THE RAILA SUCCESSION: AN INSTALMENT

[jakaswanga]

Ocassionally there is a ripple on the surface.
the standard: who leads nyanza after Raila? An more wil come in rapid succession as the inevitable dawns even on the professors of denial.

My first instalment.

THE KINGS IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE KING! chants the court crier then. For long standing monarchies that have handled countless precedents, the succession becomes just another ritual. And in monarchies which have been removed from the centre of political power, like the tame so called constitutional monarchies we witness in Scandinavia and the Benelux, the succession requires a major hype from the political class to have the population interested, and turn it into a mega [media] event for any iota of relevance. Endless discussions about costumes, analysis of butts and rumps, of earlier bridal scandals, and more gossip about bra cups and haut couture to intertain the masses. Mere celebrity competing the other stars.

But where kingship is still theological, combining financial prowess with real political power and religious following, the mortality of the god-king is a subject more passionately felt than the return of any son of God, or man, to save any world. And so it is with the Luo Ker. [Forget the clowns like the Riaga Ogallos and Otondis]. We are talking the real Ker: Agwambo. And not some curious liter floating in the open sewer like those two.]

The first public bolt of lightning that brought the biological end-date sharply in focus, was the head-knock which necessitated several days of going incommunicado to recuperate, creating a political vacuum*. Since then, all has been quiet on the surface at the Lakeside front, but deep within popular Lakeside nationalism, like in a tense scene before a shoot-out in a wild-west bar, hearts are hedging their bets as their fingers hover around the trigger. An instant of catharsis that must come. It is in the fates.

As I see it, from a different perspective of lakeside nationalism, the loss of Raila will be taken in step, since he leaves the stage after fighting to the best of his capacities. He wont go before full potential like Tom and Argwings who must become legends in our folklore, [githo ka gipodi] because we will never know what they would have achieved in maturity. Raila on the other hand has lived his all, and leaves no room for fiction. [Otoyo moru kech nego nimar orafuok kendo tekre mar dwar orumo] --He has dimistified himself by living long! [like most revolutionaries who become caricatures of their earlier selves by overstaying in power]. He is a lifelong top warrior who survived to tell the tales in old age.

But who will succeed Da Ker of Kers? [since the political class appears to postulate there is the office of Kingship in Luo nationalism, even though in the main they are republicans! This contradictory simultaneous double conciousness will be analysed later].

Monarchism would by protocol dictate the genetical line. But it is ambition that dictates real politics. Therefore in the absence of a frontrunner by achievement, and the absence of an Odinga the calibre of Raila, the sucession reverts to intrigue. Court intrigues. The battle to be the annointed one. This battle has even deflected concentration from the priority at hand: the 2012 presidential elections.

So the pressure has burst surface, and the standard newspaper article is a sign of the tectonic forces re-arranging underneath. On Miguna's execution being another tell-tale gas-burst, I will have to go deep undercover to investigate before I report to Jukwaa!

[b6k]

Jakaswanga, ok I'll bite before you proceed on to installment number 2 if only to seek a few clarifications. If the Luo had thrived for 400 years without a Ker, what criteria was used to appoint, annoint, or install Oginga Odinga as one in the 20th century? Also I read somewhere that a Ker was not supposed to be directly involved in politics, so somewhere along the line Oginga uninstalled himself as one. How did the Ker-ness nevertheless persist to stick to him then later even by-pass his first born son, Oburu, & land on Agwambo?

[nereah]

haiyaaa...! jakaswanga ;D

mbona watupia sisi mtama? hujambo lakini kaka

as usual, i always look out for your moniker and thats what i have just done and look what i found? believe me, i have not gone past the headline...... but i want to help my self with it after this.

i have seen what b6k ;D has posted and i could tell that yes, jukwaa under the able hands of onyango oloo ;D is revving up for a big debate.

now,let me go back to your must read post but before i do, i have a question for you jakaswanga : could you by any chance know the celeb pictured below? she is among the star attractions to a regional festival in zanzibar in five weeks time.

i will be back.... ;D

[jakaswanga]

Dec 17, 2011 12:49:50 GMT 3 b6k said:

