All people who love Kenya do not owe Mr Raila Odinga any gratitude or apology for not going through with his July 7 plan to make the country ungovernable on the anniversary of Saba Saba. It is a testament to the alertness of the government that the co-principal of the Coalition for Reform and Democracy did not carry out well-known plans to cause chaos by exploding bombs in the city, swarming the county with a multitude of looters and rioters, and unleashing bloodshed in the country as a prelude to taking power. If Mr Odinga did not pursue any of the options for taking power by publicly holding aloft a leather-bound Bible and illegally swearing to protect, defend, and uphold the Constitution without the benefit of an election, it was only because the government had predicted it and robbed him of the element of surprise. Although it was within Mr Odinga’s power to hypnotise the chief of the Kenya Defence Forces to attend the swearing in ceremony, salute him and hand over the ceremonial sword that would automatically make him commander-in-chief, he did no such thing. Neither did he demand a posse of police outriders and his own Recce Company from the General Service Unit to clear the way for him — largely for fear of arrest, trial and punishment for treason, among other well known crimes. Unbidden by government, or any other force, Mr Odinga scaled down the crowd attending the Saba Saba rally from the original numbers that welcomed him on his return from his sabbatical leave in the United States, and did not call for mass action. Granted, the peace prayers the day before by an assortment of religious groups had softened his hard heart somewhat, opening a tiny chink for spirit of peace to prevail. DINNER AT STATE HOUSE The prayers by the clerics were not in vain; they touched a part of Mr Odinga’s dark heart and caused him to abandon calls for dialogue, opting instead for weak pleas for inclusivity in government and referendum in the distant future. Having failed to illegally turn a non-gazetted day into a public holiday, Mr Odinga decided to suddenly change his plan to suspend the Constitution and install a government through anarchy. This meant that when the rally was over, Mr Odinga did not order the unarmed crowd to invite themselves to dinner at State House, where blood would inevitably have been spilt since no one expects the President to peacefully leave his bed at that hour and start heading to Gatundu South. Anyone confronted by a mob of a million men and women baying for his job would have no choice but to react with reasonable force. The fact that Mr Odinga did not do any of these things does not mean that he did not think or plan them. Instead, it should be proof of something else: The failure to march on State House does demonstrate that Mr Odinga’s cowardice as a leader sits uneasily with his hunger for power obtained on a silver platter through tittle-tattle, dialogue, threats and ultimatums. The refusal to openly declare a revolution and swear himself into an office of his choice demonstrates his weakness as a leader, and his over-reliance on the people making decisions through referenda means that he is a perpetual follower of the crowd rather than its leader. In properly developed democracies, Mr Odinga would be hauled over the coals for these failures to effectively lead the opposition and probably sent into retirement.
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 04:24:44 +0000
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