“LET RAILA GO BACK TO SCHOOL”DECLARES UHURU

Campaign emotions are running into a fever pitch in Kenya. When opposition

giants Messrs Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetangula landed in

Machakos town to a tumultuous welcome, it sent jitters down the spines of the

Jubilee alliance government. In less than 48 hours President Uhuru Kenyatta and

his deputy made a dash to the same place using 13 petrol guzzling helicopters

conquering both the airspace and the grounds of the small town, in a show of

might.

Perhaps riled by the low crowd turn-out compared to the yelling mobs that

greeted the Cord trio, Uhuru went personal, telling them, especially Raila, to “ go

back to school and learn some discipline.” It was refreshing to hear our president

lecturing anybody on the need to be disciplined, given that he was born with a

silver spoon in the mouth.True, Raila had railed at Machakos governor Alfred

Mutua for skipping the Cord rally while Cord party wiper sponsored him for

governorship. Raila said when Uhuru comes, “you will see Mutua going there to

kneel before him.” Sure enough when Uhuru arrived a few hours later, Mutua

was there drinking some soda with Uhuru at a forlon kiosk, minus the kind of

euphoria that had electrified Raila’s meet. Indeed, the WEEKLY CITIZEN

newspaper states that Mutua had to hire 40 buses to ferry people to attend Uhuru

meeting and each one attending was given Shs. 1,000/= and leaders Shs. 3,000/=/

Things seemed to be moving faster faster. Apparently the government didn’t

expect Raila to pull off such crowds any more. So their perennial propaganda

pollster, Ipsos Synovate, did the needful coming up with an impromptu poll

survey portraying Raila Odinga as being nowhere near even beleaguered Deputy

Preident William Ruto in terms of popularity rating in Kenya today. The

scandalous, nay shameless survey was splashed on front pages of all papers the

next day, definitely “disciplining” or humbling the mammoth crowd that showed

up at the Machakos Cord rally. The press was once accused of sleeping with the

enemy and they are still not very far from it, in spite of the tribulations so far

encountered.

This panic situation on the part of the government is quite contrary to their first

year in office when they berated opposition for sleeping in class, being so

toothless and clueless. They had a field day ridiculing the opposition for being

inept and rudderless, which was not far from the truth, as opposition was still in

shock what had hit them. The government has the numbers in both houses of

parliament, and the rigging machinery or secret weapon was intact. Ipsos

Synovate is charged with the task of preparing ground in advance for the rigging

process, so people are psychologically ready to soak in the unimaginable poll

outcome statistics.

This kind of drama is a shocker to many, as nobody expected the duo in

government to be serious and desperate about continuing in leadership. After

almost deliberate failure, the many blunders, insecurity chaos and corruption

anarchy, they are still serious being in leadership and are provoked the

opposition is trying to upstage them! We thought all they wanted was to

disengage from the Hague cases, make history and enjoy the attendant glory. For

if they were really serious about future leadership, they should have done it

differently, Exchanging bitter words like this accompanied with high drama can

easily lead to turmoil.

What we have with them is just a case of conceited entitlement. They have been

busy campaigning for the opposition by the I –don’t –care-attitude regarding

sensitive matters of insecurity, unemployment, corruption and inflation. Those

whose loved ones die in incidents like the Garissa University terrorist attack

cannot be impressed with them, especially when they land on Machakos with 13

helicopters and there was not even a single helicopter to go rescue caged students

at Garissa University. It was a waste of public funds sending 13 aircraft to

Machakos. They expect respect and adoration from the people in spite of these

grave missteps. The kind of self-discipline that involves stifling personal rights

by an authority that undermines public dignity, human rights and freedoms, is

deplorable and unacceptable.

Kenya cannot succumb to mismanagement and dictatorial tendencies in the name

of toeing the line or self discipline. Discipline is a two way traffic. You cannot

expect it from others when your actions or words prompt them out of order.

Impunity cannot breed discipline, and the Jubilee government is steeped neck-

deep into it. Good schools teach people to be maturely disciplined, and not

sycophantic or disciplined under duress. The result is a disorder leading to

hidden resentment and unprintable misdeeds. Dr. Bonny Khalwale, the

Kakamega Senator, scoffed at Uhuru’s discipline remark by saying that if

anything it is the government leaders who should show self-discipline by

maintaining electoral morals and due process in governance. He wondered which

side of the divide between opposition and government was teeming with

academic dwarfs and the mentally challenged.

In the general elections of 2013 the Jubilee team exhibited conduct unbecoming

rigging elections. Contrary to what people think they assume they’ve managed to

get away with it and can make a repeat of the process. That is why organs like

Ipsos Synovate are still actively in existence. Now what sort of self discipline is

that? They were given the benefit of the doubt but people are quietly rueing that

oversight, given the emergent dire consequences. Nobody is at ease, except the

tribal inner circle, family and relatives of the bigwigs. It is a makebelieve, and an

insult to common sense that they think they are more popular than the

opposition. Wrong priorities, wrong politics, through and through. Common

sense is not all that common after all.

So Kenyans are out to remedy the situation. That is why back-bent 80 year old

grannies stooped with three legs to attend the Cord rally in Machakos. Unethical

conduct, pretentious and deceitful behavior and other integrity issues roadblock

the government way to real popularity. The opposition is not actually

campaigning for the 2017 general election as is assumed. The opposition are

campaigning for the referendum dubbed Okoa Kenya, Save Kenya, in which they

want to address electoral reform. The idea of correcting electoral wrongs riles the

government so, a pointer to their continued belief in rigging to secure power.

Indeed they bank on it.

Through constant struggles the opposition managed to give birth to devolution.

This has enabled even remote and far-flung places to benefit from government

funding, for the first time in history. Machakos governor Alfred Mutua would

not be in office now were it not for the struggles of the opposition. So if the

opposition set things in motion to right electoral wrongs, we can understand the

government anger. But we cannot be deterred. The rigging card is no longer

acceptable or tenable and has to be discarded. If we shall be called indisciplined

by doing that, so be it. Machakos is just the beginning. Okoa Kenya campaign is

still to start in earnest. If they were alarmed by the Machakos crowd they have

not seen anything yet. They will not be able to keep pace with these masters of

the multitudes. Ipsos will not manage polling in the wake of every campaign

onslaught. They should look for better, more civilized and disciplined ways of

countering each and every move the opposition makes. That is my half – penny

advice for them.

By;-

FREDERICK OWINO OYARO

Email: frederickoyaro@gmail.com