Wed, 6 Feb 2008 00:03:03



It is increasingly becoming apparent that Hon Raila Odinga might have to opt for a position other than that of the presidency. If one has been keen at keeping tabs on Kofi Annan's body language, you will realise that his mission is that of power-sharing where Kibaki keeps the presidency.

Sample these:

Annan says that the talks are not about Kibaki or Raila but the future of Kenya. America follows suit by saying they will deny visas to those who preplanned the violence. This is to blackmail ODM, which the international media have concluded pre-planned the violence, into accepting a bad outcome of the talks.

Kibaki, with impunity, continues to act as the legitimately elected president and even summons heads of states of IGAD countries. When ODM cries foul and asks for peaceful protests, Annan demonises the call. Now if the protest goes awry, ODM will be blamed.

Annan has continued to refer to the negotiating teams as "government" and ODM.

The Bush and UK administration are completely for Kibaki and you saw the pace at which UK sent its foreign minister in charge of Africa when the House of Commons questioned Kibaki's legitimacy. The message from the minister to Wetangula was that the UK government recognise you wholly and the rest of the UK MPs questioning your legitimacy are just busybodies. America followed suit by declaring they already have a list of people to be barred from travelling. This is to put Presssure on Ruto at the negotiation table to play ball since he is widely being mentioned as the financier and organiser of the killings in the Rift Valley.

With these kind of signs, it's like the die has been cast for ODM. My plea to Raila Odinga is that instead of taking a junior position we would rather completely be in opposition after all five years is a not a century. what do you people think?

        - J Ouma