The joys, pains of ‘handshake’

The one-year handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his once sworn political enemy Raila Odinga has altered the political course of the two leaders. Both have made a compromise and presented united fronts, at least publicly, on things that seem to be of concern to Kenyans.

But away from the public display of affection between the two, the March 9th ceasefire reached deep in the bowels of the homes of the two before a public declaration of truce at the steps of Harambee House which has come with some benefits for the two.

And in the spirit of the handshake, roles, at least for lieutenants of the two have merged into the common purpose of national unity. 

Although the handshake seemed like a stroke of political genius decided by the two who told the nation that the move was reached after much soul searching, others say Kenyatta and Raila were out of options. And they had little option but to sit down and agree on a political truce that would set their political paths on a downward trend.

“The handshake could not have come at a better time. The truce was almost the only viable option for the two of them,” political analyst Prof Herman Manyora says. “Without the handshake, both men would have greatly diverted from their political paths.”

President Kenyatta’s first term was almost entirely swallowed by discussions around the ICC trial and his attempts to disentangle himself and his deputy from The Hague court. His second term, ideally a legacy lap, also started off on a wrong footing with what some may consider a botched election.

Annulment of the results

The 2017 elections were marred by violence and irregularities in certain parts of the country that led to the annulment of results, a situation that gave wind to the Raila camp who from then on, became an irritating thorn lodged into the shoes the President hoped would help him walk out of State House and towards a rich legacy.

Raila, a seasoned opposition chief gave Kenyatta and his newly elected government little peace. Seizing every opportunity to undermine the government, the pinnacle of which was his hugely divisive swearing in ceremony at Uhuru Park, where he cleverly declared himself the ‘Peoples President.’

“The handshake ensured Kenyatta got the peace that he craved for. He was going through hell,” Manyora says. “The handshake gave him the assurance and freedom to act without fear of the political backlash he could face from Raila, were they not in the same camp.”

And this is the most worrying part of the handshake- a weakened opposition that may be paying lip service to government misdeeds, inaction and runway graft. Raila does not agree to this assessment and instead says he added swell to the purge against runway corruption.

“In the past when we were talking about corruption in government nobody was listening to us. They were grouping and dismissing me, saying this is just propaganda am bringing because am jealous over jubilee development,” Raila told a vernacular FM station on Thursday.

Walking with a new spring, and with a statesman gait to boot, Raila has been hosting Cabinet Secretaries in his private office before they come out to make drastic policy announcements. Those CS’s who dared him have, by strange coincidence, paid the ultimate political price.

“They said I want to smear them with mud. Now things have changed, even within Jubilee itself, the leadership has acknowledged that there is corruption. This means the change in tack has borne fruit,” Raila told the radio station in his latest candid discussion on the handshake.

The view from outside is however slightly different. Manyora says Raila has transformed Kenyatta into a president without worry, who does not always have to look over his shoulder, constantly asking himself how his actions and decisions would be interpreted by an irked Raila.

“Kenyatta and his advisors realised that once they had Raila on their side, they didn’t need to worry about anyone else,” Manyora adds.

Parliament started to lose its flavour, and with Raila taking occasional swipe at it, it started losing relevance in national struggles. In the Thursday interview, Raila did not spare it:

“What they are doing is just playing politics. Even House committees purporting to probe issues lack mandate. Parliament cannot probe bordering on criminality the MPs lack expertise, skills and equipment need for the same,” Raila criticized MPs on the latest dams probe.

He continued: “They are even alerting the suspects. It is a cover up of issues that can be exposed by the relevant investigating agencies.”

Kenyatta was not however the only beneficiary to the process. For Raila, the handshake too was a breath of fresh air and a way out of the corner he had found himself boxed into as a result of a series of actions during and after the much contested 2017 election. At the time, the opposition leader felt he had everything going for him. He had the masses.

He had a Supreme Court decision that seemed to validate his argument of a botched election. Yet, even with all these, he was still not part of any meaningful national discourse, apart from the constant agitation.

“That cannot be true. If you know Baba well and what he lives for, and for which he has paid for with near-ultimate price, you will know his ideals are timeless. He is forever.... he is not shaped by elections or electoral outcomes. To the contrary, he shapes them,” David Osiany, an ODM youth leader and latest beneficiary of a “handshake appointment” told the Saturday Standard.

But, some say, the results of this agitation weighed heavily on his conscience.

At 74, Raila too was looking at a different kind of legacy. While Kenyatta looks to protect his years in office, Raila looks to solidify the image of an African statesman.

And as 2018 dragged on, with the weekly protests, product boycotts and his seemingly advocating for some sort of civil disobedience, it became clear to him, that the running battles would be what Kenyans remembered him for, and not the true fight for democracy he has been part of.

Swearing-in

“There were risks to his agitation and the infamous swearing in. In the agitation, people were dying in his name and had the tensions remained, many more would do so in his name. This probably weighed heavily ion his conscious,” Manyora says.

By the time the truce was called for and agreed upon, the two had little wiggle room left.

Apart from the peace of mind between the two men, there were other benefits too. “For starters, Kenyatta can openly speak up against what he thinks is going wrong in his government without the fear of this being picked up by a Raila led opposition and backfire on him,” Manyora says.  

With the handshake, also came the position of Africa Union High Representative for Infrastructure Development in Africa for Raila. Some of his key allies have been appointed to various positions in government sitting as board chairs, parastatal heads, deployments in foreign missions and, many say, more appointments for key allies are on the way.

As the handshake gets into its second year, the country looks to see whether the grip will hold, particularly with current onslaught on Raila, by Kenyatta’s number two, William Ruto.