Opposition Should Listen To Babu Owino and Think Beyond It Because They Are Dead Already

Babu Owino is a savvy politician and a pretty smart guy, and we know he has his problems, but his statement to the opposition when he supported Kalonzo Musyoka to lead the outfit is interesting, but it misses one big point which is now killing United Opposition if they do not wake up.

Babu had this to say to Kalonzo and to Kenyans in the battle for which direction the country goes with the 2027 General Elections.

“In 2002 in Kenya, people went to vote out Daniel Moi; they did not go to vote in Mwai Kibaki,” he said.

“In 2027, Kalonzo ametosha hajatosha? Kama alikuwa Azimio, Kalonzo alikuwa mzuri. Saa hizi kama ako opposition sasa Kalonzo ni mbaya? Kalonzo amekosa nini so far? Ati tukisema Kalonzo tosha ati Babu ni mbaya, mbaya what?” he posed.

Babu statement here is that Kalonzo is a more likely candidate to lead the opposition which is not a good thing for him to say because Gachagua determines what happens to the opposition and Kalonzo is a by-stander in the whole process.

But Babu Owino made one mistake in his assessment of the political developments in the country during the multi-party era when he said Kenyans voted in 2002 to remove Moi from power and did not vote for Kibaki.

That is a completely wrong assessment, and I am sure Babu and other Kenyans can figure that out by just looking at the facts as they happened in 2002.

Yes, Kenyans were sick and tired of Moi dictatorship which had lasted for 24 years at that time. Many Kenyans had been killed everywhere, and Moi had built a special torture facility promptly named Nyayo House Torture Chambers.

In that place, when the Special Branch police took you in, first you are thrown into a locked room full of freezing water totally naked and the first thing that comes to your mind is to ask yourself, where the heck am I? You are not thinking about how I get out of here. You just want to know that you are still human. It was a completely shocking and frightening experience from the first minute.

None of us who were locked up in that place and jailed later, half dead from torture, would ever comprehend Nyayo House Torture place because nobody knew anything like that existed in our country. When I finally left Nyayo House and was sent to Kamiti Medium Prison, it was a huge relief, and I didn’t care how long I was going to be imprisoned at Kamiti.

For me, when finally presented in court, I was given a jail sentence of 15 months after spending more than nine months in police custody with all the torture and at Nairobi Industrial Area Remand Prison. (INDA as we used to call it).

For the first time at Kamiti Medium Prison my mother was able to find me, and she came there with her sister, a nurse in Nairobi and she came from home and had never been in that area before. I had no idea how my mother got to Kamiti some 500 miles from her home, but I knew separating that woman from her kids is not easy. It was good for me to be with her down in that place for a visit because we got to talk and she told me to be strong because there are other students there with me. I really appreciated that.

Later at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Dar es Salaam medical centre, the doctors there found so many health problems with me and the worst was internal bleeding in my head which only got treated two years later when I was sent to Canada by the UNHCR and got admitted to St. Joseph Hospital. It somehow still comes back from time to time up there in my head and makes me very mad, but I am fine with it now.

Yes, Moi was a horrible president for our country and people were ready to do anything to get him out of power and throw some of his agents to jail including today’s President William Ruto who was a big part of Moi’s torture and death machinery called YK92, which was pretty much the first terrorist organization in Kenya before we even heard about Al Shabaab.

Kenya had a chance to kick out President Moi in 1992 and failed miserably to do it. Why that happened is the first question the present opposition need to ask themselves. Moi was able to win the elections in 1992 and stay in power because the opposition was totally confused and they were engaged in tribal supremacy wars instead of focusing on what Kenyans wanted for their country. Does that sound familiar with what we are seeing in the opposition today.

What is the difference between the Kenya elections in 1992 to topple Moi and the successful opposition victory over Moi in 2002, ten years later.

The difference between the failed 1992 and the victorious 2002 elections is that in 2002 the Kenya opposition had an agenda that appealed to all Kenyans for a better country, and they were part of that agenda and loved being involved for their country.

Even in the middle of the tragedy, when Mwai Kibaki had a road accident during the election campaigns and went to the UK for medication treatment, the team remained intact on the ground and Kibaki was able to come back ready to be the new Kenyan president. That is how a political opposition with a national agenda has worked for our country and Kenyans know that.

The arrangement that removed Moi from power was Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga the opposition leaders agreeing that the first thing Kenyans needed the most was a democratic new constitution which would not concentrate power in the hands of the president and where Kenyans would have devolution to spread opportunities for development to all communities in Kenyan.

