>>>Meshack Owino  05/12/08 2:06 >>>
http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143986397&cid=4

I have been watching and reading news reports of Raila’s so-called home-coming, and the heckling he received in Kisumu with a sort of sad detachment. Here is a politician who has enjoyed a checkered, colorful, intriguing, and promising career getting heckled by a crowd at his own political backyard of Nyanza for the very first time.  What an embarrassment! To be heckled at a rally consisting of your hitherto most ardent supporters!

As we predicted a few moths ago, Raila’s political career is on the brink of a major disaster. It will take him a very, very long painful period of soul-searching, and huge bowls of mea culpa for him to understand where the rains started beating him.

If he wants to know where all the jeers and the murmurs started, or, to put it another way, where his long honeymoon with his most ardent supporters, especially the Luo, ended, the answer is really simple. It was when he hurriedly settled for a raw deal during the creation of the coalition government, while brushing aside people’s genuinely-felt concerns over the deal.

The honeymoon ended when Raila was completely outplayed by an old, octogenarian, senile Kibaki; when he settled for useless departments in the name of ministries.

The rains started beating him when he started gallivanting with Kibaki all over Rift Valley, while bypassing places like Naivasha, Kibera, and Kisumu where many of his supporters were equally suffering in, just like the IDPs of Molo, Eldoret!

The rains begun beating him when he started making overtures to Mungiki, while saying nothing about Sabaot Land Defence Force.

They started when he agitated for the resettlement of IDPs while saying nothing about the fate of his supporters who were arrested in Rift Valley during the post-election violence.

Do not get me wrong here. I am not saying that Mungiki should not be talked to, or that IDP’s should not be re-settled back in their homes.  What I am pointing out here is a double-standard where Kibaki’s supporters seem to be enjoying all the attention of the government, and Raila seems only to be too eager to go along without asking why his supporters are not being catered for as well.

I am saying that Raila seems to be very eager to kiss up to Kibaki and his supporters, and that is fine by me. However, what rankles the ODM rank-and-file is that, in the process of seemingly inserting his head deep inside Kibaki’s butt, Raila no longer seems to care about the welfare of his supporters who shed tears, blood, and sweat to put him where he is today.

Indeed, if you listen to Raila today, you would think that only Kibaki’s supporters suffered during the post-election violence, and only they need peace and opportunities to resettle and reconstruct their lives.

During the negotiation over the coalition government, Raila had the support of the whole world for the full implementation of the Annan Accord. The whole world believed that he had a right to demand for an equal share of government posts. The whole country was behind him. Even his own erstwhile critics like Paul Muite, Gitobu Imanyara, Charles Njonjo, Mukhisa Kituyi supported his demand for a real 50-50 power sharing of the government. Koffi Annan, Condoleezza Rice, and nearly all European ambassadors supported him.

Yet, in spite of all this enormous good will and support from the whole world for the full implementation of the letter and spirit of the Annan Accord, Raila still went ahead and settled for a useless raw deal as if he had not learned his lessons from previous dealings with Kibaki. ODM supporters were truly shocked when they saw what he had settled for, and I believe that they have a right to be very angry.

To this day, people are very bitter with Raila for setling for a raw deal when he did not need to do so. I don’t think they will keep quiet until Raila owns up and gives a full account of what transpired during the negotiation with Kibaki, and why he did not demand for the full implementation of the whole Accord.

Would he have died had he demanded the full implementation of the Annan Accord? Was he so eager to be named prime minister he could not insist on the full implementation of the Accord?

These are questions Raila will have to answer, and no amount of home-comings and traditional rituals will squelch people’s demands for answers. There was a time when people would give Raila the benefit of the doubt when he came back home with mkia ya ng’ombe, but not this time. If he does not address these concerns, and instead resorts to ritualistic gymnastics to divert people’s attention from his failures then he is in for a big surprise.

Yesterday was Raila’s first time to come face to face with angry murmurs and grumbles that have been lurking under the surface ever since he rushed into the coalition government while brazenly brushing aside people’s concerns over the raw deal they got in the so-called coalition government. More is coming. His political career might as well be on the line.

Meshack Owino.

– – –
Subject: Re: Raila jeered at his so-called home-coming party
– – – – – – – – – – –

Meshack,

You have got it right, I am also very suprised to hear now people like Kalonzo, Karua insisting that people who committed post election violence will not be pardoned, and they will be punished according to the law.
The only people we know the government have so far detained without trial are the rift valley kalenjins and some of the mt. Elgon they are now killing. For somebody like Kalonzo to be bold enough to tell us that the people who committed post election violence will be punished just tells us that NOTHING HAS CHANGED, given the role he Kalonzo himself played after voting. Kibaki stole election and people pardoned him, he is still the president. What role did Mungiki play in the post election violence?. Who killed people in Naivasha, Kisumu, Nairobi,Nakuru,
Eldoret, Kakamega etc. But I hear now people saying that mungiki should be heard NOT BE PUNISHED. If Raila is not careful, he is going to be the security for Mungiki and once the year 2012 election comes, the same mungiki will be used to kill people even spraying his car with bullets as they did during the time of negotiations with Koffi Anna

