The warrior Achilles is one of the great heroes of Greek mythology. According to legend, Achilles was extraordinarily strong, courageous and loyal, but he had one vulnerability – his heel.
The story reveals the sadness of a mother who knows that, being immortal, she will outlive her son. While the story is a myth, it reveals the human nature of seeking to be beyond what we are supposed to be.
We create an illusion that we are above 'ordinary' human beings and in politics, we create the perspective that we have a fanatical following that outgrows us. The Kenyan opposition is facing its Achilles heel with the ongoing protests.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga has hoodwinked his supporters with the ongoing protests claiming that they have everything to do with the cost of living. If this was the case, he would have demonstrated to Kenyans that the country is the only one suffering from the high cost of living.
What is now clear is that Raila’s illegal protests have everything to do with the 2027 presidential contest where he will most likely be seeking the presidency for a record sixth time.
Knowing very well that he would be beaten hands down by President William Ruto if an election was held today or in 2027, Raila has started what he knows best – to distract the government and Kenyans from focusing on development.
Let us dissect why the Raila maandamanos have nothing to do with the economy and the high cost of living.
First, you cannot decry the cost of living and then bring the economic activities that help Kenyans earn a living to a standstill. It beats all logic why one would ask people to close down their businesses and distract others from doing theirs if they really cared about the economy.
Secondly, the protests that have been called by Raila can only be described as self-serving. You cannot claim to be protesting against the high cost of living and yet, every day you are claiming that the election was not fair to you.
Another reason why the protests have nothing to do with the economy is the continuous call by the opposition to have the recruitment of IEBC commissioners stopped. Yet, the opposition was part and parcel of the lawmaking process that came up with the structure on how this should be done.
Raila had banked on Ruto being an unpopular president after inheriting an economy that had been run down by the previous administration where the opposition enjoyed cordial relations with former President Uhuru Kenyatta.
What is lost to Raila and his troops is that many Kenyans can see what is happening across the world and know that the current administration is working hard to ensure that more Kenyans do not suffer.
As the recent opinion poll by Tifa showed last week, 70 percent of Kenyans do not support the maandamanos by the opposition. Yet most of them are concerned about the cost of living but also know that the current administration is just six months old.
With these facts, the opposition should therefore read the room and realise that its strategy is supported by just a minority. This is because Kenyans know that Raila is not genuinely concerned about the issues affecting them.
The opposition needs to focus on first being honest on what the protests are about and then use the existing legal avenues to help Kenya overcome the challenges it is facing. There are very many avenues that the opposition can use without sabotaging the economy and making Kenyans who do not care about the protests suffer.
If Raila thinks the ongoing protests will help propel him to the pole position in 2027, he is thoroughly mistaken. In six months, the Kenya Kwanza administration has ensured that Kenya does not sink into deeper economic woes.
As the rest of the global economy recovers, Kenya’s economy will recover faster because of the government interventions. The straw that Raila is holding on to will have broken and this will be the end of him even before the 2027 election.
