Cord rebels currently fomenting trouble and unease within their sponsoring parties without regard to their parties’ rules and regulations nor the authority of their party leaders are the latest victims of crafty state security sponsored anti-opposition tricks to entrench the government in power while undermining the opposition’s support base.
The sad news for the opposition rebels, it has emerged, is that their current sponsors have already dug their political graves ready to bury them alive once they accomplish the mercenary work they have been assigned.
Could the now marauding and boisterous Cord rebels be aware that they have been lured into an old trap in which their predecessors landed and got vanquished or are they blinded by raw ambition and the generous freebies they are receiving?
As maverick Cord rebels continue to up their game in threatening to leave their opposition parties, Kenyans could be treated to yet another classic case of history repeating itself.
Could these loudly rebellious politicians be hurtling blindly to their early political graves? Are they being misled for somebody else’s political gain and later be dumped? Have they thought through the risks they are taking or they are being led by the nose and following like sheep without caring?
The recent lunch meeting, at the Serena Beach Hotel in Mombasa, that brought together the sick man of Ukambani politics Alfred Mutua (Governor – Machakos) and ODM renegades Ababu Namwamba (MP-Budalangi), Magerer Langat (besieged executive director) and Gideon Mung’aro (MP-Kilifi North), has left tongues wagging with speculation being rife that they could be gearing up to form yet another third force in Kenyan politics.
The message that appears clear, from past experience, was that the four rebels are deadset on quitting their sponsoring parties any time now Wiper for Mutua and Orange Democratic Movement for the others and that it is just a matter of time.
Though opinion is divided about expectations and the near future of the rebels, Jubilee supporters are celebrating and seeing the development as the final disintegration of the opposition and the political end of Raila Odinga.
However, many see this as just another interlude in the state machinery’s traditional political gameplan where naïve or hungry operatives in the opposition have been lured with promises and loads of cash to destroy their parties, cause splits and break away just to allow a struggling ruling clique to survive hard times and impossible hurdles.
Kenyans still have memories of how the same forces lured United Democratic Forum leader Musalia Mudavadi out of ODM where he was highly placed with promises of handing over power to him on a silver platter, only to dump him and hand power to their favoured prince in the Jubilee team controlled by the Mt Kenya clique.
Surprisingly, Mudavadi who is a seasoned politician fell for the tricks, cheaply blinded by promises of financial support for the presidential campaign. The funds never came.
Earlier on, in the run-up to the 2007 general elections, the same trick was employed on then vice president Kalonzo Musyoka. He was made to break from the main opposition by breaking away with the then brand name of ODM-Kenya. The National Intelligence Service and security bosses were at the time scared of all Kenyans uniting against then President Mwai Kibaki’s Central Kenya vote block as it could have been a nightmarish defeat.
They strongly believed that Kalonzo could effectively hive off Eastern province, large parts of Coast, and half of the Kamatusa so as to cripple Raila’s then strong opposition. It did not work but although they incorporated him as vice president on the PNU side of the grand coalition government, they were later to dump him unceremoniously when he tried to claim his right in the Kibaki succession.
It throws us back to the “Martin Shikuku State House ugali” scandal of 1992 organised by the same forces in favour of Kanu and the then president Daniel Arap Moi. They threw the spanners into the works of the formidable original Ford Party led by Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Paul Muite and Kijana Wamalwa among others.
Using Shikuku and some other malcontents, the state machinery managed to split Ford into Ford Kenya and Ford Asili and with their coming up with Mwai Kibaki’s Democratic Party, they managed to use the resultant confusion and disunity to rig Kanu and Moi back to power for another ten successive years. They would not rest even after the elections proper but followed the weak parties to buy maleable first time MPs who defected to boost Kanu which had few MPs in parliament.
True to their plot, the state machinery would ruthlessly pursue the politicians they had bribed to mess up the opposition and destroy them politically and financially ahead of the 1997 general elections. That is how the careers of prominent defectors to Kanu like Apili Wawire (Lugari), Benjamin Magwaga (Ikolomani), Javan Ommani (Lurambi),Tom Obondo (Ndhiwa), Protus Kebati (Bonchari) and Japheth Shamalla (Shinyalu) died never to resurrect again.
Even Martin Shikuku himself was to look on helplessly as the same state machinery operatives and Kanu mandarins planted and propelled Amukowa Anangwe to crash him in the 1997 elections that threw him into political oblivion. He was never to recover until he died of cancer recently. Many believe Shikuku’s death was precipitated by political frustrations engineered by Kanu.
There are reports that what today’s opposition rebels are indulging in are the same games coined in the very same manner with money and other small carrots being dangled to the leaders to destroy the opposition after which they will be dumped and even destroyed permanently.
It is very likely that Mung’aro, Namwamba, Langat, DMutua and other rebels are being led down the garden path to their political slaughterhouse. But they will only be finished off after they successfully help in dismembering ODM and messing up Raila’s chances of ascending to power.
Namwamba who is from Luhyaland should lead his colleagues in seeking advice from Mudavadi. He did what they are doing today but after they had used him enough, they have abandoned him and even want to strip him of the party they gave him.
If he learns from Mudavadi’s lessons well, Namwamba may avoid or escape the looming destruction coming his way. It is very strange that this culture of leaders accepting to be used all the time is entrenched in Luhyaland. Why? How can it be tamed?
In the meantime, they are to keep Cord busy fighting fires in their backyards so as to weaken their resolve and energy in propelling the Okoa Kenya referendum campaign. Towards 2017 elections, they will embark on causing splits and propelling tribal disharmony within the opposition including forming state sponsored political parties just to gnaw and remove major vote blocks from Cord.
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