After trying for three years to fashion the succession politics in their own liking, President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga are resigning to their fate.
What with shrank latitude to cobble a broad-based alliance of the tribal kingpins?
They find themselves doing the same things they were castigating not long ago. And in the same way BBI project was propelled using carrot and stick maneuvers, so are Uhuru's succession plans.
Then as now, the governors are the easy targets. Remember the Constitution bestowed on them the onus of overseeing huge county budgets but with no control over national legislation processes and the state security, which are key cogs in investigation and justice system.
In 2018, the EACC announced it was investigating a majority of the governors over alleged misappropriation of county funds. But came the handshake and the BBI reggae, the focus changed. Only those opposed to the two initiatives found themselves on the wrong side of the law, even ejected from office.
As the President's fortunes on directing his succession dwindle, desperate measures seen in propelling the BBI are again at play. Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru alluded to that in her weekend Twitter and Facebook rants.
As the clock ticks away, the reality dawning on them is that peripheral side shows and preaching "peace and unity" that majority can't relate to nor understand no longer earn them political dividends.
Peace and unity are God-given, inalienable endowments that can't be mockingly flaunted around. People want tangible deliverables on their livelihoods. Allowing leaders to sell fear and despondency when on the same breath hoodwinking the masses that they are the peace guarantors is deceptive.
Citizens have amicably lived together, their peace only disturbed by selfish machinations of their leaders.
The writer is an economic and political analyst