We were still high school students when the original Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD) hit turbulence, and threatened to split.
The then bone of contention was something they ominously called simply “Section 13”, a clause in the party’s constitution about the choice of a presidential candidate.
Jaramogi Oginga Odinga’s side preferred the Electoral College method, which is always beloved of those largely inclined towards a parliamentary system of government for it accords opportunities for people from small communities to have a fair chance at electoral contests.
The Kenneth Matiba faction wanted the candidate picked by universal suffrage, obviously in seeking to tap into the large tribal base that would give Matiba the advantage.
Ultimately, there was no agreement and Ford broke into Ford Asili and Ford Kenya, headed by Matiba and Jaramogi respectively.
However, the more we read the news, the more we discovered that beyond our young world, there was another where political support and alliance building hinged so much on sociocultural differences that were often packaged as disagreements over a myriad of things, including Section 13.
In that world occupied by people who we had thought were liberation heroes up to that point, there were those considered unelectable because of their ethnicity.
We had been communing with the works of Charles Darwin in school, so were convinced that no matter how bad tribal divisions appeared then — even if they ended up dividing the liberation movement and giving Kanu victory again a year later — that a time would come in our life that we would have evolved enough to see a new generation that would discard the culture of elections based on tribes, cultures and class divisions.
We now see we were wrong.
Several elections have been run in this country where the hatred of one man has become a central theme of vote hunting.
In fact, political careers have been built and sustained in certain places in this country just by making ODM leader Raila Odinga the monster figure, so that some voters generally admit to waking up to vote against him, rather than for their preferred candidate.
Every drug peddler is in business only for as long as there are consumers for his products.
Whereas the universal narrative is that hatred and division are emotions sowed by the political elite of tribal formations, we must begin to question how the drug called “Railaphobia” can somehow have a sustained market beyond generations, even when the voter has become much younger.
Indeed, no drug thrives where there are no takers. In recent times, and as the heat of 2022 ambitions begins to enter what legendary football manager Sir Alex Ferguson used to call “squeaky bum time”, you have noticed the return of the anti-Raila rhetoric in raw form.
It was there during the Kiambaa campaigns. It has been a common theme around the so-called anti-Uhuru rebellion in Central Kenya, where a school of thought has it that the only reason for the rebellion, and the supposed love for DP William Ruto, is because Uhuru chose to work with Raila in the handshake.
Peddlers of Railaphobia such as Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua have even gone ahead to spew hate-filled phrases like “rats invaded our house” on live TV.
Don’t count on the toothless National Cohesion and Integration Commission to have heard that, for they hear no evil and see no evil.
There is little detail not widely known in Kenyan politics. It is that ahead of the 1997 General Election, Raila briefly worked on an alliance with Kenneth Matiba.
The two visited the Raila strongholds of Kibera and Mathare.
There are many who assumed Raila would back Matiba in the 1997 election before the latter asked his followers to burn their voters' cards, and boycotted that poll.
Five years later, Raila would back Mwai Kibaki and send Narc into a massive victory.
As sure as day follows night, the monster image of Raila took a brief break because he was backing someone else. As soon he placed himself on the ballot the very next election, the hate machine went into motion again.
Raila has consistently presented himself to the people of Central Kenya as a friend, a caring father and a statesman who has held no grudges from any perceived differences in the past, just like he showed magnanimity to the Moi regime people who had persecuted him when his coalition romped to victory in 2002.
Amid the post-election chaos of 2008, he is said to have disregarded voices from inside his own party to “fight to the end”, and sneaked to Sagana to make a deal with Kibaki.
It cost him support in many quarters, where a peace deal was supposedly a sign of weakness.
In subsequent elections, the immediate period following the announcement of results has shown us the statesman Raila, who doesn’t compromise national unity for political expediency.
In letting go of what he perceived as victories snatched from him, he has worked with the government to stabilise the country, more than once.
It is imperative, therefore, that we address the people to whom this one-man-hate is sold as a political philosophy. We cannot have another election where the hatred for Raila is a central theme.
Browsing through the internet, we have seen Jubilee voters bemoaning the decline of their businesses, living conditions and state of their economy, admitting that it was all because they were misled into voting against Raila, rather than making an informed choice.
And yet, the discussion has hardly moved to the abilities of the potential next occupant of State House.
If anything, a large number has been politically hypnotised to believe that Jubilee failures have been a result of President Kenyatta’s working relationship with Raila.
Effectively, the hate-mongering drug remains in vogue because it still has consumers, and, therefore, the peddlers lurk with intent.
In the same week that we have vociferously condemned the racial abuse of black England players following their final defeat in the Euro 2020 tournament, we must look inward and condemn this culture where political careers are created on the foundation of the hatred of one man or his community because this has been going on for too long.
The next time an election comes around, for once, we could weigh the candidates on their potential to lift this nation to the next level, away from the stagnation caused by ethnic divisions and a vicious cycle of hatred masked as political competition.
It has been a whopping 30 years since that Ford break up.
We really should have evolved by now, however slowly!
Collins Ajuok is a political commentator
