ODM-Kenya should be reminded that their rhetoric has resonated with a truth so fundamental that many of us rightly believe that they have discovered their leadership mission and are ready to fulfill it.

ODM-Kenya, individually and collectively, should engage in introspection about what they consider their true mission. One thing that should be their visible and unchanging badge until election day is high-mindedness that distinguishes them from the reigning dispensation.

High-mindedness and idealism, concretised in strategy, will profer the best means of confronting entrenched hegemonic structures of political power. But what is ODM-Kenya up against? This is an important question. When I listen to the din emanating from quarters that are opposed to the reform movement, I hear confusion over issues in the protracted struggle for social and economic justice.

First, ODM-Kenya is up against a pumbavu ideology. The term is a crucial Freudian slip from an individual who gets destabilised enough by opposition advocacy against official conspiracies. The slips represent an expression of scorn and contempt for Kenyans who, in 2002, demonstrated the courage to reject the primeval logic of ethnicity in public life.

To the Government and its quislings, citizens who voted for them in overwhelming numbers did so because they are wapumbavu who do not know what is good for them. They mask their incompetence and subservience in something fatuous, but seemingly noble such as commitment to ethnic pluralism.

To the President and his men, the panacea to Kenya’s 42-faced social conundrum is a primordial return to the spirit of Biafra! And beware of their stratagems, for they have armed themselves with witchery forged in a smithy that has never heard the words of the political philosopher of yore: Shame is a revolutionary sentiment.

They will use subterfuge, chicanery and sleight-of-word to keep Kenyans from envisioning the true nature of things. Their approach to political leadership and public life is more indifferent and self-centred than anything that Machiavelli might have proposed.

They have tried to portray ODM-Kenya leaders as tribal chauvinists even as they proceeded as if the entirety of Kenya belonged to one ethnic community and its cousins, while the rest of Kenyans are merely squatters upon the land.

Their strategy, to which they are devoted 24-7, is to ensure the perpetuation of the ill-gotten comfort they now enjoy by fighting to keep Mr Raila Odinga from ascending to the presidency. Kenyans should ask themselves what the situation means in the context of collective aspirations to ameliorate the conditions of our children and posterity.

I will remind you of the words prophetically uttered by Mr Michael Kijana Wamalwa, the late Vice-President who, in a moment of divine inspiration, christened our national condition as turning on two kinds of counteractive forces: Raila mania and Raila phobia.

If you have yet to unravel the parable, here is its simple yielding: Raila mania is the great, four decade-old hankering of our people to banish from their lives the degrading threesome of poverty, disease, and ignorance. In other words, Raila mania is a real, positively actuating force: It is a longing, a yearning for a life of dignity, purpose, spiritual and intellectual edification.

On its part, Raila phobia is a force that runs counter to the positive energy that is Raila mania. The phobia best describes the feelings and thoughts of those who, through tribalism, nepotism, theft and corruption, have entrenched their interests, and enjoy undeserved and unearned affluence.

These people dread that the culture of officially sanctioned corruption could end. When they hear the infectious earnest in the words: "I will crash the false gods of corruption and tribalism", jitters travel down their spines.

The tragedy is that Kenyans of all economic stripes have been converted to a sub-conscious worshipping of idols. Although they suffer much, they - teachers, court clerks, undersecretaries, traffic police officers and engineers - mitigate their pain through the unrealistic hope that one day they might themselves be in a position to gain wealth through corruption and tribalism.

This is why there is a dearth of interest in Raila’s life-giving vision declared on May 6. A cynical cadre of so-called leaders inveigles: Be very afraid of Raila. He is confrontational and will dare to put you through the pain of a life without the possibility of cheating your way into things, without the possibility of corruption.

They ask the electorate for reelection so that tomorrow they can support your man - Cabinet ministers Mr Raphael Tuju, Dr Mukhisa Kituyi, Prof Kivutha Kibwana and Mr Kipruto Kirwa - to be President and then it will be your turn to eat. But Kenyans will never realise the edification, comfort and fulfillment you deserve by legitimising corruption and tribalism.

If you have any regard for the ways of history, and if you really know how to read the signs of the times, then vote to crown change. It is imperative that we do not miss what is so obvious to those who stop and think after reading and reflecting on Raila’s vision for Kenya. He is the scaffolding for true directional, structural and moral change.

Let us answer this call. And do not call God’s bluff, He is the Divine. As Walter Benjamin once wrote: "The Angel of History is whispering in the wind. It bids you take heed."

The writer is an assistant professor of English at Augsburg College Minnesota, US