Jakaswanga, ok I'll bite before you proceed on to installment number 2 if only to seek a few clarifications. If the Luo had thrived for 400 years without a Ker, what criteria was used to appoint, annoint, or install Oginga Odinga as one in the 20th century? Also I read somewhere that a Ker was not supposed to be directly involved in politics, so somewhere along the line Oginga uninstalled himself as one. How did the Ker-ness nevertheless persist to stick to him then later even by-pass his first born son, Oburu, & land on Agwambo?

b6k
Your pathological curiosity is a characteristic I forever grew hoarse trying to sollicit out of my students in my best days of schoolmastership! But these days I earn my keep different, so it irritates me as it disturbs my alcohol induced peace of mind!

But here we go: before I loose my temper and whip you bat!

The downward migration of the Luo from present day Mid Sudan, is a history of republican rebellion, pretender divine kings, warrior chiefs, sages and shamans. All contending in one period or another for supremacy, but mostly co-existing in diffuse coalitions. For the southern Luo (mostly the fishermen of Kenya) after the dust settled after much migration and warfare on both banks of the Nile, Ruoth [Lord] ascended to the official title of [political & spritual] leader.

So when the story of Jesus came, he too was best understood as Ruoth, for starters.

Up north, for most of our cousins in present day Susan, Ker is still as good as King with divine powers! while South it remained in use, but in reference to revered old men: distinguished but not necessarily politically powerful; though they could be retired former politically poweful men.

Given the life expectancies, not many Kers were around! leading to a reform which would lower the standards in daily discourse. [Ker approaching 'Mister' or Migosi!]

The title was dimistified, like the english with 'Sir', which now is for everybody.

When colonialism came and the arrogant whiteman declared 'we' had no culture worth that concept, no God but pagan symbols, not even names worth christianising [baptising] with, Luo thinkers went into resitance mode, picking up some dusty artefacts, dusting them and infusing new life unto them! A cultural rennaissance, for total mobilisation, soon to be totally hijacked by political activists.

Ramogi Ajwang' [sometimes called Ramogi II, in order not to be confused with Ramogi Onam, an earlier ancestor] had just been known as Ruoth [Lord/Chief], but to counter Queen Elizabeth or King George, the title Ker was unearthed to checkmate the British claim to Lake {Viktoria!} Nyandha. Within half a century, political activists had proclaimed the most dynamic and articulate anti-colonialist, Oginga Odinga, the Ker. In other words Oginga Odinga managed to unify the titles Ruoth, Ker, Jatelo [more like Ayatollah Khomeini later in Iran.] Even the super brilliant Mboya had met his match.

Under the genius Oginga Odinga, the title Ker nearly reverted to its former nothern divinity! He became such a personification of it, that even after he quit, he was still associated with it.

Like the disintergrated but prestigious heavyweight belt in boxing, it requires one of great talents to unify the championship! Pretenders abound, but the true champions, they pack a punch!
But Jaramogi knew being the Luo Ker was somehow anachronistic with modern Kenyan nationalism, and world nationalism where president of the republic was the new Ker in town. His political wit, or ambitions, led him to abdicate, so that some other puppet could be Ker, a lesson he taught Raila well.

The president of the USA, and that of the USSR calling himself secretary general were the rulers of the bipolar world, and they owed their rise to a meritocracy of sorts, not hereditary chicannery. The leftist Jaramogi noted this.

disclaimer: B6K
On the history I wont be regurgating any of emeritus professors Adhiambo, Ogot, Were, Nyangidi and what have you. Neither their equivalents from our cousins in Lower Nile [majorly Acholi and Langi], nor upper Nile! So always be ready for a few twists you have never heard before. I know you know where the public library section of Luo history is! That you did not go there and instead came here to ask Jakaswanga, means you want a drink! Cheers!

May I now go back and concentrate my observations on the standard article please? And you, Nereah yuora, I will be back!

[njamba]

jaskswanga, very interesting info on the luo history..on who will suceed Raila i think it will be A jim although I think age is catching up with Ajim he does look as vibrant as he was during mageuzi days.. After that the young 40 year olds generation will take over

[b6k]

Hehehe, very illuminating indeed, Jakaswanga. Let me wait for installment number 2.

