ODM and the revolt of the pygmies

Apart from President Mwai Kibaki, there is no other politician still active in the national stage, in the country who has engaged national issues more passionately and intimately than Raila Odinga. The other wannabes currently making a case for candidature as president are mere political pygmies who real stand for nothing but for power as a means for more wealth. The pygmies think that mere appointment as vice president or minister by Moi or Kenyatta make them a national leaders. The men and women who have rolled their sleeves to gun for the ODM-Kenya Presidential candidature except for Raila Odinga are political pygmies who hope that the windfall may make them occupants of the state house and therefore access unlimited power.

While Raila Odinga has in the past few years drifted towards embracing a conservative agenda and deemphasized the need for fundamental social transformation, which some see as a betrayal of the more progressive even radical ideas he stood for at the height of the struggle for a democratic Kenya, he still remains the only worth candidate worth the consideration by Kenyans. No one in the ODM Kenya bandwagon deserves the right to rule over the people Kenya.

Those of us who come from the progressive and activist tradition in Kenya find it difficult to accept that the political dwarfs and anti democratic politicians who watched as the country was plundered by Kenyatta and Moi’s rule have now found a platform to cheat the people that they are the real alternative to President Mwai Kibaki. To be honest, it is only Raila Odinga who deserves to present an argument against Kibaki. The rest must be put in their place.

The ODM-K has now acquired a special talent for revising Kenya’s history. ODM-K wants to present Kibaki as the biggest national problem. They want to present the removal of Kibaki as the new Kenyan struggle. He is not. The biggest national problem is the lack of leadership for uncompleted struggle to make Kenya truly independent and democratic. That leadership is what President Kibaki has failed and is incapable of offering. But I doubt whether the pygmies in ODM can actually offer the leadership Kenya is looking for. The only person who can present an application for the presidency against President Mwai Kibaki that is worth studying remains Raila Odinga among others who have not declared their candidature but are qualified. They include James Orengo, Micere Mugo and Maina Kiai.

The pygmies in ODM have positioned themselves as the stock holders of certain shares called ethnic votes. They want to force us to bargain with them on the basis of stolen goods –ethnic votes. But this is not a measure of leadership. We can not allow political pygmies to subvert reason and arm-twist us to accept the argument that the number of ethnic votes you represent translates to leadership. Ethnic votes can not be turned into a qualification for leading Kenya. Leadership qualification must remain the ability, reliability and evidence of siding with the struggles of the people of for freedom, development and social justice. These credentials are elegantly missing from the ODM-K political pygmies.

While President Kibaki has done a good job of helping the country recover from the destruction and hemorrhage the Kenyatta-Moi tyranny wrought on the nation assisted by the same ODM-K minnows and Kibaki himself, the next five years in Kenya’s history can not be about recovery. The country now must be put on a path to social transformation. Only those men and women who understand the meaning of and are spiritually committed to the cause of social transformation need to be listened to. If we were to be honest, the visions of the various candidates for president should have only had one chapter – a chapter on social justice and social transformation. Period! President Kibaki does not have the capacity and passion to institute social transformation in Kenya. He is an actor with vested interests in the current status quo is incapable of facilitating significant progress and change to the current socio-economic and political structure.

It is important for Kenyans to in the mean time know that the limitations of President Kibaki can not be made a license for any politician to package himself as a messiah. We must permit only capable and reliable nationalists to lead this nation. In that respect it is correct to suggest that the real choice for the people of Kenya in the forth coming elections is between President Mwai Kibaki’s recovery record and Raila Odinga’s promise to bring about social transformation. Note that it is not possible to talk about political parties since there are none. The outfits being cobbled together for purposes of elections 2007 must be seen for what they are- mere special purpose vehicles.

In selecting who to vote for it must be remembered that President Kibaki has done his recovery assignment averagely but now the required leadership for the country is the leadership to facilitate social transformation. The recovery assignment had four components namely the economic recovery, institutional re-armament, national reconciliation and renewal, and social systems. Kibaki has failed the national reconciliation and renewal and has not liberated institutions of governance from the tragedy of personal rule. This is because he failed to help Kenya make a new constitution and he blocked the formation of a Truth, Justice and reconciliation process.

The next team of leaders must understand the assignment well. Kenya needs a leadership that will offer the poor a support system to lift themselves out of poverty, overhaul the current constitution, deal with the gaps between the rich and the poor and the inequalities that are the hall mark of our nation and facilitate economic transformation, not growth only. Kenya should therefore working through the elimination method to ensure that they do not end up voting for a product of the revolt of the pygmies in ODM-K that is currently underway.

Cyprian Orina-Nyamwamu 970 Words June 22, 2007