I said it before, and I will unequivocally reiterate it here again - for purposes of clarity, the CORD led anti-IEBC protests are not going to end anytime soon. Not by a long shot!
Going
by the (unconfirmed) shooting to death of 3 (peaceful) protesters in the
streets of Homa Bay, 3 in Kisumu and 2 in Siaya, it is evidently clear even to
a blind person that the police (or government if you may) has clearly doused
the flames of discontent in gasoline. Political emotions have reached fever
pitch in CORD strongholds, especially in Luo Nyanza.
Kenya
will get treated to the unfortunate sights (and sounds) of chaos every other Monday
of the week. Until something gives!
It
is inconsequential how much the Jubilee government buries its head in the sand,
hoping against hope that the demos will miraculously fizzle out like the Okoa
Kenya referendum. CORD has already tasted the bitter outcome of failing spectacularly
in their Saba Saba attempt to marshal
‘the mother of all rallies’ to march to statehouse (if Jubilee did not yield to
their calls for dialogue). As if that was not enough, their Okoa Kenya bid and the
Firimbi movement storm in a teaspoon fell
flat on their face due to haphazard planning and execution.
Buoyed
by the success of their call for resignation of Anne Waiguru and other Cabinet Secretaries
implicated in graft and financial impropriety, CORD has been spoiling for a
fight. And knowing how indefatigable CORD leader, Raila Odinga is, it is a
matter of make or break. Actually, CORD is very content with the constant teargassing,
the police brutality on protesters and the killing of demonstrators every
Monday. It is what they want. It is sensational and it satiates the hunger for
political prominence and relevance. Without bloodshed, demonstrations (or reformist
revolutions if you want) are generally futile and devoid of melodrama.
UhuRuto cannot just wish this one away. This is here to
stay! And unfortunately, the longer it plays out, the more it succeeds in
portraying the Jubilee government (to the international community) as tyrannical
and anti-reformist.
For
the soft spoken Isaac Hassan and his beleaguered contingent of IEBC commissioners,
there is definitely no escaping this either. You must be dispensed with;
courtesy of raw power politics of Kenya. You may have or have not eaten the wings
the chicken, but that is inconsequential now. It is not about you. This is
nothing personal. It is politics, Kenyan style. Your performance is being
cancelled and as such, you will have to eventually bow out of the stage and
lick your wounds as Jubilee ponders on where to repost you. Either from CORD or
Jubilee, you will buckle under pressure. Whichever way you are out! And even if
you leave office due to pressure from Jubilee, CORD will still have to take the
glory of ‘fighting for the transformation of the electoral body’
In
the wake of this power-play, and as is the wont, when two giants duel, the
grass must bear the brunt. The grass here is Kenya and Kenyans. As it is the
citizens are already paying the ultimate price with their lives and property. This
fight is not about having the interests of Kenyans at heart. If it were, the
stakeholders would be worried about the measures to put in place once Isaac and
his team vacate office.
 |
| The forest might change, but the monkeys will remain the same |
The
kind of solution suggested by CORD to have political representatives appointed
into the commission is short-lived, parochial and does not hold any water. For one, it seeks to safeguard (individual) interests
of political parties (and their individual patrons) instead of thinking about
the future of Kenya when all these parties will have disintegrated down in the
middle to form other political parties – which will in turn seek to also
safeguard their own interests in that future by having their own set of representatives
in the commission.
What
are the chances of CORD or Jubilee sticking it out five years down the line? Very
slim! What happens in that future when alliances will have disintegrated to
form other unholy alliances? Another round of spirited efforts to have new
representatives of new political outfits into the new electoral commission!
 |
| A monkey is still a monkey |
A
costly affair it will be. And how does having a representative from CORD or
Jubilee or any other ragtag political vehicle ensure that the said political
representatives are not compromised, just like their predecessors? It does not!
Few Kenyans have the capacity to say no to chicken, especially when presented
with the juiciest part. In which case, the electoral body will still remain at
the beck and call of the deepest pockets in Kenya. A monkey is still a monkey; and a Kenyan is still Mkenya!
But
hey, IEBC must go home; because baba has said so! More importantly, it is because
it is under tight grips of Jubilee. For Jubilee, CORD must follow the
constitution in ejecting the IEBC out of office. That they have been
compromised is irrelevant to Jubilee. More importantly, it is because Jubilee
has bought favour in the commission.
Let
the teargas continue to rain on Monday.