[nereah]

just to set me on the mood for my upcoming post to this compelling thread by our very own jakaswanga, please allow me to introduce to you the priced lady of magoya ;D, arguably the oldest kenyan celeb and her troupe doing her thing. she is among the big names that will be headlining a regional event in zanzibar some five weeks from now.

[nereah]

our jakaswanga is game as usual. the article by my boy, isaac ongiri is by no means exhaustive but must be noted for its attempt to provoke a discourse that some might want to shy away from while others would indulge in.

yet there are those who may limit themselves or be constraint by cultural norm that is against the anticipation or even imagining of a person's death leave alone a leader of such eminence.

there are also those who may fault ongiri for "limiting" agwambo to a luo phenomenon and thus have a basis for dismissing what otherwise is an important issue that our jakaswanga ;D is inviting us into.

ongiri and his editor presupposes that raila sphere of influence is first and foremost luo and at most nyanza and therefore first it is nyanza(and by this he means luo nyanza) that must take responsibility for defining his succession.secondly his article assume that luos cant and must not submit to a non-luo titular leader.

ongiri and his editor/s assigned themselves a herculean task: imagining,conceptualizing and anticipating agwambo's irrelevancy in kenyan and for their purposes luo nationalism.

jakaswanga on the other hand, takes us to the next level (i stand to be guided if not corrected) by inviting us into a luo world without raila and in the process constructing a historical raila in the luo nation even as he uses both anecdotal and obviously referenced info to define and by no means edify us on luo and luoism.

of course there are about two patently false assumptions or premises(from isaac ongiri's article) that any discerning mind may want to clutch on to negate the purpose or possible intent of this discourse.

after reflection, i am strongly persuaded that jakaswanga effort to build on ongiri's causal narrative is worth my time.indeed, its, in my small mind, worth the time of jukwaa.

the timing of this thread is also evocative. for starters it directs them minds of some of us to the much publicized or anticipated transitions in certain societies, civilizations and systems,some democratic,others theocratic while some autocratic.

raila has evolved over time into the global leadership stage from the luo village corner that moi and his company wanted to limit him. such is his evolution that, raila the persona, raila the ideologue and raila the phenomenon is more than enigmatic. yet,as jakaswanga ably seek out to illustrate, it is defeatist if not disingenuous to talk about luo and the kenya we have without first tackling raila, the idea.

the stubborn fact is that the luos and the kenya we have are inseparable for both compelling historical and purely divine reasons.and this is how raila comes in and not the other way round. may i therefore submit that raila is not a creation of the luos but rather a consequence of kenyanisation of luos.

this, if you ask me, explains why its not about raila but could as well be one in a billions of seeds of luo men that have over the centuries ended up in the womb of some exalted lady be she the mother of barrack obama or ajuma odinga. the complexities of the luo nation,their seeming contradictions and by far,stubborn spirit,propensity for just causes and inner struggles from afflictions of politically driven poverty to pestilences,calls for greater understanding.

in raila, as the late jukwaa member who introduced me to this great forum would wont to say,there is agent of historical inevitability. we may want to draw parallel to others before him here in kenya and elsewhere whose exploits,if history is to go by, were strictly time purposed. are luos existence predicated on raila and therefore raila's exit from the political stage which this thread is contemplating is by measure a cataclysm? your guess is a good

as mine. to be contd..........

[jakaswanga]

Dec 17, 2011 16:58:57 GMT 3 nereah said:

haiyaaa...! jakaswanga ;D
now,let me go back to your must read post but before i do, i have a question for you jakaswanga : could you by any chance know the celeb pictured below? she is among the star attractions to a regional festival in zanzibar in five weeks time.

i will be back.... ;D

Nereah Yo,
I am scared of telling you why I took my time responding to this one. But put woozily, I was trying to confirm if this could be Dorothy Masuka, and if she is still alive. Dorothy comes from Zimbabue, sang with Makeba in her younger days, and I once interviewed her for a student paper on Reggae in Africa. I was in the company of a beauty from Mozambique who spoke swahili too. For a whole week I agonised whether the question do I know the lady was of historic proportions! ;D

But now I see this one is a Luo Dorothy! Pinyni yawa!