With the biggest agenda for elections being the demand for Kenyans to have a new constitution, Kenyans had to be convinced that the new government they were electing would achieve that objective for the country and that is why they elected Mwai Kibaki and his team to take power in the country in 2002.

If you want to know how seriously Kenyans were committed to a new constitution more than anything else, consider the fact that when Mwai Kibaki became the president he completely changed his tune on the new constitution demands for Kenyans because he also wanted to keep all state power in his hands.

Something to learn on why having an agenda for any political operation is important is that after winning the elections, Mwai Kibaki did everything in his power to keep the Moi dictatorship katiba and tried to impose a fake new constitution on Kenyans in a referendum in 2005.

The plan by Kibaki and his cohorts in State House to bring their own “new” constitution was crushed by the forces fighting for a new Kenya when Kibaki lost at the national referendum to bring his own constitution for the country.

That was also the real birth of ODM when they represented the Orange Movement with a “NO” campaign and win with an Orange symbol when they defeated the Kibaki katiba which was symbolized by bananas. I mean the fruit not the Kibaki leaders.

It took the Kibaki massacres of 2007/8 and the ICC on our throats as a country for Kenya to finally agree to a new constitution in 2010 through a referendum. That is why political and real-life agenda is the most important thing for any political movement to connect with the population and work towards forming a government to fulfill that agenda.

Kenyans now have to deal with a spectacularly confused and tribalist opposition which is so clueless you have to at least feel sorry for them and for the country.

Today Kenya has a “United Opposition” which says they do not need an agenda for the country because they have all the tribes in their pockets and that is all they need to get to power with no agenda for the country.

It is a foolish way to think and a sure way to fail in their wild hopes and that is coming in less than two years from now on August 8, 2027. But for now, Gachagua can entertain himself and his friends like Kalonzo and then go home on August 9, 2027, for the rest of their lives. That is a great deal for Kenyans, and they are going to take it.

Gachagua: The mountain has not chosen the president, but knows whom to chase away

Kenyans today just listen to Gachagua to remind them how whacky he is and of course Riggy never disappoints his political enemies.

Here is Gachagua with his rants which tells Kenyans everything they need to know about him as a dead-end politician in the country today..

“Ruto na watu yake wanamulika mimi sana kwa sababu ya hii Mlima Kenya. Unajua hii mlima iko na kura milioni sita. Navile ninaona itaenda milioni nane. Na hii kura imeamua. Haijaamua itachagua nani, lakini imeamua ni nani itafukuza,” Gachagua said.

“Amejipata mahali Moi alijipata 1992. Moi had been cornered. Lakini akakuwa mjaja sana. Na sisi hatukuwa tumeerevuka. Akakuja hapa mlimani, hii kura ya mlima ilikuwa imemkataa yote, vile imekataa William Ruto leo,” he said.

“2002, tukasema hakuna kugawanya, ndio Kibaki akapata 3.6 million, against ya Uhuru ya 1.8 million,” he said.

He accused Ruto of trying to divide Mount Kenya votes, echoing warnings he has made several times this year. In September, Gachagua said that Ruto has planted “wheelbarrows” in Mount Kenya to split votes.

“Ruto has got several wheelbarrows in the mountain so as to divide the votes,” Gachagua said. “I said that Kiunjuri is a wheelbarrow, I also said Kabogo is a wheelbarrow. He has a lot of wheelbarrows he is moving around. He has two in Murang’a, one in Kiambu, one in Kirinyaga, and even this one for Kuria.”

During the burial in Muranga, Gachagua also dismissed claims that tribalism is Kenya’s main problem.

“The problem with Kenya is not tribalism. The problem in Kenya is theft of public resources,” he said.

“Kwa sababu hii milioni saba, ikiwekwa ya Ukambani millioni tatu, ya Western millioni nne, ya Coast millioni mbili, si ameenda nyumbani. Ile kazi ako naye, ni vile atagawanya hii Mlima,” he said.

Now there you have it live from the king of the united opposition counting tribes and votes in each area and that is his route to victory. Gachagua says Mt. Kenya have not decided on who to vote for, but they have decided on who to chase away.

I can almost hear many Kenyans including our Mt. Kenyan compatriots as well as opposition leaders whispering to themselves on those Mt. Kenya folks or anybody else if they can chase away Rigathi Gachagua from the opposition and give opposition hope of getting anywhere against Ruto.

Not a chance and that is the bad news for the opposition groups. They need to chase away Gachagua to have a chance, but he is their boss leading them to State House or back to their homes to eat some sheep and goat meat at Wamunyoro with the big guy. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that plan and it makes sense for them. Great time folks.

Adongo Ogony is a Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada