How President Uhuru is Jeopardising Raila’s future

A file editorial cartoon.

Two weeks ago on this column, I made a prediction that Miguna Miguna’s fate was sealed on February 6th, the day of his first deportation. That Tuesday, when he was unceremoniously bundled onto a KLM flight to Canada, was Miguna’s point of no return. Literally. My projection was that his deportation would remain enforced for a long time, and that he is thereafter ‘condemned to roam the wilderness of the Americas giving hollow talks in empty halls.’ What I did not anticipate was the dramatic way in which it would happen. Now that it has happened, allow me to make some interpretations of Miguna’s tribulations.

There are two logical political explanations of why Miguna’s homecoming, supposed to be a triumphant re-entry to the ‘battlefield’, was turned into a humiliating debacle, part of it even confined to an airport toilet. The two explanations for Miguna’s troubles are Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga. But interestingly, not only are Kenyatta and Raila’s reasons for persecuting Miguna different and unrelated, they are also at cross-purposes. Kenyatta’s purpose cancels out Raila’s purpose. Let me explain. Raila’s motives are retributive. It is about settling political scores, and ridding himself of a political menace. In my view, if Raila did not somehow influence Miguna’s banishment, he tacitly endorsed it. Raila, he who on a normal day relishes press conferences, has not uttered a single word in Miguna’s defence.