Post by Onyango Oloo on Dec 7, 2005 3:52:39 GMT 3
It is a little after four eleven on a Wednesday morning. Here I am in the internet booth sponsored in part by Samsung at the
Dubai International Airport- certainly the most stylish airport I have been to-maybe that comment is a testimony to my limited air travel. We arrived from Paris at around a quarter past midnight and initially we thought we would be stuck here for fourteen hours before flying on to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Thankfully that is no longer the case...
About an hour ago I spoke to my ex in Toronto who updated me regarding the news headlines in the Standard. She also read verbatim Raila Odinga's brilliant op-ed from the day before. My son informed me about the Nairobi earthquake. Of course we spoke about other matters as well.
I am amazed at how Kenyans have been gripped with a speculative frenzy about Kibaki's non-announcement of the so called new look cabinet.
The fact that Kibaki has been hobnobbing with his nyamachoma and Tusker swilling buddies from the Mount Kenya region immediately raises a skeptical cloud about the legitimacy of the eventual line up.
The fact that some Orange MPs like Ojode, Khamisi and others have not been averse to floating trial balloons about their availability as potential political prostitutes is perhaps a signal to the ODM that this is the time to separate the proverbial wheat from the chaff.
How to do this?
Contrary to Raila's expulsion threat, I actually think that as many waffling Orangeoids should be allowed to commit hara kiri. Better they die politically by their own hands rather than get unnecessary political mileage by appearing to be matyred as free-thinking "dissidents" who thought of the greater national good. It is for the same reason why I have been always opposed to any confrontation with Raphael Tuju in Nyanza.
Beyond that, Raila Odinga and other Orange luminaries must start looking beyond parliament to solidify their broad-based democratic movement. They should remember the crowds from Uhuru Park, Likoni, Kisumu and gauge where and what is the social base, the bedrock of the successful NO campaign.
To maintain ideological credibility, the ODM should borrow from the experiences of Uganda's FDC, South Africa's ANC, Palestine's PLO and build a broad coalition of ORGANIZED and progressive Kenyan democratic forces and transcend the ephemeral individual approach to recruitment.
If the Orange team focuses on the task of building a NATIONAL movement, rather than a one-time electoral machine, then NOTHING Kibaki does in terms of musical chairs will matter.
On the other hand if the Orange team starts negotiating with the Banana back room boys, then that will be the beginning of the unravelling of the Orange Democratic Movement.
By the way I do have an Open Letter to Mwai Kibaki on Kenyan Political Stability- but I will not whip it up here at the Dubai International Airport.
I will wait until I get back to Nairobi.
Onyango Oloo
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Dubai International Airport- certainly the most stylish airport I have been to-maybe that comment is a testimony to my limited air travel. We arrived from Paris at around a quarter past midnight and initially we thought we would be stuck here for fourteen hours before flying on to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Thankfully that is no longer the case...
About an hour ago I spoke to my ex in Toronto who updated me regarding the news headlines in the Standard. She also read verbatim Raila Odinga's brilliant op-ed from the day before. My son informed me about the Nairobi earthquake. Of course we spoke about other matters as well.
I am amazed at how Kenyans have been gripped with a speculative frenzy about Kibaki's non-announcement of the so called new look cabinet.
The fact that Kibaki has been hobnobbing with his nyamachoma and Tusker swilling buddies from the Mount Kenya region immediately raises a skeptical cloud about the legitimacy of the eventual line up.
The fact that some Orange MPs like Ojode, Khamisi and others have not been averse to floating trial balloons about their availability as potential political prostitutes is perhaps a signal to the ODM that this is the time to separate the proverbial wheat from the chaff.
How to do this?
Contrary to Raila's expulsion threat, I actually think that as many waffling Orangeoids should be allowed to commit hara kiri. Better they die politically by their own hands rather than get unnecessary political mileage by appearing to be matyred as free-thinking "dissidents" who thought of the greater national good. It is for the same reason why I have been always opposed to any confrontation with Raphael Tuju in Nyanza.
Beyond that, Raila Odinga and other Orange luminaries must start looking beyond parliament to solidify their broad-based democratic movement. They should remember the crowds from Uhuru Park, Likoni, Kisumu and gauge where and what is the social base, the bedrock of the successful NO campaign.
To maintain ideological credibility, the ODM should borrow from the experiences of Uganda's FDC, South Africa's ANC, Palestine's PLO and build a broad coalition of ORGANIZED and progressive Kenyan democratic forces and transcend the ephemeral individual approach to recruitment.
If the Orange team focuses on the task of building a NATIONAL movement, rather than a one-time electoral machine, then NOTHING Kibaki does in terms of musical chairs will matter.
On the other hand if the Orange team starts negotiating with the Banana back room boys, then that will be the beginning of the unravelling of the Orange Democratic Movement.
By the way I do have an Open Letter to Mwai Kibaki on Kenyan Political Stability- but I will not whip it up here at the Dubai International Airport.
I will wait until I get back to Nairobi.
Onyango Oloo
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
