VOLTAIRE SAID [that] to the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth.
It is a fact known to those of us ‘near the top’ that Uhuru Kenyatta was holding Raila Odinga hostage in the days immediately after the storming of parliament by the ‘so called’ Gen Z movement.
I say ‘so called’ because from January to mid 2024; it had been Raila who was opposing government on a host of issues, including taxation. It was the ODM Party group in parliament that had been opposed to Ruto’s tax measures.
In its earlier opposition, the ODM Party had demanded a raft of amendments to the 2024 Finance Bill; whose amendments were rejected by the then Ruto-Gachagua majority.
The ODM party then changed its moderate position on amendments and adopted the extremist position of demanding a total rejection of the 2024 Finance Bill; a position it pursued relentlessly, including on the very day that Gen Zs stormed parliament.
Uhuru, who had all along been apathetic to the goings on, suddenly developed interest. This was vintage Uhuru, waiting on the margins for the heavy lifting to be done by commoners, then, like the Prince he is; coming well-dressed for the feast of the victors!
He now wanted total state collapse; and that Ruto should leave power and skelter to Uganda.
He was duping Raila that power would transition to him (Raila); contrary to the constitutional dictate that gives the Deputy President an automatic ticket to the presidency; or, like happens elsewhere in Africa, the army.
Uhuru’s treachery was only exposed when Dr. Oburu rejected such a pathway to power; and bluntly told Raila that he is being set up.
According to Dr. Oburu, the fall of Ruto would automatically transfer power to Gachagua, who had moved to Mombasa strategically to position himself for takeover.
When Ruto stayed put, and brought the repressive state to bear; the Uhuru groupies around Raila took him to Dubai in the days when a new cabinet was to be formed. This was after Ruto gave indications that he was willing to expand his government to now bring in the ODM Party on board.
Because of Raila’s unnecessary pussyfooting, President Ruto named a partial cabinet, awaiting Raila to make up his mind and nominate persons to the cabinet.
By this time, Raila had been awarded 12 names.
This stage stretched for weeks, forcing President Ruto to enter into separate negotiations with Uhuru.
It is only after Raila was informed that Uhuru too was negotiating to bring his people into government that he (Raila) moved quick to finally present the names, but now the chances had reduced to six, as Uhuru’s negotiations were also at a very advanced stage.
Raila Odinga was great in many things but one area he was weakest was negotiations for power.
First, he took too long to make up his mind on what he wanted. It was always easy to know what he did not want; but knowing what he wanted was a tall order!
Second, he listened to everybody, including, and especially, his own enemies.
Third, he had this penchant for sacrificing his own soldiers to please enemy soldiers; thus gave the enemy soldiers enough time to do maximum damage on his own soldiers.
In this next phase of the battle; the next leader of the movement must inherit Raila Odinga’s strengths but not his weaknesses.
The next leader of the movement must be clear about what we want; how to quickly attain it; who is the enemy and who are the allies.
What we want is an egalitarian society. How to attain it is to defeat the primitive tribalists with their narrow-mindedness.
Our enemies are the primitive tribalists and whoever they cast their lots with; and our friends are those who also pursue a fairer Kenya for all, for if they arrive at their destination, they will find us there too.
