PAUL AMINA: ODM overrun by Judas Iscariots

The proverbial wolves in sheep’s clothing, if not the Biblical Judas Iscariot, in ODM celebrated the successive defeats of the party’s flagbearer, Raila Odinga.

Why the celebration? one would dare ask. It was, according to the yesteryear doomsday prophets, the end of the political career of an icon and a chance for the ambitious leaders to step into his shoes and lead the community where he enjoys fanatical support.

The March 9, 2018, earth-shaking, and rare, handshake between political foes President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila shocked friends and foes alike. It was equally celebrated by the same pessimists who concluded that the pact was a ploy to end the career of the enigma in Kenya’s politics.

The cooperation was not tenable and was bound to collapse before long, the doubting Thomases averred. They likened the peace pact to an abortive coalition between Raila and President Daniel Moi’s in the latter's sunset days.

Raila dissolved his National Development Party and joined the ruling party Kanu, then led by President Moi. Party members bilaterally moaned the death of their organisation.

Now that the same leader is a front-runner in the race to succeed President Kenyatta next year, conspiracy to place thorns and cobwebs on the path to the throne is rife, more so in his backyard, the defunct Nyanza province, and Siaya county in particular.

A postmortem on the strings of by-election losses by the national party together with inflammatory statements from the leaders and some lawmakers reveal deep-seated plots to disgrace the son of the fiery former Vice President, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.

Should Raila’s fifth presidential bid fail, he will have nobody else to blame but himself. Ironically, some of his close confidants are in the payroll of rivals and every trick in the book, including propaganda, has been hatched to derail his campaign.

Raila, unfortunately, listens more to the trash from the advisers and confides in the mercenaries whose so-called election campaign strategies are wares for sale to the highest-bidding competitors.

The scaremongers, as they are known locally, also lock out popular candidates in the party primaries and shift the blame to Raila and his family. In these circumstances, some aspirants to political posts carry more than one party membership cards in case they are denied a chance to contest on the ODM ticket.

The absence of Raila, the headline grabber in the active opposition politics, has been costly for the merchants known in vernacular as jodong aich (literally translates stomach elders in English). They are broke and have devised other sophisticated methods of survival as articulated in the foregoing.

None of the loudest party officials and legislators will account for the waning popularity of the party in its strongholds, more so during nominations. Raila has paid a dear price for manipulations he knows nothing about.

Until and unless the party leader clears cobwebs on the path to the throne and cracks the whip now, he stands to lose this golden chance. Painful decisions have to be made now, not tomorrow, against Judas Iscariots in this world.

The mop-up has to start in Siaya, where retrogressive elements reside and peddle their propaganda against the unity of purpose and diversity.

The writer is a freelance Journalist. Email: [email protected]