RECKLESS POLITICAL ACTIVISTS WRECKING THE COALITION GOVERNMENT

By Jerry Okungu
January 14, 2010


















As it is, Kenyans have enough problems to deal with. The last thing they may want to entertain at this point in time is cheap theatrics coming out of street comedians masquerading as advisors and spokesmen of political leaders and political parties.

We all know why we are stuck with a coalition government we never voted for. The events of 2007 and 2008 are still too fresh to be forgotten. We are in this coalition because we decided to stop the senseless mayhem that followed the mangled elections. And for this reason, we have spent the better part of the last two years of this coalition trying to correct the mistakes that made us kill one another in the first place.

We have President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga sharing power today not because they are lovebirds. They share power because there was no other alternative. Kenyans forced them to share power so that sanity could return to this country. And indeed sanity returned and we started rebuilding our lives.

Unfortunately, the events of the last two weeks show that there are some loose cannons in the coalition busy scheming to destabilize the coalition under the camouflage of some dubious titles such as the advisors and spokesmen of the coalition partners.

Reading statements coming from both sides, I can see that there are some busy bodies bent on scoring points for their bosses without being mindful of the larger issues affecting ordinary Kenyans. As they are busy abusing and insulting supposed enemies of their bosses, what they may not be aware of is that they are doing more damage to their principals and their political parties. They are alienating more voters from different communities with each unleashed broadside.

Let me speak for the silent majority of Kenyans. These advisors and spokesmen have no capacity or even the mandate to call press conferences and address the nation on pertinent issues affecting this nation. At best they are busy bodies that have assigned themselves dubious positions that can hardly be defined in the scheme of public service.

Knowing how Kenyan politics works, it is the dogs of war that hang around politicians that normally start the fires that burn this nation from time to time. However, when the fire mutates into a raging inferno, they retreat in to the background and even disappear into the crowd.

Mr. Miguna Miguna has a right as a liberation fighter to be in Kenya and serve this country in any capacity. He has his birth right to serve even as a Permanent Secretary in Kibaki’s government. However, he must have the common decency to know what to say to who about who and when.

The fact that he is the Prime Minister’s advisor is no blank cheque for him to go around insulting in public those he considers to be the enemies of the Prime Minister. If anything, the Prime Minister knows best who his enemies are and has over the years developed a perfect mechanism on how to deal with them. More importantly, the Prime Minister has competent Public Relations officers and directors of communication recruited by the Public Service to take care of his public life.

Talking of advisors, I suppose we all know the meaning and role of any advisor. An advisor can never be a spokesman of his or her principal. A good advisor works behind the scenes churning out good counsel to the boss in order for the boss to say the right things in a negotiation table or in a public rally. A bad one opens his mouth even before consulting his boss.

When you see political nobodies insulting top leaders of this country purportedly on behalf of their bosses, when you see the former president, a sitting VP and the current Prime Minister being abused in public by villagers that just came to town the other day, then you realize how low we have fallen in the scale of common sense, decorum and public morality.

Why would any sane Kenyan insult an old politician old enough to be his grandfather on the grounds that the old man didn’t go to school enough? Why would strange characters like Barsito and Kimaru pop up from nowhere and insult the Prime Minister of this country? Surely, President Kibaki, Prime Minister Odinga and Vice President Kalonzo have worked together for the last two years in this coalition. I’m sure they have found a formula to coexist together until 2012.

Let us not make our political leaders our bull fighters. Let us give them good counsel so that they can travel to Mau Forest together to plant trees for future generations. Let us implore our leaders to travel together in Rift Valley and preach reconciliation among Kikuyus, Kalenjins and Luos.

Let us advise our leaders to bargain hard and come up with a good constitution that will serve Kenyans long after they are gone. But for heaven’s sake, let us not beat the drums of war no matter how attractive it may be to do so for short term gains. Least of all let us not rock the boat because we have been given handouts to do so.

That is the way it is.

jerryokungu@gmail.com.