Oathing Raila will thrust country into a legal quagmire; don’t

At work, we generally have a clearly distinguishable chain of command and responsibility so it would be absurd and unfeasible for someone to appoint themselves as the boss and make decisions. In every walk of life, we have a clearly demarcated line of authority, at work as a result of experience, success and expertise, and in public life because of a fiat by the people.

No country can have two rulers; it is a sure recipe for confusion and disaster.

What next?

However, in a few days, Raila Odinga will undertake a ceremony that he and some of his supporters believe will assure him executive power and authority, even while a free, fair, democratic and constitutional process to assess the will of the people of Kenya has already chosen another.

Beyond the ceremony, neither Raila Odinga nor any member of Nasa has explained to the people of Kenya what will come next.

Will Raila Odinga try and promulgate laws and Executive decrees? Will he set up an alternative government? Will he try and conduct international relations and diplomacy? If there is no taxation without representation, there is also no representation without taxation, because if not from the public purse, where will the funds for this alternative hierarchy emerge? Will the alternative leadership have an army or militia, and what will it be used for?

Will this lead to (God forbid) open and bloody tribal warfare and ethnic conflict at the cost of countless lives and property?

Of course, all these questions should be hypothetical, absurd and illogical. Nevertheless, these are questions that will now have to be asked in Kenya 2017.

Amusing event

While many Kenyans will see Mr Odinga’s inauguration ceremony on Jamhuri Day as an amusing event lacking in credibility, the deep and problematic ramifications of that event will be with us long after the bunting has been taken down and the stage disassembled.

It can no longer be dismissed as a mere distraction and then life will move on as normal. Mr Odinga’s self-imposed inauguration will not be the end of instability and confusion, but the beginning.

If Odinga’s first step for life post-inauguration is anything to go by, Kenya is in for a rough ride. In naming a team to run the self-appointed People’s Assembly National Steering Committee, he selected his firebrand close associate David Ndii to lead it.

Dr Ndii has actively petitioned and agitated to destroy the Republic of Kenya in its current form by calling for its breakage into two separate parts. There are fears (rightful) that the illegal and undemocratic coronation will not be mere words and will in fact be used as a springboard for action. This is why we cannot afford to take the position of mild bemusement about the events that will take place on Jamhuri Day.

This day marks the Republic of Kenya’s official independence and should be a day of pride, unity and respect for all of those who fought so gallantly against foreign and colonial rule for our self-determination as a people.

Will he kill the Republic?

On this day, 54 years later, Raila Odinga could be taking the first step to unraveling everything we built; our Jamhuri is in danger perhaps like at no other time in Kenyan history. We have faced many challenges and obstacles as a people. However, we have always retained clearly understood institutions of power and office even when we have disagreed with their policies.

Will we the first time in our history, have an imposter president who will try and superimpose his will on us the people of Kenya, the overwhelming majority of whom did not choose him as our elected leader? Only time will tell.

He is changing the rules, and in merely following these events to their logical conclusion it is clear that they will result in a far less safe, stable and free Kenya at best, and an endless shedding of blood and sewing of fear at worst.

It is time to take Raila Odinga’s fake coronation more seriously, because it is a dangerous assault on democracy and stability, and the future of Kenya.

Mr Murkomen is the Senator, Elgeyo-Marakwet County