For Azimio's sake, Jubilee and ODM must learn from octopus

ODM leader Raila Odinga during the Azimio la Umoja National Convention on December 10, 2021, at Moi International sports complex Kasarani Stadium. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

After four years of political coupling, the Orange Democratic Movement and Jubilee parties have birthed the Azimio la Umoja movement. However, for Azimio la Umoja to fly unimpeded, the ODM and Jubilee parties should decrease.

Their fate is likened to that of octopuses. Octopuses are intelligent, complex and gifted with abilities to transform textures, shades, and form. Outstandingly, they restore missing tentacles at will. Unfortunately, octopuses are semelparous animals—they reproduce once and die.

This is how it happens: The female stops eating after laying eggs. The withdrawal kills her before the eggs hatch. She also kills and eats her mate during this period. Both have no luxury of seeing the fruits of their love. That should be the fate of ODM and Jubilee parties ahead of 2022. But why?

The two parties are tanked-up. After the 2018 handshake, they lost most of their strong generals when both became one political flesh.

The rain began beating in September 2018 during the controversial fuel tax bill. Some ODM political heavyweights such as TJ Kajwang’, Otiende Amolo, Opondo Kaluma, Paul Abuor and Millie Odhiambo openly opposed the bill. But, seen as rebelling against the party position, they were supposedly hushed. Since then, they have kept their peace.

Later in April 2020, James Orengo, Otiende Amollo and Okong’o Omogeni advocated ironing out some parts of the BBI report—the supposedly sacrosanct ODM-Jubilee buoyed constitutional amendment bill. Instead, through its chairman John Bandi, the party muzzled them with threats of sanctions for defying the party position to support the bill impetuously.

As a result, the once vocal ODM legislators were subdued. They no longer proclaim their tigritude in the party. Maybe we shouldn’t be hard on the ODM; the reason why the legislators could not solve dissensions in-house raises eyebrows. Could it be that they were not given chances within?

Moreover, the party has lost its critical political strategists since 2018. Why did David Ndii leave? Could it be that Dr Ndii is in UDA to hurt ODM? Nothing could be far from the truth. What happened to Jimmy Wanjigi, the strategist and sponsor for the party who once gave his all for  ODM? Is Wanjigi an alligator who is telling us that the crocodile is sick? Should we believe his testimonies?

The Jubilee government and ODM matrimony was fated for political obsolescence on the side of the two parties. Jubilee party vehicle was purportedly doing well before the handshake. President Uhuru Kenyatta was the driver and his deputy William Ruto was the tout. Ruto collected all the tickets. He then called for another vehicle named UDA. He emptied all Jubilee itinerants into it and left the party ship aground. The party’s significant parts were vandalised.

Uhuru acted decisively. He brought in the ODM as a sanitiser to clean and fumigate Jubilee rebels, chief of them Ruto. ODM did their task with passion and precision. They silenced all erstwhile indispensable political insider traders within Jubilee. But, when the purging was over, the once succulent orange was stinking, deformed and ugly. Ahead of 2022, it should rest with its fathers.

Please think of the story of biblical Abraham and his only son Isaac. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son on Mount Moriah. Abraham took his son, a donkey, and two servants on his journey. He left the donkey and the servants and proceeded with his son at some point. The donkey and the servants could not go beyond that point.

For us, the son is 2022 presidency. Raila is Abraham. ODM and Jubilee parties are the donkey and the servants. Mount Moriah is Mount Kenya—a region symbolic of all former barriers that in the past worked against Raila’s presidency.

Raila is climbing Mount Kenya for gods to save or kill the son. It’s time for Azimio the juggernaut to take Raila to Canaan.

Dr Ndonye Is a Lecturer of Communication and Media. @Dr_Mndonye