Raila, Kalonzo, Wetang’ula away as Jubilee steals the thunder over Uhuru’s trip to The Hague

NAIROBI, KENYA: The deafening silence from Coalition of Reforms and Democracy (CORD) leaders Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetang’ula in the face of colourful celebrations by supporters of President Uhuru Kenyatta has left the Opposition uncharacteristically silent.

Curiously the Uhuru celebratory mood peaked at a time all the CORD leaders, Raila, Kalonzo and Wetang’ula were out of the country. The former Prime Minister has been on official duty at the prestigious Yale University in the US, with Kalonzo and Wetang’ula in South Africa and Cameroon, respectively.

And while they were away, the political tidings of Jubilee have been very favourable, with coalition leaders and supporters alike, hogging all the airtime and space in media outlets. Events climaxed on Wednesday when thousands of supporters thronged the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and Outer Ring and Jogoo roads to welcome Uhuru from The Netherlands.

The Executive Director of the giant Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), Mr Lagat Magerer, observed that the Opposition opted to deliberately adopt a wait-and-see approach on the ICC developments before responding.

“We did not want to jump into this Hague thing blindly because we have burnt our fingers on it before. We do not want to be seen to be the ones dancing over Uhuru and Ruto’s tribulations, yet we feel at the same time that victims of the post-election violence deserve justice,” he said.

But National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale thinks otherwise. He claims that the CORD leaders, Raila, Kalonzo and Wetang’ula left the country when they saw the overwhelming support Uhuru received at Harambee House on Monday.

“Raila Odinga and his lieutenants could not just stand be subjects of William Ruto and so accordingly scampered out of the country, the same way they did during the swearing-in of the Jubilee leaders last year. Otherwise, how does one explain the coincidence of their timely absence?”

But reached for comment in the US, Raila maintained he was on a serious mission. He described the power handover event as “too much ado about nothing.”

“It’s part of the long running scheme to emphasise the insignificant while glossing over the serious challenges the country is facing. The President was doing one of the several tasks the Constitution requires him to perform from time to time. He will not be convening Parliament each time he wants to perform a constitutional duty.”

Raila says that South Africa’s President Nelson Mandela appointed “a fierce opponent (Mangesuthu) Buthelezi” to act in his absence without much drama, “calmly and without seeking to attract attention to his pending absence or to prove to people how magnanimous he was”.

KANU SCRIPT

“For Mandela, it was about the country, not himself or Jubilee. The action here was part of an emerging pattern of trying to show at every turn how magnanimous the President, his deputy and the ruling coalition are. It is a slow return to the era of dictatorship and Mtukufu Rais,” he claims.

The former PM also took issue with the President’s statement hitting out at rivals, who were allegedly boot-licking foreign nations for money to destabilise the country: “That is very familiar old politics. It is borrowed straight from the Kanu script which labelled any opponent as people serving foreign masters. It is not surprising that Jubilee is resorting to that same trip. Jubilee is old Kanu by another name.”

Raila further claimed that Jubilee leaders recently returned from a much-hyped US-Africa Summit “whose fruits we are yet to be seen but for which tax payers spent probably billions on the entourage”. It was clearly a begging mission, he says.

“We have never attacked it. Foreigners are serving Jubilee leaders at a very close and personal level and the leaders see no contradiction in their attacks on the same foreigners,” reacts Raila.

But while Raila, Kalonzo and Wetang’ula were away, confusion reigned in the “leaderless” Opposition. Ideally confusion within CORD reigned from the word go, as some MPs opted to attend while others skipped the President’s event altogether. And the sudden departure of CORD leader Raila to the US, a day earlier, and the subsequent absence of co-principals Kalonzo and Wetang’ula, did not help the situation either.

Another senior CORD-allied politician, who requested anonymity because he did not wish to openly accuse one of the principals, partly blames the coalition’s current woes on Wiper party leader Kalonzo. He says that since his appointment as Cyprus’ Honorary Consul General to Kenya, the former VP has taken a backseat in politics.

“What people do not understand is that Kalonzo is a more or less a full time envoy and he is just too busy to engage in active politics. This has created some vacuum within the top leadership of CORD and greatly hampered consultations and operations within the coalition,” said the MP.

WELL-KNIT OUTFIT

And Senate Leader of Majority, Prof Kithure Kindiki rubs it in by warning the CORD leadership that the events of past few days could mark the beginning of the end of may well mark the Opposition in Kenya. Kindiki says the President and his deputy, have not only demonstrated high quality leadership skills, but have further solidified their support across the country.

“It does not always happen even in mature democracies that a President will vacate office for his deputy. Uhuru is only but the third in the world after America’s Richard Nixon and Nelson Mandela. This is a demonstration that Jubilee is an organised and well-knit outfit and ODM may have a lot of trouble catching up with,” he said.

However, National Assembly Deputy Leader of Minority Jakoyo Midiwo downplayed the recent developments. The Gem MP observed that it was expected the President’s supporters would welcome him.

“Most of them were ferried by Governors from upcountry counties in Murang’a, Nyeri, Nyandarua, Kiambu, Laikipia and Nakuru,” claimed Midiwo.

According to the CORD official, these people were simply excited that Uhuru had finally landed back to reclaim his presidency.

And he has a specific message for the DP: “Your supporters may be excited by this small gesture (of briefly acting as President), but you have no idea what is in the closet. You will only remain useful to them as long as you are willing to play second fiddle.”

But Duale maintains that the President has demonstrated that he is a consistent leader who believes in teamwork. “President Uhuru has also proved that the relationship between him and his deputy is strong,” said the Garissa Township MP.

He said the President’s gesture to appoint Ruto as acting President disapproves the doomsayers’ notion that the two leaders will politically part ways soon: “The President has sent out a very clear message to people like (Chairman of Council of Governors) Isaac Ruto, that his relationship with his deputy and the people of Rift Valley remains tight.”

Separately, Magerer regrets that his side of the coalition failed to counter Jubilee’s runaway publicity stunts and political capital of The Hague process. And he confesses that the situation has been further complicated by the absence of the CORD principals.

“It is true that Jubilee stole the limelight, courtesy of The Hague process, and for some reasons our leaders, including myself, opted to keep off. We simply faltered from the first step, when we sent mixed signals to our legislators on whether or not to attend the President’s address to Parliament last Monday,” he says.

This is in reference to a public pronouncement by Ford-Kenya party leader, Wetang’ula, at a rally in Nairobi’s Kawangware area that CORD-allied legislators would skip the President’s function. Apparently not enough consultations had been carried out among coalition partners and neither was the proposal firmed up later.

SOCIAL CONTRACT

Although he does not rule out playing politics on The Hague matter, “owing to the fact that we (Jubilee) are a political entity, Duale maintains that his coalition’s primary strategy is not to destabilise the Opposition but deliver on its social contract with the people of Kenya following its 2013 poll victory.

Reached for comment, the chairman of Wiper party, Mr David Musila, did not wish to respond to the Jubilee fanfare and the President’s return from The Hague, saying it was “a small matter that does not touch on us”.

Musila, who is Kitui County Senator, however maintained that all was “pretty well” within the Opposition: “Nothing has stopped for us. We are going on with our political programmes as planned and currently the collection of signatures for the referendum push continues. We have hit the mark of three million already and soon we shall embark on concertising the issues before working on a draft Bill.”