Raila was supposed to be the best president that Kenya would never have. The usual tribal whacks will tell you about 100 times a day that Raila Amolo Odinga will never be the president of Kenya.
You can ignore them but they will never ignore themselves and they usually just talk to themselves.
My sense today is that there are two human beings in Kenya who will make Raila Odinga our president in August 2022. One is Raila himself and his charming ways and history with the nation.
It is hard to believe this for some people, but it is William Samoei Arap Ruto who is so determined and will actually achieve the goal of making the man Kenyans know as Tinga the next president of Jamhuri. Lovely. Right? Maybe not for Ruto.
I had this funny dream the other day. There is a group of Mount Kenya politicians trying to convince their voters to support Raila for the presidency in 2022.
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So the politician says to the voters: Do you remember that terrible and really nasty evil human being we told you never to vote for in the presidential election. The voters are like yes, we remember him, that was Raila, wasn’t it?
Then the politician says yes that is the guy but now we need him. And the voters are like, what! why do we need that guy now?
Then the politician says now we have someone more terrible and more evil who wants to be our president, and it is only that other guy who can stop him, and now we need to support that guy.
The stunned voters are like, we actually have someone more dangerous than the other guy, then he has to go.
That is going to be an earth-shattering reality when Raila and the big tent prompting him for the presidency gets their plan altogether which could be very soon.
”I was a good man when I supported President Uhuru Kenyatta for the presidency and when I supported Raila Odinga to become Prime Minister. Now they have planned to bring me down in the quest for the presidency, but I am more prepared than them. I am ready,” DP Ruto said.
Ruto is finally coming to terms with the fact that President Uhuru Kenyatta who has been his punching bag for 3 years now since Uhuru’s handshake with Raila is going to support Raila for the presidency.
Ruto is pretty furious about that because he thinks he is the one who gave Uhuru the presidency in 2013 and 2018. Ruto also thinks he owns the Mount Kenya communities. That is his simplistic formula but it bombed out. Actually, Ruto blew it out with his sense of entitlement.
Before we go to who Uhuru is going to support, let’s survey the political landscape as we speak.
The Mount Kenya Foundation (MKF) are doing their due diligence talking to prospective candidates for the presidency in 2022. One thing MKF has done which has been very impressive is that they are talking to all communities and leaders.
Read: How do we end Grand Theft by politicians in Kenya?
The last MKF meeting was with the North Eastern Communities, people facing some very tough drought and weather conditions. MFK has met the OKA team and that is good.
The issue here is that MKF has managed to avoid an arrogant attitude of OK we just need to talk to that Luo guy and then we will tell you who to elect. They are talking to people and talking to the country. That looks very good on them.
There are those who just swing insults at the Mount Kenya Foundation as a group of super-rich individuals. That is nonsense.
If any Kenyan politician would provide as much jobs and development opportunities to Kenyans as Equity Bank has done they would be dancing on top of KICC every day and telling us about that success.
They would put Equity Bank in their wheelbarrow every day. But they can’t. Equity bank is in another league of real development for Kenyans and for the region. That is something Kenyans are very proud of.
So the clinical approach of MKF and their genuine attempt to move the country forward is something Kenyans have noticed.
Secondly, we don’t have to be heckling and shouting as we approach the next elections. Nobody is acrimonious or threatening.
This is not like 2002 when Moi had to go and wanted to plant his little seeds to protect him.
This is not like the 2007 General Elections when it was a kind of life and death between Kibaki and his PNU against Raila and Ruto in ODM.
This is not like 2013 when the whole election was about saving the ICC suspects namely Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto.
This is not like 2017/18 when it was kill and kill and win and win for Uhuru and Ruto.
This is going to be a very laid-back General Election and may the best candidate(s) win. That is already a big win for Raila and Kenyans who want tranquility and harmony in the country.
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We know we deserve that and we know we can achieve it and we are going to.
That is a beautiful feeling and Kenyans get it.
We have a right to feel as a nation that we are at the doorstep of getting where we want to be as our country. We are getting there.
Make no mistake about that.
So the economic and political aristocracy in Kenya is going to go for a Raila presidency. He is going to protect them let’s not pretend about that.
But can a Raila Presidency end corruption and recover money and property from the thieves?
That is what will determine whether Raila can be our next president.
If he keeps quiet he has a better chance.
This election in 2022 is going to be about who can protect the thieves who run the country.
There are no other issues on the ballot unless Raila wants to put them there.
Like end Corruption and put charges on our national thieves.
Through the courts.
A super Alliance must therefore also take into consideration the wider margins of the Kenyan Electorate regionally and just who we are. We know ourselves. People know us.
If Raila is lucky and by March/April next year Kenyans begin to feel that they can have Raila as their president, it could explode.
Kenyans would be saying that guy who was never supposed to be president is close.
Are you kidding me the folks would go to the polls to get this president they think they were supposed to have? Has anybody heard the word euphoria?
That is when the other work begins.
The Raila team has to develop a national platform for development and engage in constructive alliances with Kenyan social and economic groups to move the nation forward.
Adongo Ogony is a Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada
