In the spirit of the handshake, it is not necessary to describe the euphoria across the country in 2002 following that year’s election.
What can be said without fear of any contradiction is that we have since then not had an election that came even close to reflecting the voters’ will.
It is also not necessary to go over why each election since then has either been undisputedly rigged in what one can rightly call thuggish rigging, or simply didn’t meet the high constitutional bar as was the case in the presidential election of 2017.
As novelist Rita Mae Brown famously said, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.
Reflecting on this wisdom, President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga decided to bury the hatchet and joined hands in the historic handshake of March 9, 2018.
At the core of what drove the two leaders to do the right thing and save the country from going to the dogs was the coming to grips with the fact we cannot continue having bloodshed, destruction of property and death every election because of rigging.
We had already seen the worst of that in 2007-08 and God forbid never again.
Although BBI is on life-support, thanks to the unshakable commitment by it architects, we are still on path to enjoy its fruits regardless of what happens at the Supreme Court.
For example, three of the points BBI addresses are ethnic antagonism (tribalism), divisive elections and lack of inclusivity in not just in governance but also in sharing of national resources.
The three points are squarely addressed, and a solution is already in the making in the ongoing negotiations to form a grand coalition involving all the major politicians and leaders in the country, except those who prefer butter.
The Azimio la Umoja movement is the vehicle Raila has chosen to use as he seeks the presidency one more time. Raila has already been joined in Azimio by notable politicians and leaders across the country.
As icing on the cake, the president has openly and proudly declared himself and his Jubilee Party to be part of Azimio.
The only holdout among those who have said they will not work with Raila’s only opponent is former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka but after playing cat-and-mouse, he now says he will work with the former PM.
That being the case, what we now have is clear formation of a grand coalition that cannot be defeated on August 9, no different than what we had in 2002.
It was interesting to read in the press Deputy President William Ruto in the US pleading with unspecified Americans to help him stop rigging against him. The irony of that plea is also palpable.
Fact is, there is no rigging necessary in 2022, and perhaps not again to the future.
Politicians have once in awhile alluded to there being a possibility of rigging Ruto out. To be objective, there may, indeed, have been a time that would have appeared to be the only way to stop Ruto but that time is no more.
The inroads Ruto made in the Mt Kenya region and especially among the Agikuyu community was nothing but astounding earlier on.
However, as the chickens are starting to come home to roost, Ruto is fast being left holding an empty bag of voters from the region.
To put it differently, given what has happened and is ahead, Ruto’s best performance in the region where he has been camping all these years is now a thing of the past.
When Uhuru rolled up his sleeves and started swinging the other day, just two of those swings have hurt Ruto where it hurts most and there is no recovering from that.
In case you missed it, find, and listen to what Uhuru said at Sagana 3.
With the forces now forming in the name of Azimio, we are no doubt headed to an election more like 2002 than we have ever had.
Samuel Omwenga is a legal analyst and political commentator
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