This week, the political scene will be pregnant with
expectations of a deal between President William Ruto and ODM leader Raila
Odinga.
Unfortunately for certain serving CSs, this will mark the
end of their tour of duty.
The good thing is that just like with the National Accord
government formed in 2008, the Raila half of the cabinet will be most inclusive,
incorporating the face of Kenya, because ODM is the only party with the ability
to do that.
First, we make no apologies for joining the government.
But how did we get here? The answer is straightforward: the Mt
Kenya region brought us here.
I hate the constant references to Mt Kenya when we
mean just the Kikuyu community.
The politics of hate and betrayal practiced by the Central
Kenya clique means that after the hate-filled rhetoric directed at Raila by Mt
Kenya politicians and social media users over the AUC campaign period, he had
only one direction to go on returning home; towards the man who had gone out of
his way to support him on the continental scene.
In the fullness of
time, we are inclined to admit that no matter what we may fault Ruto with, we
celebrate his unwavering support for Raila at the AU elections. We saw him with
our eyes.
Power was very sweet when Jaramogi declined to take it and
let Jomo Kenyatta keep it in 1963.
Power was very sweet when Raila Odinga practically handed it
to Mwai Kibaki in 2002.
But 1966, 1969, 2007, 2013 and 2022 confirmed that to the
Kikuyu community, power was only sweet if it went their way.
The listed years are the milestone years representing the
betrayal of Jaramogi at the Limuru Conference, the assassination of Tom Mboya,
the Kisumu massacre during the opening of the Russian hospital, the anti-Luo
oath all over Kikuyuland, the stolen elections of 2007, the Julius Karangi
manipulation of the 2013 elections and the flat refusal by Central Kenya to
back Raila Odinga, despite passionate pleas by Uhuru Kenyatta.
The sum total of that is that moving forward, the Kikuyu
cannot convince even younger Luos that the two communities can
ever work together.
Many Luos now feel that the Kalenjins, who voted for Raila
Odinga to the last man in 2007, at least have a recognisable debt with the Luo,
should they opt to collect it.
There is absolutely no reason for the Mt Kenya region to
retain a whopping 9 members of a 22-person cabinet, representing nearly half.
In the inaugural Ruto cabinet, Eliud Owalo was the only Luo,
commensurate with the lack of support the Luo had given Ruto.
Now that the Kikuyu have turned against Ruto and have
declared that their sole intention is to see him out of power, why should they
keep such a large presence in government?
In fact, Rigathi Gachagua has completed plans to have his
supporters serving in elective positions resign en masse, as soon as the IEBC
is constituted, in order to occasion a little general election and paralyse UDA
in the region.
As usual, there is no
philosophy in this plan, beyond hate and the need to recapture power.
So, if Raila is joining the government this week, we won't care
about being reminded how we will carry Ruto's baggage in 2027.
Those who seek to remind us have spent their whole lives
trying to stop Raila from becoming President.
They even moved their hatred to the continental scene in the
recent elections.
So it shouldn't matter to them what baggage we decide to carry from here on.
Besides, half of the cabinet is a big deal. The last time Raila
had half of the cabinet between 2008 and 2013, the entire country witnessed massive
development.
Roads were built, the famous bypasses came up, agriculture
was thriving, a new constitution was promulgated, and many of the reforms we see
now, in different sectors, were initiated. The often-celebrated Kibaki
successes were the work of the Raila half ofthe cabinet.
So yes, bring on half of Raila's cabinet. If anything ends
in tears later, it will be our tears! We won't borrow anyone's!"
