- At the time of the formation of this mega alliance, it matters not who will be the flag-bearer
- What matters is to create a movement that is focused on peace, prosperity, uniting the country, and the positive transformation of our nation
In the run-up to the 2002 election, Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka, Charity Ngilu, Kijana Wamalwa, George Saitoti and other national leaders put aside their personal aspirations and rallied their supporters to support one of them to become president.
The unity coalition emerged after the National Alliance of Kenya (an alliance of like-minded parties) and the Liberal Democratic Party (an offshoot of Kanu) formed the National Rainbow Coalition.
This coalition excited many Kenyans, especially the moment when Raila stood up in Uhuru Park and declared ‘Kibaki Tosha’. Kibaki went on to win the election by 62 per cent.
Narc was a game-changer in Kenyan politics and despite then President Moi’s massive following, he was unable to marshal his support and system to beat the amalgamation of these different personalities and parties.
And since then, elections in Kenya have been a contest between coalitions – in 2013 we had the Jubilee Coalition and Coalition for Reforms and Democracy. In 2017, Jubilee transformed itself into a party but was still an alliance of various parties supporting a single candidate, CORD became the National Super Alliance.
Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come. It is time for all major political parties – ODM, Jubilee, Ford Kenya, Wiper and ANC – to come together and form a Narc moment.
A more united leadership will cultivate unity and heavily aid in the prosperity and transformation of Kenya. Such an alliance would be a game-changer, and would create an unstoppable movement and wave that would sweep everything and everyone against it.
The benefit of this cannot be gainsaid. The Narc administration was able to undo the damage that Kanu had caused to the economy in a very short time.
At the time of the formation of this mega alliance, it matters not who will be the flag-bearer. What matters is to create a movement that is focused on peace, prosperity, uniting the country, and the positive transformation of our nation.
All these parties have a good starting point – the Building Bridges Initiative. We have all witnessed what can happen when leaders put aside their differences and come together to work on unity and prosperity.
After a very divisive election in 2017, President Uhuru Kenyatta invited his political rival Raila Odinga and the two decided to work together and make the country better. And since 2018, Kenya has been peaceful with focus being development and making the country’s systems better for the future.
This is what the major political parties need to build on. Build an alliance that is acceptable to everyone and which can even help build consensus on the proposed referendum. This way, the country would move into the next election more united than in the last two elections that have been marred by chaos as the losers protest.
The benefit of this cannot be gainsaid. The Narc administration was able to undo the damage that Kanu had caused to the economy in a very short time.
Similarly, Jubilee was able to marshal a majority and continue rebuilding on the second term of President Kibaki, which was marred by the tensions in the political marriage of convenience that arose from the ceasefire that followed the 2007-08 post-election violence.
A coalition similar to Narc will go a long way in ensuring that the work done by President Uhuru Kenyatta during his tenure continues after the 2022 election. The political bigwigs can come together and focus on building a coalition based on policies that will help the country achieve the Big Four agenda even after Uhuru leaves office.
Such a coalition should focus on policies in order to avoid being derailed by the politics of who should be the candidate. This can be handled as the election draws near. For now, Kenyans are looking for leadership that will ensure continuity in the work that the government is currently doing to ensure shared prosperity.