Following the blood letting that we witnessed after the last general elections, ODM and PNU as the protagonists came together, and our Principals, HE Hon Mwai Kibaki, and HE Hon Raila Odinga signed a truce which saw the birth of the Grand Coalition.

Thereafter, a cabinet of 42 persons was named in which ODM and PNU shared the positions 50/50. A list of Assistant Ministers was also named that saw the sharing of all those named positions 50/50.

This was being done on the basic realization that we had a problem in Kenya that we had to jointly fix as one people. This was the right thing to do, since, by killing each other, we were clearly moving to the precipice.

Our Principals saw this clearly and hence guided their respective parties into this Grand Coalition.

After the cabinet was named, people who thought that they would be named in the cabinet felt slighted, and started agitating for what they have been calling a Grand Opposition Coalition.

I bet they have missed the point, and no amount of English from Hon Ababu, with all due respect, can mitigate their case. They are simply being selfish. If they are in such variant positions from our principals, the best they can do is to resign and seek fresh mandates from their own parties other than ODM and PNU.

By seeking fresh mandates, we will all be assured that they have some conviction, and those who support their ill motives, can vote for them in those parties.

You can effectively check the operations of the government from within, and as we do this, we must look at the circumstances that make us seek the kind of union that we have put in place.

By forming a Grand Coalition Government, President Kibaki and PM Raila were just responding to the demands of the time. We had fought, we had killed, we had burned, we had displaced and we had raped. All in the name of seeking to be declared the winner or to retain power.

If the two Principals saw it prudent to save Kenya from the misery of killing each other, from the misery of raping our own, from the misery of wanton destruction, then surely, there was enough need to come together as one, and fix these problems as one people.

In so doing, they realized the ultimate calling that Kenya is by far more superior to an individual taking over the reigns of power amidst the kind of mayhem we all saw. The Principals realized that we all need each other alive, not dead.

Pray, what then makes Ababu and team to call for a Grand Opposition Coalition? I know that most of them were disappointed that they were not named into the cabinet. But is that enough for them to slight the parties that supported their bid into parliament?

I bet not.

In fronting for this Grand Opposition Coalition, I sense some Grand Conspiracy, a conspiracy of losers, people who love themselves more than they love the country.

All Kenyans should support calls that will make all of us live in peace and harmony. We must all support any progressive forces from within, to check and balance the going ons in government. But we must not create red herrings to pour scorn on the work being done to create National Healing and Reconciliation.

Time is of real essence as we focus on a new constitutional dispensation that will capture the aspirations of the Kenya we all want, not the Kenya that satisfies our egos.

Our focus must be at National Healing and Reconciliation, not at opposing each other.

Odhiambo T Oketch,
Komarock Nairobi

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Date:  Fri, 16 May 2008 10:38:34 -0700 (PDT)
From:  odhiambo okecth
Subject:   The Grand Conspiracy