Miguna Miguna supported William Ruto by spewing tons of vitriol at Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga.
Having christened Uhuru Kenyatta as a despot and Raila Odinga as a conman, Miguna Miguna went vile and crude, daily mocking and insulting the two leaders. He built an army of anti-Uhuru and anti-Raila minions.
And then the election was won by Ruto, and won again at the Supreme Court. In that victory was Miguna’s last laugh.
Miguna’s support for Ruto was selfish. Exiled in Canada following the 2018 swearing in fiasco, he’s badly wanted to return to Kenya and continue ‘what he started’.
Miguna believes he had created a ‘national resistance movement’ which Raila feared and Uhuru loathed. He believes the two men, in forging a handshake, conspired to defeat him, as both were ‘very worried’.
Miguna’s return was only guaranteed, at least publicly, by candidate William Ruto. What Miguna has not appreciated is that William Ruto was playing politics. Ruto has no stomach for Miguna antics.
Even though Miguna and Ruto come a long way, mostly, Miguna has acted at the service of Ruto.
Miguna is one of the few people who wrote to ICC dismissing the Ruto case. Like many in ODM then, Miguna believed the 2007 election was stolen and the violence that followed was a reaction to the blatant theft. When ICC picked Ruto, Miguna felt a comrade had been nabbed.
Miguna plays ideological politics, mostly. When he isn’t, it is because circumstances have forced him to selfishly align with the prevailing formations. To Miguna, it is mostly the means. In very few instances does the end justify the means.
Now Miguna is back to his element. Miguna is obsessed with replacing Raila as the ultimate Luo leader, and, broadly, the leader of the ‘political left’ in Kenya. Some day, he believes he can make a stab at the presidency, with a realistic chance of winning.
Therein lies the problem. The Ruto he supported has not evolved a place for Miguna other than a new passport, the removal of red alerts, and a ticket home. At JKIA, when he arrives, Miguna believes there will be a guard of honour parade and a police escort, after addressing ‘thousands of fearless supporters’. It is a sad thing for a man to lose reality. Miguna lives in his own make-believe world.
Miguna sees his return as such a huge thing that he is fundraising for the event. No one knows what the funds being solicited are to procure. Buy a cheering squad? Rent a crowd?
Miguna cannot work in Ruto government because the roles he has reserved for himself have all been taken. Miguna would have settled well with a cabinet secretary slot. He missed out. Till now, Miguna is yet to congratulate any of the new Ruto CSs and, as expected, he has started bashing its leadership, especially DP Rigathi Gachagua, whom he had earlier embraced as ‘more intelligent’ than Martha Karua.
Miguna returns as one of the many headaches facing President Ruto who, unlike Uhuru, has no stomach for permanent criticism, that’s if we learnt anything from ‘logging out’ Jacob Juma.
Will Miguna survive?
