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| More G7 Alliance Prayer Rallies |
Nairobi, Kenya
February 15, 2012
The political landscape is definitely riddled with landmines. Whichever party you look at, they each have their unique deep seated problems they may never publicly acknowledge.
As the Musalia Mudavadi campaign for the ODM ticket gained momentum, forces ranged against the most populous party were quick to prophesy the demise of Raila Odinga and ODM. They saw imminent break up should either Raila or Musalia carry the day.
This assumption was based on the premise that ours is still a tribal arithmetic despite the new constitution when it comes to national politics. Tribal kings must bring their tribes to the table in order to negotiate the sharing of the spoils at the end of the day.
Since William Ruto and his gang started grumbling about being short changed and betrayed in ODM, pundits and soothsayers have continued to predict doom for ODM and its leader Raila Odinga. It is this same message that has been preached over and over again to whoever cares to listen. A visitor to Kenya at the height of prayer rallies for the Ocampo 2 would have been excused for thinking that ODM was the most vilified, most hated party in Kenya.
Indeed the crowds at these prayer rallies have been pretty impressive all the way from 64 Stadium in Eldoret through Mt. Kenya region, the Coast until they reached Machakos.
Something appears to have gone terribly wrong at the Machakos prayers organized by born again Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka. Indeed it was at that meeting where the Vice President denied vehemently that he was a turncoat that could not be trusted.
Before the fanfare got to Machakos, something else was happening on the political scene.
The indictment of the Ocampo Four was taking its toll among the ranks in the government. Whereas President Kibaki and Githu Muigai believed that the fate of the Ocampo Four could still be salvaged from the claws of the ICC Prosecutor, Mutula Kilonzo the Justice Minister did not seem to share in that opinion. Mutula made it clear that the fate of these Kenyans were now in the hands of the ICC and that any of them still in government had better resign their positions as the new constitution demands.
As the pressure to resign for Uhuru Kenyatta and Francis Muthaura mounted, Mutula kept reminding Uhuru and Ruto to also remember that they now stood disqualified from running for any public office as long as their trials were on at The Hague and therefore their prayer rallies which were indeed political campaign rallies were an exercise in futility. He went on to remind Kalonzo Musyoka that as a Vice President and a lawyer, he should be the last person to hobnob with persons already indicted in a court of law.
And so, the Machakos prayer rally was a god-send for Ruto, Uhuru and their allies. They wanted Kalonzo to announce the sacking of Mutula Kilonzo at that rally for suggesting that Uhuru and Ruto stand disqualified from the presidential race. Kalonzo did not do this to the chagrin of the G7 fraternity.
Worse still, when Johnston Muthama, one of Kalonzo’s right hand man rose to speak , he muttered something in Kikamba to the effect that if indeed Uhuru and Ruto go for full trial, Kambas will stand to benefit- meaning, Kalonzo will be the G7 flag bearer to inherit the rich votes from Rift Valley and Mt. Kenya region.
When the rally was over, daggers were drawn against Kalonzo. Instead of heading to Nairobi, Ruto, Uhuru and their allies headed to Kitengela for an impromptu postmortem of the Machakos fiasco. It was at that meeting that they sealed the fate of Kalonzo in the G7. They gave him a tacit condition to either sack Mutula Kilonzo immediately or he will no longer be welcome at the future G7 prayer rallies! If the G7 carry out their threat, they may as well kiss good bye to the Kamba community. They will have to contend with the G6 arrangement.
As Kalonzo Musyoka was shooting himself on the foot with help from Mheshimiwa Muthama, Raphael Tuju was also having a fiasco of his own at the KICC auditorium. Having invited the G7 leading lights to hi function, he had the audacity to parade some IDPs from Rift Valley as proof that his POA party will be mindful of suffering Kenyans.
What he overlooked was the fact that among the dignitaries to his launch were Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto and a host of other followers who were the architects of the IDPs still languishing in tattered tents in Rift Valley.
It must be remembered that in recent weeks, Raphael Tuju was seen several times at some of the G7 prayer meetings long before he launched his POA party. One guesses that it must have been at one of those prayers that he muted the idea of joining forces with the G7 to scuttle Raila Odinga’s presidency.
What do these blunders tell us about the future of G7 alliance? Will they go their separate ways and vie for the presidency on their party tickets?
With so many fiascos in just one day, the G7 including Raphael Tuju, must go back to the drawing board if they are to hang together. If they don’t do that, ODM will definitely hang them separately.
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