
Today, Henry Kosgey is understandably still receiving shock therapy, having problems coming to terms to your betrayal of a man who served you so dedicatedly. The Hon William Ruto must be wondering what to tell all those people he convinced to name you Arap Mibei. Anyone with the surname Mibei today must be looking forward to an opportunity for cleansing.
It is understandable Mr. Odinga to be bitter with everyone and the whole world after the many years of incarceration. In the fight for liberation of this country, many had to pay a heavy price including death, disability and even impotence. However, Kenya is far more important than me and you. Those who fought for the independence of this country paid an even heavier price than you think you did. All these do not entitle one to automatic ticket to State House.
Sir, you style yourself as a reformer-par-excellence. Your actions however are no consistent with the reformist tag that you claim. Take for example the issue of nomination certificates for ODM in the 2007 General Elections and NARC in your strongholds during the 2002 General Elections. I have personally conducted a survey of what each candidate had to pay to get the certificate. The range is between Ksh 5 Million and Kshs 50 Million. There goes the fresh prince of democracy.
Mr. Prime Minister, you would want the world to believe that you are the champion of the youth. In my native Central Province, before Hon Mututho came to our rescue, illicit brews were destroying a whole generation of young people. It is common knowledge that the Kisumu Molasses Plant is the principal supplier of most raw materials used to manufacture these brews. Your vision for the youth of this country is succinctly clear.
Today most Kenyans dread and shudder with fear to imagine what an Odinga presidency would be like. Luckily, by your actions and utterances, you provide Kenyans with a sneak preview of how things would turn out. Most Kenyans have come to realize that you have one true friend, and that friend resides in your mirror. A trailer for the movie “Inside Raila’s Presidency” was shown in New York recently when Mrs. Ida Odinga forcibly removed a Cabinet Minister, Hon Naomi Shabaan from an official UN programme and installed herself in her place. Even in Luo Nyanza, talk is rife about the nepotism that continues to inform all your official appointments. This is double tragedy coming at a time when the community is finding itself more and more isolated as a result of your brand of politics. A lot of professionals from Luo Nyanza are worried that you may be taking the region back to the politics of 1966.
In conclusion, sir, let me assure you that I used to be your great admirer. You are a hardworking man if only that energy can be directed at constructive not destructive activities. The problem with you sir, is that most people perceive you as having a good brain but no soul. It is akin to having a computer with first class hardware but no software.
Bwana Prime Minister, going by the long history of suffering that Kenya has suffered courtesy of yourself, a significant number of Kenyans wonder whether you are truly the curse of Kenya. I still believe that there is still time to redeem yourself and debunk that notion.
Thank you Bwana Prime Minister.
(The author is the spokesman of the Party of National Unity (PNU). The views expressed herein are his own)
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Dunia ni msongamano..