[jakaswanga]

Yo, Nereah,

Ongiri's viewpoint is that of 'angoch-tiang'' [spectacles made of sugar/maize cane droppings]. Thereforee will only use it as we use the ['tie-gweno' ] sketches of our pre-unit children to highlight they are on the way to literacy. Or, and now apologies in advance: an innocent boy may point to corpulating dogs stuck in the center of a busy homestead and marvel in all innocence. The rebuke from adults must be tongue in cheek! So shall I be with Ongiri Isaac! [leaving loopholes for aha aha rejoinders!]

ISAAC ONGIRI: Even as the Kibaki succession debate rages, murmurs on how to deal with what maybe an ultimate political end to Prime Minister Raila Odinga should he lose elections next year has begun.

If he looses the next elections, of course his national influence will decline. And indeed a particular segment of Luo nationalism which has invested heavily in the prospect of his assuming the summit office in the land will suffer a dread blow. But not everybody belongs to the school of illusions. Some know elections can be lost, and the wise general going for victory but preparing for defeat, is a lesson they learnt at heart from their grandparents
But if Raila contineus to fight for justice, he can never be irrelevant..

The PM has been sitting at the helm of Luo leadership for more than 18 years and a win at the General Election due next year could extend his hold by another ten or so years.

This statement is ignorant of the genesis of the Raila hold on public psyche, and an earlier hold by his dad on Luo. Raila achieved this sway without being president, so it must be possible to think it can be maintained without the presidency. The presidency would enhance it, indeed be a crowning jewel, but is not and has never been its rationale.

But it is the possibility of his failure to conquer the top seat that has generated debate on how the Luo community could handle his succession without disintegrating.

Nop, the possibility of this failure --to capture the top seat, is irrelevant to succession politics. He has failed before in it. His age is a greater factor. His percieved expenditure, tired and and no longer motivated to engage in heavy combat, are the issues. Are always the issue in succession politics which are supra generational.

The Odinga family, through Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and now his politically gifted son Raila, have held the community politically together since independence.

NOp again. Ongiri's history is fuzzy. Daniel arap Moi, through interlocutors like Okiki Amayo, Odongo Omamo Kaliech, Dalmas Otieno, Okwanyo Henry, Omollo Okero, and the KANU machinery 'contracted' Jaluos and, by bribery and coercion or patronage, built a poweful base in Luoland, leading even to a character like Robert Ouko becoming a, for lack of better words, Great Luo Hope! In this period I would not say the community was politically together. With Jaramogi in the cold, lots of uppity guys climbed on the baba-na-mama bandwagon: ni thum wero mana ng'ama nitie! Bird at hand is worth...

But Odinga’s political charge that has dominated Nyanza politics for decades and influenced the national political scene since independence is facing an acid test in next elections.

I personally do not think the elections is an acid test for the Odinga brand. Jaramogi became legend because he was percieved to be fighting for what is right, what is just, and standing up for the ideals of UHURU. Ideals trashed by the Kenyatta KANU clique. He was on the right side of history so to speak. This was the key tenet in his invincibility, the name Jaramogi itself becoming synonimous with sedition! And he was so rejectionist, read idealistic, he rejected all attempts to incorporate him; infuriating quite a large segment of educated Luos who wanted to get on with careers anyhow, regardless of the politics!

Raila [being a leading member of that educated uppity petty bourgeois club] took this cue, this hint of dissaffection at radical politics [which is a class characteristic of the bareaucratic class whose economic interests are ensured whether there is a democracy or a dictatorship], and started the politics of co-operation. That is striking a deal with the status-quo, whilst plotting either to bring it down in trojan-horse fashion, or to ascend as an insider to the summit and perhaps carry out a radical agenda [once the power had been won by chicannery]. In this, Raila underestimated the survival instincts of the establishment: they stole his victory at elections by force, rammed a quarter-loaf through his throat, beat him to pulp and emasculated him in a straight jacket of corruption. Not because he is a Luo, but because there is enough proved undifferentiated consciousness in him to make him too volatile. That is code for an intrinsic capacity to effect reforms under pressure, thus too risky. Kibaki on the other hand is the safest pair of hands any establishment could wish for. Even speaking gikuyu is too radical for him! [Kiengereza na kiswahili zimetosha kusema ninavyo, jah-meh-nii.]

