President Mwai Kibaki was visibly in pain from his road accident injuries when he was sworn in as Kenya's third President in December 2002.It is said that when the people fear the government, you have a dictatorship and when the government fears the people you have a democracy. So what is the verdict with the Kibaki administration?
Whatever it is, one thing is crystal clear. This government has tried very hard to re-create the Jomo Kenyatta era in many ways. In actions, policies and thinking and have completely disregarded the people, let alone feared them. The only thing they have not done is to assassinate politicians that are seen as threats (although Raila Odinga is still on record for saying that the infamous Artur brothers were hired to do just that. To date the Artur brothers saga is still shrouded in mystery).
If there is one word that will be used often to remember the Kibaki administration, then it will be the word; “arrogance.” Incidentally this is the same word used by members of the Democratic Party within the controversial PNU umbrella party who are feeling left out of things. They refuse to see the president’s strategy to downplay the role of his home Central province in the umbrella party and to give a more nationalistic outlook. It really doesn’t matter because that attempt has fallen flat on its’ face. I am not going to ask that famous question of mine again, but I will just say that the president’s campaign is being handled by amateurs who have no idea what they are doing.
It has become clear that the warring factions within the PNU are irreconcilable. Not to mention the issue (which apparently nobody gave much thought to (of how to resolve the parliamentary nominations for the scores of different parties under the PNU umbrella.
Meanwhile the ODM campaign looks impeccably organized in comparison and is going forward at full steam. The violent protests in Kisii and Sotik triggered by the beating up of ODM officials in Kisii seem to sending forth a very loud message as to which political leaning that part of the country has.
Of course the ODM party is yet to go through the usually thorny period of parliamentary and civic candidate nominations which this time round will be extremely challenging. Imagine running a nomination process with no less than 50 candidates seeking one parliamentary seat. The danger here is that it will be unlikely that the most popular candidate will get the party nomination. So what you will end up with is several very strong candidates competing in other party tickets against the ODM parliamentary candidate.
Actually this challenge of parliamentary and civic seat nominations will make the already concluded presidential nominations at the time Kalonzo Musyoka was still in the running look like kid’s play. It is something ODM really need to think about and strategize very deeply on.
The other opposition party, Hoo Ndii Emm has already announced that all candidates including their presidential and vice presidential nominees will have to fight it out for the party’s ticket at the parliamentary level like anybody else.
What I would do if I were handling the president’s re-election bid would be to change tact and try to do the impossible (get rid of the powerful but arrogant inner circle) who are causing so much unnecessary tension in the president’s re-election campaign.
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