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In the run-up to the coming elections, somebody is lying to the Kenyan people.
President Mwai Kibaki has spoken to the nation saying he is telling the truth about the MoU - the Memorandum of Understanding.
Raila Odinga says the president is lying.
Professor George Saitoti has said that the president is not lying, and that Raila is untrustworthy. Now Charity Ngilu, the Health Minister in Kibaki’s government comes out in support of Raila saying the man is telling the truth.
Is Ngilu, a minister in Kibaki’s own government, one supposed to be loyal, confirming to the country that Raila is right in his claims that the president is a liar? This may be considered by the president as insubordination, and as such punishable by being asked to go packing. Utterances like that of Ngilu damages the working relationship between her, and the head of state.
All we know is that someone is speaking the truth. The problem is that we were not there in that hotel room where things were discussed, and positions dished out whether in writting or verbally. Â
For the Kenyan people to know the truth, we have to look into all the facts on who is saying what, to who and what positions those saying things are holding at the moment.
The debate in Kenya is getting down to who has lied to the Kenyan people. Two people who disagree on one subject, where people are in search for the truth, can be said that one is telling the truth. Surely, both of them are not lying, one is and the other is truthful.
Kibaki became the president. Saitoti got the ministry of education. Ngilu is having the Health Ministry. Raila had Roads and was later jacked out by Kibaki. When Saitoti now defends the president in this MoU thing and Ngilu races in defence for Raila, the game ends in a draw.
There were other men in that hotel room where the cake was being dished out secretly.
There was Kalonzo Musyoka who now wants to be the president. There was Kirwa, who is now heading the ministry of Agriculture. And there was Wamalwa Kijana who became vice president and later died in the UK while under treatment.
The only people who can now help to clear matters are the two living beings, Kirwa and Kalonzo. But in order to believe what they are saying, we have to look at what they are getting now from Kibaki administration.
Kalonzo had a ministry but was removed unceremoniously from Foreign Ministry, and transferred to the less powerful Environment ministry only to be send packing like Raila.
Kirwa is comfortable in the Agriculture ministry serving Kibaki and the country. So when it comes to him, there is no doubt that he will support the president hoping to be re-appointed by Kibaki if he gets the second term.
Kalonzo will not support the president on the issue, even if it is the truth, because it might be seen as a growing split within the ODM-K.
If Kalonzo does not support Raila, he will be seen to support the president, and that will definitely cause him problems in ODM-K.
Therefore, we will still end up in a draw.
Now then, we think that the best thing to do is to forget MoU completely, and concentrate on matters of national interest - the new next leader to be elected to run the country. This is what the people want, and not the squabbling that carries the day.
The saga is simply staged managed in order to discredit one another in the run up to the presidential contest.
Kibaki has decided that he is not giving up power as yet. He is going for the second term. According to Kibaki, Raila’s claim that there was an agreement that he (Kibaki) becomes president for one term is false. The president says he never entered into such an agreement.
Even if the MoU was there, it is useless to use time discussing it now. What was agreed upon, if any, died and was buried immediately the president took over the presidency.
According to observers, Raila, Kalonzo, Kirwa, Ngilu, Saitoti, and the late Wamalwa should be grateful that the president rewarded them with important appointments when he took over power.Â
After all the MoU thing, and the purpose it was to serve will never be understood by the members of the public, because such secret meeting held behind closed doors was probably meant to serve individual ambitions.
And because the ambitions were not served by MoU as was intended by the architects, the country has suffered insults, and seen little concrete results, because the president is not given peace and time to concentrate on what the country can benefit from. The leaders have used their time fighting one another and now the Kenyan people are being told to be party to uncovering who has lied to them.
When one looks at both men, there is no doubt that Kibaki is the most qualified leader due to his political experience. But we should not forget that a younger man may deliver, because of the wish to be given another term in the future. So the choice of a person to lead is not always easy.
But then again if we look at how each one of them has used time in search for power, we do not have to go far to understand them.
Kibaki was in Kanu and he left to form DP - the Democratic Party. When he did not manage to ascend to power using his DP ticket, he left and joined a unity Narc Party. Now the president has decided to go for a second term, and because the prospects are not good in the old Narc, he has decided to join the new Narc-Kenya where he has been welcomed and given the blessing to be the flag bearer.
Looking at Raila’s journey, he has done the same. He left his late father’s Ford-Kenya when he discovered the prospects to become the flag bearer were getting lesser and lesser.
He decided to become his own man, and formed NDP, and when he did not manage to get power using it, he dismantled the whole thing and joined Kanu party where Kibaki had been earlier. Raila wishes were not met. He did not get the blessings from the former President Daniel Moi to be the flag bearer.
Moi preferred Uhuru Kenyatta. Raila joined LDP in a continued move to look for power, and here is where he bargained for assurance through the now famous so-called MoU which never saw the light. Now as Kibaki has done, Raila has started a journey moving to ODM-K where he hopes to become its flag bearer, in an effort to fulfill his ambition to be the first Luo man as Kenya’s president.
We cannot say any of the men is a political prostitute, as some have been said earlier about Raila, because both have the right to make a journey to self success and also the fact that any Kenyan has a right to join any political party of his or her choice.
The easy ride is on Kibaki’s side, however, because he is assured of becoming Narc-K’s flag bearer. For Raila, the road to success is up-hill, because there are many who want to become flag bearers as well. ODM-K might be split for this reason only.
The best thing for the leaders now is to concentrate on the coming elections, tell the public what they will do for them, and stop the squabbling about a dead MoU, one MoU that was only conceived and never born.
By Korir. Published by African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no, tel. +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525