ODM might only stay together if somebody like Ruto or Mdawadi heads for presidency in the year 2012. But if Raila still insist to be the presidential candidate for ODM in 2012, I do think the ODM will split, and that is what the Kikuyus wants to happen. The Rift valley might
only be with Raila if the detained post election violence people are released, BUt if Raila does not do anything about them, let Raila sit down and leave Ruto or Mdawadi takes the ODM leadership. If any luo really analysed what Ruto said in Kisumu on saterday then let them
advice Raila to do something. People like Karua has now gone so far by saying that even the president can not pardon the people detained in the Rift Valley at the same time they are by force re settling the IDPs in the Rift Valley with government money and massive police forces plus
kikuyu DOs, who is helping the luos, or luhjas who were displaced? Or who had lived in Naivasha, Nakuru, central province and their houses and goods burned?, is Kenya really heading for reconcilliation?. Raila is missing the point, I do think he has forgotten why people died for him.  It is also a big shame that despite all what the ODM diasporas wrote of plan B etc, the only plan B ODM had was those dead poor, luos, kalenjins and luhjas, those were the ODM`s plan B. The rest written by so called ODM supporters as plan B were all nonsence, there was no plan B ODM had and they may not have plan B in 2012. They might think Koffi Anna will come back

The best thing this coalition can give Kenyans is the new constitution, if they fail to do so then all is lost. The present constitution is the same one which brought Moi to power and ruled Kenya for 24 years, by then Moi was just a vice president like Kalonzo today ( Luos say that `alot mi seyo ema tero kuon`, Kalonzo might suprise them) . And we know very well now who is the vice president today, so let the so called bright Kenyans think very hard about Kalonzo, if anything happen to Kibaki now Kenyans might have another very bad and young dictator for a very long time.

Paul Nyandoto

– – –
Date: Mon, 12 May 2008 08:01:26 +0300
From: paul.nyandoto
Subject: Vs: Re: Raila jeered at his so-called home-coming party

– – – – – – – – – – –

— On Mon, 5/12/08, Joram Odus wrote:

All
 
I agree fully with the Meshack’s assessment of Raila’s performance so far. Time has come when the Luo community MUST ask hard questions, we are not going to follow Raila blindly. Raila made a big strategic mistake by accepting the cabinet positions without the full implementation of 50-50 per cent power-sharing as spelt out in the Annah accord (the cabinet, parastatal head, PS’, Ambassadors). Now, it remains to be seen whether Kibaki will cede any meaningful ground on the remaining phase of the accord. We all saw what happened in the case of Permanent Secretaries, which left a lot to be desired to say the least. All we hear of is IDPs settlement and huge amounts of money to resettled them back into their homes. What about the other communities who were displace from Naivasha, Tigoni, Nakuru etc? What about those in the slums of Nairobi (Kibira, Mathare, Dandora etc who were killed and their property destroyed? What about those in Kisumu who were brutally gunned down?
 
I am persuaded to assert that the Luos are NOW tied of populist politics, that does not bring food on the table, medical facilities, good facilities for educational achievement, good road network and public services. Yes, I agree with Raila when he say, no more opposition. On a personal note I liked what happened in Kisumu, because Raila must begin to realise that the Luo community will no longer give a blank cheque in supporting him. But I am prepared to be patient, and allow him and his team 2-3 years to see what they able to accomplish, otherwise the murmuring in Kisumu indicate the beginning of something different, that the Luo community is no longer prepared to turn up in rallies, dance, laugh and cheer and then go to their individual homes.
 
 
Joram Odus
London

– – –
Date: Monday, May 12, 2008, 3:19 AM
From: Joram Odus
Subject: Vs: Re: Raila jeered at his so-called home-coming party

– – – – – – – – – – –
 
All said and done, we must all take cognisant of the following facts as ably manifested in the Book of Ecclesiastes;
a] there is a time to laugh and a time to weep
b] there is a time to rest and a time to work
c] there is a time to oppose and a time to propose
and it goes on.

I want to firmly believe that time has come for us to propose and implement. I was at the Bondo Thanksgiving ceremony, and I was happy when Jakom said that the Road from Rang’ala through Siaya, Alego, to Bondo up to Owimbi will be constructed from next month.

I was also happy when he said that a Fish factory will be built in Nyanza to ensure that our fishermen get the best out of their toil. I was also happy when he said that many industries will be built in Nyanza and Western Kenya to ensure that our people get enough jobs.

That is what we must now focus on; service delivery. He ably outlined some key areas of concern to our development, and went on to name the various Ministers by name and their dockets.

On the issue that we were short changed, I want to appeal to all correspondents to check their facts more correctly. ODM got the best out of this deal. Given that Kibaki had stolen this election, what we have been able to retrieve so far is good. Let us take it in our stride that all will be well.

Kibaki will face the wrath of Kenyans on how he is behaving. For now, let us all unite and work. Let us stop these blame games, that oh, this was not achieved, oh, this is what.

We have achieved the best in the worst of circumstances. Let us join together to consolidate this gain.

Odhiambo T Oketch
Komarocks Nairobi

– – –
Date:  Mon, 12 May 2008 05:35:31 -0700 (PDT)
From:  odhiambo okecth
Subject:  RE: Vs: Re: Raila jeered at his so-called home-coming party

– – – – – – – – – – –
 
— On Mon, 5/12/08, patrick opondi wrote:

I believe we can still fight another battle,not now.It is time to retreat and re-evaluate our strengths and weaknesses or risk running out of steam if we continue fighting for the sake.Well written O.T .O

– – –
Date: Monday, May 12, 2008, 5:57 AM
From: patrick opondi
Subject: RE: Vs: Re: Raila jeered at his so-called home-coming party
– – – – – – – – – – –

Thanks Patrick.

oto

– – –
Date:  Mon, 12 May 2008 06:23:56 -0700 (PDT)
From:  odhiambo okecth
Subject:  RE: Vs: Re: Raila jeered at his so-called home-coming party