Raila a Victim of Tribal Chuvanism

My dear Kenyans,

In the recent past, some very interesting news came out as a rumor, emanating from the council of elders who were mandated with the responsibility of coming up with one single ODM-K presidential candidate, through consensus. The rumor was that, it was Hon.Kalonzo Musyoka who had been found favorable by the council of elders. This rumor was vehemently denied by the elders and it is remembered, the chairman of the elders, Hon. Fred Gumo, saying that, he was going to deal with the individual associated with that rumor. We have since heard nothing to date and no action has been taken against any individual.

What followed there after, was a group of thirty one Kalenjin and Luo MPS meeting and in this meeting Hon. Raila was told by the Kalenjin MPS to step down for Mudavad or Musyoka. Remember the elders report had not been released officially.It would appear the elders must have devulged their decision to the Kalenjin MPS and carefully schemed on how to handle Hon. Raila to make him accept and throw in the towel. This is deception of the first order and unrealistic approach to the whole matter of this magnitude.

We need to know one thing as Kenyans, that we are one nation and every tribe in Kenya must be treated equally.Nobody should be made to feel unwanted or discriminated against, because of his or her tribe. We must recognise that, the threshold of Kenya, is the unity and harmony among the citizens and these should be cherished by all of us. Leaders, should not divide the nation because of their selfishness. The reasons advanced by the Kalenjin MPS to Raila to give way to Musyoka, were all meaningless. To tell the public that Raila will not get votes from, for example Eastern Province, where Musyoka is coming from and yet he claims to be suporting ODM-K, is like telling us that, Eastern Province people, are in ODM-K only to suport Musyoka and nobody else. What we know, is that, all the ODM-K presidential candidates, will support by mobilizing their supporters as a block to vote for whoever is nominated as ODM-K presidential candidate. The only argument here, why Raila has been targeted to step down, is just because he is a Luo and yet in 2002, when Raila said "Kibaki Tosha", all the Luos voted for Kibaki. Why should Musyoka or Mudavadi say they will suport whoever is nominated as ODM-K flag bearer and yet they can not deliver all the votes from their respective provinces to a different presidential nominee other than them. They should be able to do the same thing that Raila did in 2002. I am almost certain that, should Raila be democratically voted out, he will mobilize his supporters to the winner.

The whole game is tribal chuvinism. A situation where leaders of certain tribes think too highly of themselves, forgeting that we need each other for the sake of sticking together to develop our nation, through recognised talents, put together regardless of tribe. Leaders, be it a council of elders or any other leaders, must stand for the truth at all times. If Kenya is going to achieve higher goals of development, then the leaders must show the way by playing a game of fair play. How can Raila one of the presidential candidates of ODM-K be targeted to step down and yet he is the one who has brought ODM-K all this far and he is a crowd puller in any case.

ODM-K supporters, were under the impression that, whoever is nominated as ODM-K presidential candidate, will get support from the rest who failed to get nominated and genuinely deliver their supporters to the nominated candidate. It was going to remain the responsibility of the other leaders to educate and convince their supporters to vote for the ODM-K candidate. It is the leaders who are supposed to promote harmony and shunn any prejudices against other tribes based on their cultural practises. They instead promote divisions for self interests. This is why Kenyan tribes are hetrogeneous and no concerted efforts are made by leaders to harmonize them.

The real basis other than prejudice, behind the rejection of Raila, is because, all those elders together with some of the ODM-K leaders like, Mudavad, Musyoka,and Ruto have had to do business together in the former President Moi's Government and they are not comfortable with Raila who appears determined to bring radical and real changes for the benefit of every Kenyan.

The recent visit to Machakos by Hon.Raila, clearly demonistrated that, Akamba people are above divisive politics and it is only the elders' negative imagination that brought the issue of Raila not getting support from Eastern Province, should he be nominated ODM-K presidential candidate. Interestingly, none of the Kamba leaders attended Raila's meeting, but from reliable sources, wananchi came in thousands to listen to Raila inspite of their leaders' absence. So here, we learn one thing, it is not the common mwananchi who practises prejudices and discrimination against another tribe or an individual, it is the leaders.

Now, because they have made ODM-K a mad-house, the supporters of those who have been signalled as possible presidential nominees for ODM-K are getting scared because they realise in the absence of the Luos and Raila who is a crowd puller, they will not succeed in dislodging president Kibaki. It is true, without Raila, their statistics are not going to work.

The basis under which this Idea came, to bluntly tell Raila to step down, is not understood because the latest opinion polls, showed that Raila was second to President Kibaki. This was done by a professional body, guided by the application of scientific methods and analysis to arrive at such conlusions. It is difficult to convince the public that Mudavadi or Muysoka are ahead of Raila without the application of a statistical and convincing method and especially if it is not done by a professional body. The elders did not have the capacity to do that.

The unity and harmony of Kenyans depend on how we respect and trust each other. Better laws to be implimented to safeguard tribes and individuals from any type of discrimination and especially discrimination due to cultural practices.

Andrew Kerosi.