Numbers five and nine as well as a three-letter acronym, TNA of a defunct The National Alliance seem to have conspired to coincide with the participation in public events of bosom buddies President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga.
April 4, 2013, and August 9, 2022, can be abbreviated as TNA, one being the date the TNA leader, Uhuru, was sworn as the fourth president and the latter is the date his successor will be chosen in the ninth year of his rule.
For Raila, numbers five and nine, to say the least, are momentous and special. After attending a church service on June 5, 2022, Raila headed to the offices of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission for nomination to contest the presidency for the fifth time.
On a Friday afternoon, February 5, 1988, Raila and five political prisoners, including this writer, were released from detention at State House, Nairobi, by President Daniel Moi. It was a Good Friday gift, remarked Raila, who had spent six years behind bars for the agitation for reforms and constitutional change.
Of all these dates, March 9, 2018, remains etched in the memory of Kenyans of different political persuasions because the events of that day survive to threaten the careers of some and enhance the profiles of others. In a departure from his predecessors, the President refused to entertain nonsensical myths about Raila and his Luo community for which he paid a costly price—support.
President Kenyatta and Raila shook hands and chose a peace path to save a country on the brink of civil war after a disputed presidential election nullified by the Supreme Court and a rerun. Feathers of ethnic chauvinists, political merchants and status quo authors across the political divide were ruffled.
Indeed, his fanatical Central Kenya support shifted towards no lesser person than Deputy President William Ruto who read mischief in the reconciliation. His supporters were suspicious of the peace pact and claimed it was a ploy to lock number two out of the succession race.
For four years, the deputy led spirited protests against the post-election chaos remedial measures remarkably similar to the 2008 accord.
Judgmental supporters of the DP ought to be reminded of the role Ruto played in the Serena 2007-08 post-election violence international mediation peace talks. The deliberations culminated in the drafting of the National Accord on Peace and Reconciliation report signed by Raila and President Kibaki on the same spot.
Ruto wants to hear none of the peace overtures and a reminder of his role in the mediation talks and consequently facilitated the formation of a rival outfit, United Democratic Alliance on whose platform he launched a presidential bid.
Poll outcome notwithstanding, historians will have a lot of material from the four-year derogatory and cacophonous premature campaigns against the sons of the nation’s founding fathers, Jomo Kenyatta and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, bosom buddies before prophets of doom drove a wedge between them in the Sixties.
It is time Parliament woke up to some stark realities and rewarded heroic deeds. Uhuru and Raila deserve a joint Nobel Peace Prize equivalent at home for restoring peace in a volatile situation.
Annan and his team of eminent persons also deserve a posthumous award not a cock for saving the country from disintegration following post-election chaos in which more than 1,000 lost lives, property of unknown value destroyed and hundreds of thousands uprooted from their homes.
As a token of appreciation, a peace-loving Kenyan handed Annan a cock at the Serena Hotel where the peace talks were held.
Freelance journalist. Email: [email protected]
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