Unfortunately, Raila only appeared to make fun of ordinary Kenyans as he did not even bother to pay up for his fellow commuters, a youth hilariously alleges in a viral video.
From months ago, we had projected on this column that Raila’s popularity could rise if the government did not take endeavour to communicate effectively their roadmap to arresting the cost of living. While this is purely an Azimio attempt to make the country ungovernable for Ruto, the possibility of Kenyans being hoodwinked to see the current regime as ineffective remains.
The pandemonium being created is not going to benefit Azimio in any way, though. This is because, as usual, Raila does not have a power plan while Ruto long took it. Recall that, even with the incumbency’s endorsement in 2022, Raila, Karua and Kalonzo came out losers. Can folks who could not take power when conditions were conducive as Oburu Odinga had staked claim, be able to run government if they took it? Finding the answer is a no-brainer.
For 40 years now, Raila’s populist anti-establishment approach has never earned him power, but has come at a great cost mostly for many youth and business people in Kenya. His clash with Kibaki in 2007-2008 led to the deaths of over 1,000, yet it was midlevel politicians like the current president William Ruto, former president Uhuru Kenyatta and others who were offered as guinea pigs, albeit vainly.
It is not an easy time for Kenyans, but the promise of a better tomorrow might not lie with the people meting destruction on businesses and misusing youth in the melee. In Kitengela on Tuesday, residents said that the supposed demonstrators were clearly folks shipped into the peaceful town from Nairobi.
There were a good number of boys who had concealed their faces -to obviously self-efface. Hurling stones even at residents and establishments such as the Nairobi Women Hospital showed they were on a specific mission far from enlightening the world about a high cost of living.
On November 8, 2010, on arrival from his courageous trip to The Hague, then Eldoret North legislator, Ruto gallantly questioned the integrity and credibility of the International Criminal Court and took on the hitherto feared prosecutor Moreno Ocampo whom he said had taken off when Ruto got to The Hague.
Despite the unprecedented challenge, Ruto kept the hope and took the bull by the horns in spite of his Orange Democratic Party leader Raila Odinga, and then President Mwai Kibaki having thrown him and five others under the bus.
Despite the damaging publicity locally and internationally that came with the cases, Ruto would proceed to form the United Republican Party which would later merge with Uhuru’s The National Alliance in Jubilee to take power against all odds in 2013.
A hypocritical Raila was brazen in his attacks on Ruto and Uhuru during this period branding them ‘criminals’ and declaring they were unfit to hold public office. They would overcome an integrity case locally to contest the election and won.
The president is therefore not new to adversity. Uhuru, whom Ruto had supported on three occasions for presidency, including 2002 when former lost to Kibaki, viciously turned against Ruto and sought to end his political career in a scenario that would be perfectly equated to Saul against David in the holy book. Ruto survived this to take presidency in 2022.
There are therefore strong reasons to believe that Ruto will be immovable despite the malevolent winds Raila is blowing. Ruto, disparaged and branded names even for identifying himself as a strong Christian, especially as he has sought to widen the tax net and where he has earned himself names like ‘Zakayo’, is capable of digging deeper and getting the obligatory work done. Of course the need to lower the cost of living cannot not be fixed.
I briefly engaged the Governor of Makueni Mutula Kilonzo Jr. last Tuesday with mainly the question as to whether there is possibility of having the cost of living lowered fast. “An economic strategy is key, and a financial plan is not rocket science, but the problem we have, which no one wants to address is external debt.
The government is collecting from every nook and cranny to settle external debt.”, he offered. Mutula feels that the government can come up with subsidies for production, taxes, and to lower the cost of energy and fuel. “During Covid19 governments gave businesses boosts to recoup losses”, he said.
Ruto’s government has its new approach to solving challenges, but if the cost of fuel were to go down, the cost of living would be positively impacted. If Ruto will not manage to get Kenya on the right footing, who will? Indeed, the president’s job is mostly managing and the folks in charge of fixing these things must give him solutions or he varies them. Nothing stops the president from engaging any bright Kenyans to augment his think-tank and he cannot be beholden to a few.
It is possible for the president to task his relevant teams to undertake surgical maneuvers to arrest the current situation that the opposition is overplaying. This will also deny unscrupulous activists space to meddle as they are doing.
No activist operates solely; they get funding from somewhere. This is a reason they are at work perennially and taking up every issue that appears feasible to cultivate publicity and get them a go at the government of the day.
Azimio have deeper political issues of their own despite the posturing we are seeing. For one, Raila will never allow anyone else to hold the opposition ticket for presidency, history demonstrates. He is said to only have permitted Kibaki in 2002 hoping that a new constitution would be installed and he’d earn a position of Prime Minister in a parliamentary system where he’d be the linchpin. Haggling between Raila and Kalonzo will only end when Kalonzo leaves Azimio, because Raila will not endorse him.
The longer you live in someone’s shadow, the longer it takes to cast your own. Nationally, Kalonzo remains weak and he is, not only living in the past, but is indeed the past. Nobody gets power by endorsement, Wiper legislators need reminding.
At the same time, Karua lacks any significant following after the 2002 political disaster where the Mount Kenya region ignored her joint ticket with Raila. She lost the Kirinyaga gubernatorial contest to Anne Waiguru in 2013. There are no assumptions in politics, and living in utopia can be disastrous. They have the wishful thinking that the chaos will swell and take Ruto down with it, but all Ruto needs is to have his team balance a few things for the economy to improve. He must not condone mediocrity.
