07/16/2007
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Re: DO RAILA SUPPORTERS KNOW THAT HUMMER / NYUNDO SLOGAN IS A BAD CAMPAIGN TOOL?
I started out responding to you and as I wrote the response got longer and longer and I could not even read it for editing. I therefore decided to just pick out some of your quotes and respond directly. The long writing is still at bottom but my key points are in this list. Here we go, your words are in quotes:
- “My purpose in this election is to convince others to believe in Raila and when my candidate supporters scare people away I take it personally”
RESPONSE: You are a Luo who most likely have a very close relationship with
members of other tribes of
-
“Presidency in
RESPONSE: Stone throwing is a political weapon that was perfected at the
- “if Raila was heckled in such an important meeeting by Kalonzo Musyoka's supporters, I believe you Nyanja you would be talking of a different story”.
RESPONSE: As a Raila supporter why shouldn’t you also be talking a different story if Raila was heckled. Why only me? Should I interpret this to mean I support Raila and you support Kalonzo?
- “Whenever Raila makes one step towards achieving presidency, his people (his handlers and his tribe of which I belong) pull him back several steps……”.
RESPONSE: Raila people voted for him overwhelmingly in 1997 and in 2002 he made them vote for Kibaki in the same manner. His match to State House has increased every year.
- “Raila has lost several presidential elections”. Raila only faced voters in 1997 and stood down for Kibaki in 2002. elected Kibaki in
-
There is no tribe in
RESPONSE: We voted for Kenyatta and Moi and both respected our leader Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. They even went beyond respect and killed Mboya, Ouko and many others.
- “That is why Hon Hamisi missed the meeting”,
RESPONSE: Hon. Khamisi left LDP/ODM-K long time ago and he has nothing to say good about Raila.
- “Well booeing a kamba may have angered even Ngilu herself”.This is laughable, no repsonse.
- “Nyundo”
RESPONSE: I got a few phone calls informing me that Nyundo is a Swahili word. To me it will always remain a Luo word (Nyuundo v Nyundoo) just like sugria (sufuria), mtoka (motor car).
MY CONCLUSION: This debate is only worth continuing if your opinion is supported by an effective number, a number that can win or lose an election. If it’s just the opinion of a few then just send the info to Raila directly and he will assign someone to work on it.
Thanks
Nyanja
Here is the original long version:
One thing I have learned over the years that I have supported Hon. Raila Amolo Odinga, is to leave politics to him. I have also learnt that every time I have an advise for him, I give it privately. The one thing I will never give Hon. Odinga advise on is how to handle the common wanainchi. These are his people. These are his constituent. These are the people who sustain his candidacy. ODM-K Council of Elders learnt this a few days ago. Kalonzo Musyoka learnt this last weekend in Mombasa. Moi faced it in 2002 and Kibaki will be confronted by it in December 2007. For your information they are not only Luos, they are as representative of Kenya as Kibera, on areas he represents in parliamnet. You have attempted to analyze, explain and interpret the heckling/booeing of Kalonzo in Mombasa but all your reasons are in complete disagreement with the relationship Raila has with his supporters. You have given overwhelming evidence that you are not well informed in this area of politics and yo u are not the right person to advise Raila on such matters. Whenever Raila needs to make a major decision he calls a rally and the reaction of the crowd to his announcement helps him make the right decsion. Infact while Steadman takes a poll by calling up and interviewing a few hundred people, Raila calls up thousands at a rally and speaks to them directly. Mombasa rally was such a poll and the results was so huge that the nomination process of ODM-K candidate is a fore gone conculsion. How can a Raila supporter argue with such an effective political tool.
I do not know anything about you personally but I am familiar with the symptoms of your opinion. You are a Luo who most likely have a very close relationship with members of other tribes of Kenya. The relationship may be personal, social or professional but Raila politics comes up once in a while over coffee, tea, beer breaks and your writing is just an extension of these private debates. You admitted this much by stating that “My purpose in this election is to convince others to believe in Raila and when my candidate supporters scare people away I take it personally”. You would only know that a supporter is being scared away when they either told you so or they actually walk away. Nobody walked away in Mombasa and my question to you then is how many have told you that they are being scared? The answer to that question is importatnt because we do not want to end up losing a thousand people who were with Raila in Mombasa to gain a hundred who are with you. While every vote counts, every politician knows the bed rock of their support and their voices count thousandfold. Remember the red and blue states in the last American presidential campaign, Bush did not even bother to campaign in some states that didn’t have the right color. Kibaki will do the same this year. Raila will go to every corner of Kenya to get votes. This alone, is a clear evidence that Raila is a man of the people and that’s where is political base is. I have never seen anybody use the people correctly politically as Raila does since Ronald Reagan. President Reagan was a master at this and every time congress gave him a hard time, he will appear on national TV at prime time and begin his address with the following words, “ My fellow Americans…”, and Raila did the same with is “Nairobi for Raila 2007” when ODM-K elders tried to derail him.
Stone throwing is a political weapon that was perfected at the University of Nairobi to bring about change. The ordinary wanainchi cheered for these great sons and daughters of Kenya and we are currently enjoying the fruits of their struggle. They made noise, they yelled and in some rare occasion they even looted and burned cars (thuggery) and there were big names involved in this struggle from Luoland and outside Luoland. No presidential election in Kenya has been won through reasoning. Kenyatta and Moi jailed, barred and even killed people to stop them from either running or voting for presidency. Reasoning failed Narc and Raila had to declare Kibaki “Tosha” for them to agree on a candidate. Some of the things you are arguing against happened quite recently and still fresh in our minds as stated above. This is why its so hard to support your position. Your statement that “Whenever Raila makes one step towards achieving presidency, his people (his handlers and his tribe of which I belong) pull him back several steps……” and “Raila has lost several presidential elections” is totally wrong. Raila ran in 1997 and his people voted for him overwhelmingly as they will in December 2007. I am hard pressed to believe you when you make such statements when all records indicate that Raila’s support has steadily increased since 1997.
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