It is only when you write a weekly column, mostly on politics, that you can get a really clear idea of just how divided this country is.
I learnt this lesson last weekend when a column was published in which I expressed my gratitude to President Uhuru Kenyatta for having come to the Coast, stayed there for a month and spent most of his time not merely receiving highly choreographed and chaperoned delegations, but striking out into the humblest villages and hamlets and engaging the grassroots up close and personal.
I received two diametrically opposed reactions to that column.
From those who belong to the TNA/URP/JAP fraternity, I received warm words of congratulations and along with these was a searching question: Surely this now meant the Jubilee candidate for the Malindi by-election on March 7 had a very good chance to win, and that if he won this would surely be the beginning of the of the tide turning in Jubilee’s favour and bringing in a third vote bloc into JAP?
The idea here is, of course, that if the JAP group can only bring in one more big bloc, register it to the last eligible school leaver and then whip it to turn out at well more than 90 per cent on Election Day, August 8, 2017, it will more or less guarantee re-election for President Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto next year.
But now I come to the other set of remarks directed my way and it is clear that these came from the ODM/Cord side of the political divide, who are adamant that keeping the Coast in their grip is absolutely central to denying President Kenyatta a second term. These are people who do not want to hear even the smallest suggestion that the Coast region might be warming up to the President.
And so when I come to defining the kind of words that were used to insult and stigmatise me via email and phone calls, I am sure they do not bear repeating. Suffice it to say that emotive words such as “sell-out”, “traitor” and “sycophant” were the least of these horrible epithets. And of course the inevitable question was asked repeatedly: How many pieces of silver were you given by JAP to write like this?
All this was really very sad, because everything I wrote was a verifiable fact attested to by the media corps of all major local news organisations. TV cameras followed the President everywhere. Travelling in a tiny, unmarked convoy, President Kenyatta interacted freely with the most humble of ordinary Coast people.
It is well known, and was captured on video footage, that we at the Coast have a long history and tradition of tolerance; of a willingness to listen; of a desire to have matters resolved through consensus reached after exhaustive discussions. In other words, the kind of reception the President received at the Coast was entirely predictable and appropriate, even though the bulk of the people in this region did not vote for him in 2013.
The President had pared down his massive entourage of normally at least 50 vehicles and many motorbikes to less than 10, leaving out VIPs, power and money brokers and all those schemes that relegate the Coat Agenda to the bottom of the heap and the back of the class.
We at the Coast had never seen an incumbent President call on us with such humility and engagement with the grassroots and freeze out all the layers of self-seeking middlemen. Plus he had already given a flag, as they say, to immediate former MP Dan Kazungu, now the Mining CS, ensuring a continuing presence in the Cabinet of one of our very own.
And this brings me to this all-important question: What may we expect when Raila Odinga finally comes to Malindi to campaign for the ODM parliamentary candidate for the March 7 by-election?
My answer to this would be that he will receive much the same treatment as the incumbent President of the Republic of Kenya. In his case, mixing and interacting with the humblest and the least of the grassroots is not a new campaign strategy, he has always done it, being without the protocol of very high office with the exception of the five years that he was Prime Minister.
Raila will almost certainly move around the Coast with a huge retinue, particularly of ODM politicians (who are currently very many). Big delegations will call on him to discuss various things. And when he eventually does his famed meet-the-people tours, I believe he will be warmly welcomed by the crowds for Raila is personally very popular at the Coast.
However, the most important thing that must be noted is that the classic Coast warm reception for VIP guests far predates Kenya’s modern multiparty politics. What am I saying? It is this: It is one thing to be accorded a warm and interactive welcome by everyone at the Coast and quite another when it comes to a sober judgment on the question of what our most vital interests are and where our votes will go on March 7, 2016, and August 8, 2017.