The editors who craft newspaper headlines really deserve a hardship allowance. Because, in between the sensational, the factual and the plain false, it must be quite difficult for them to tell if today’s screaming headline will still hold any water tomorrow.
In Kenya’s fast-changing political scene, the analysts and columnists routinely make submissions that are completely overtaken by events in a matter of hours.
If anyone is still staying with the business of political predictions in this land, we must pity them for how many times they have to eat their words. The second category of people who deserve a break is the demographic that went to the ballot in 2022 “to send Raila Odinga to Bondo”.
Driven by fiery tribal rhetoric and a deep division agenda, certain regions in the country had only one mission as they trooped to the polls; to finally see the back of the ODM supremo, out of national politics.
However, not only did the former Prime Minister “refuse” to retire to his Opoda Farm in Bondo, but he has set his sights on a huge continental seat in Addis Ababa, while playing an influential role within the Kenya Kwanza administration that his foes thought would permanently fix him in Bondo!
Nothing demonstrates this confusion than this week’s unforeseen meeting between President William Ruto and his predecessor, Uhuru Kenyatta, at the latter’s Gatundu home on Monday.
After a long absence from the scene, Uhuru recently resurfaced soon after the impeachment of ex-DP Rigathi Gachagua and banged in the middle of Mount Kenya’s growing disenchantment with Ruto’s government.
Many within the “send Raila to Bondo” brigade had hoped that he would become the spiritual leader of the movement, after their erstwhile ally, President Ruto, had betrayed them by embracing the ODM chief.
In fact, when the President and his predecessor shared a podium at a church function in Embu county, on November 16, being the first time since the former’s inauguration in 2024, residents present used cheers and jeers in equal measure, to express their anger with Ruto and joy with Uhuru.
For good measure, former DP Gachagua was in the crowd. The initial reaction within the anti-Ruto fraternity following his meeting with Uhuru was “we are not boarding”, in hashtags that trended in the blogosphere.
Which is why this demographic needs a short lesson on both Uhuru and Raila, which I offer pro bono.
Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga were both raised by freedom fighters; founding President Jomo Kenyatta and first Vice President, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, respectively.
Their world view as they grew up was informed by something bigger; a philosophy that upholds nationhood over all else. It is safe to therefore submit that because of this upbringing, both gentlemen, in times of national crises, will naturally choose the side of national stability over short-term political interests.
And since President Ruto now holds high office, his reality aligns with theirs; that he doesn’t have the luxury of pandering to divisive whims and campaign rhetoric when he has the whole country looking up to him.
Essentially, those who expect the President to be a divisive figure who practices skewed allocation of state resources to some regions of the country at the expense of others, basically forget that his oath of office already shut that door.
There was an element of a protocol hitch to the Gatundu meeting.
Ideally, the retired President should come to the sitting one, the current holder of the instruments of power. That Ruto instead went to Uhuru and clearly kept his close advisors in the dark, speaks to the magnitude of the need for the rapprochement.
On Ruto’s shoulder is the burden of a nation not only grappling with increasing restlessness among its youth, but a population mired in difficult economic times. Every hand of unity he can find means something within the frame of the bigger picture.
There were little echoes in Gatundu this week, of a near-similar incident in 2008. With the post-election violence raging unabated, Raila, claiming a stolen victory from the 2007 elections, had the difficult choice between sitting pretty and waiting for violence to resolve the dispute, or letting go of his claim to restore national peace.
The manufactured divide between Uhuru and Ruto wasn’t sustainable in the delicate task of nation-building and their handshake can only be for the greater good of the country.
I say “manufactured” because within the grand political schemes, there are people like Gachagua, for whom divisions are opportunities to be exploited to provide a staple for their politics.
One only needs to revisit the devastating manner in which the names of both Raila and Uhuru were used in the Mount Kenya region to create a damaging siege mentality ahead of the 2022 elections.
And yet, when the chips have all fallen in place, a sitting President needs everyone on board to run an effective country.
This is also why newspaper headlines are screaming about ODM being swallowed by the government, because five of its former officials, now holding CS positions, have taken to not only praising Ruto, but seeming like the only ones talking.
There is an “outsider effect” at play. Players on loan, in the football world, often work hard to impress their new employers, in attempting to secure permanent transfers.
My assessment is that the “ODM experts” have to prove their value to the President and since they were brought in to forestall a crisis, their value lies mostly in their crisis-evading capabilities. Does that mean that ODM as a party has lost its voice? Certainly not.
The more compelling question to ask is why the media consistently creates the impression that former ODM officials now in government represent the party’s position, yet when the officials who replaced them in their party positions state the opposite view, it is not considered the party’s stand.
It is the usual attempt at creating a divisive narrative, which ignores the necessity that gave rise to the broad-based government and has now led to rapprochement between Uhuru and Ruto.
Commentators have pointed out that most of the top politicians in the country have worked together before. This week, pictures from the past emerged, of the 2007 ODM Pentagon featuring Ruto, Raila and Mudavadi among others.
There were also those showing Uhuru, Raila, Ruto, Musalia Mudavadi and others, then members of Kanu and LDP, working together to oppose the constitutional draft at the 2005 referendum.
More recently, the working relationship between Speaker Moses Wetang’ula, Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka, Mudavadi and Raila, in their 2013 Cord coalition and 2017 Nasa coalition, has been plain for all to see.
Of the top politicians today, not surprisingly, the one person you will not see in these old pictures is the impeached DP. Even without going into his odd-man-out status, these cross-cutting previous political and working ties mean that many of today’s leaders, both in opposition and government, know and understand each other.
When national stability and cohesion calls upon them, we expect
them to heed the call for greater
good. And this is how I see the new
Uhuru-Ruto friendship.
