If people thought 2019 was a difficult year, then 2020 will be worse unless we move from our inertia brought about by our passivity and ambivalence to matters of national importance.
While many Kenyans give a very dim view about the state of the nation, very few want to be counted as doing something to change their lot. This has allowed demagogues to crop up as community spokespersons in a bid to control the lives of the people.
As elections near, they activate their machinations, purporting to be speaking on their communities. Here, Cotu secretary general Francis Atwoli is a case in point. Cotu is run like personal property with the same leadership for longer than anybody can remember and 'elections' bearing the hallmark of mock selection periodically staged to launder the Atwoli's team.
It's a mere ritual that has no meaning in a democracy. The remark that President Uhuru Kenyatta is too young at 60 is not only another dry joke from rudderless and selfish leaders but an introverted, self-effacing statement meant to serve Atwoli himself and justify his continued stay at the helm of the trade union.
He is the ODM leader's henchman, masquerading as the Luhya point man yet in all his dealings with the Luhya community, he is working for the person he calls his relative–Raila Odinga.
Atwoli made weird predictions about the outcome of the 2017 elections none of which came to pass. He was all over the place castigating President Kenyatta's government until Raila joined Uhuru. So now the unionist is telling Kenyans how Uhuru should continue.
Such Kanu tactics should not be allowed in Kenya today. It is unacceptable that when one is outside the dining tent, they tell others out there how to run things just to change tune when they are invited inside.
Nothing is about the many suffering Kenyans. And the citizens must not be sheepish to follow such turncoats. Kenyans will be better off without their divisive and chauvanistic attitudes towards leaders just because they can't share a common ideology with them.
Uhuru will need to forcefully come out against such dark forces to win the many doubtful about his inclusivity and unity drive. By partnering with the people whose sole occupation is politics of 2022, he erases any goodwill he could have earned from across Kenya.
Let those whose aim is the presidency not hide behind the unity facade, otherwise, nobody will take such initiatives seriously.
Economic and political analyst