So what really threatens to break Raila and all that Odinga myth, is that, while he is the leading reform candidate, the nearest thing to its personification, he chose working from the inside, and has not delivered the reform at his height in power. On the contrary, he is co-principal to a monstrosity the equivalent of Moi in the plunder of public goodies. This strategy [cooperation] then becomes questionable; it leads to co-option, and not trojan-horsing a victory. But it serves the patronised section of Luo bareaucracy very well. Getting plum jobs, business ops and the accolades of power.

But Reform recognizes it is widowed and starts a search for a new champion, Raila having been outed as fake. This outing as a fake, because of the horrors of the GCG under which he is top commander, is what threatens to put paid to his political hold on any segment of the poor and progressives. The percieved abandoning of the historic struggle which has been the Odinga patent, is what will erase the sway of Jaramogi's hold on public conciousness. Or the attainment of victory, naturally.

Raila does not have the power, the magic, nor the wherewithal to carry the Luos into a celebration of corruption, nepotistic patronage, ineptitude, plunder of public koffers by law or otherwise, impunity up to the murder of honest cops like Chimorei. Nor the other ills which Jukwaa has so highlighted as outstanding characteristics of the Kibaki II regime where he, Raila, is co-regent.

The evolving and further differentiation of the Luo nation into segments of conciousness which nolonger can be reconciled within one flag of monarchical leadership, is what disintergrates the concept of the ONE THRONE to be inherited. It becomes a construct with no base in reality. Therefore becomes the stage for clowns like Dalmas and the rest who Ongiri posts as contenders!
.....
TO BE CONTINEUD....

[nereah]

the excerpt below from jakaswanga's ongoing series is worthy of my time in this stimulating thread. i must respond....

Dec 24, 2011 13:36:32 GMT 3 jakaswanga said:

So what really threatens to break Raila and all that Odinga myth, is that, while he is the leading reform candidate, the nearest thing to its personification, he chose working from the inside, and has not delivered the reform at his height in power. On the contrary, he is co-principal to a monstrosity the equivalent of Moi in the plunder of public goodies.

This strategy [cooperation] then becomes questionable; it leads to co-option, and not trojan-horsing a victory. But it serves the patronised section of Luo bareaucracy very well. Getting plum jobs, business ops and the accolades of power.

But Reform recognizes it is widowed and starts a search for a new champion, Raila having been outed as fake. This outing as a fake, because of the horrors of the GCG under which he is top commander, is what threatens to put paid to his political hold on any segment of the poor and progressives.

The percieved abandoning of the historic struggle which has been the Odinga patent, is what will erase the sway of Jaramogi's hold on public conciousness. Or the attainment of victory, naturally.

Raila does not have the power, the magic, nor the wherewithal to carry the Luos into a celebration of corruption, nepotistic patronage, ineptitude, plunder of public koffers by law or otherwise, impunity up to the murder of honest cops like Chimorei. Nor the other ills which Jukwaa has so highlighted as outstanding characteristics of the Kibaki II regime where he, Raila, is co-regent.

The evolving and further differentiation of the Luo nation into segments of consciousness which nolonger can be reconciled within one flag of monarchical leadership, is what disintegrates the concept of the ONE THRONE to be inherited. It becomes a construct with no base in reality. Therefore becomes the stage for clowns like Dalmas and the rest who Ongiri posts as contenders!
.....

[nereah]

jakaswanga, i still owe you one, hoping that you are still on agwambo's succession. better late than never, i say.

[jakaswanga]

Jan 14, 2012 20:10:07 GMT 3 nereah said:

jakaswanga, i still owe you one, hoping that you are still on agwambo's succession. better late than never, i say.

Nereah,
I was wondering whether it is within this thread that I should look at the aspect of the vacuum he will leave in the national psyche. He has been the most dynamic force within his peers nationwide, so his political demise should also lead to a national re-arrangement of cards. Stay tuned.

[nereah]

jakaswanga ;D, take this to the bank, this thread is compelling and a must reference to all those who come to jukwaa for insights, intellectual bearing and all that.

just as kionjo to my coming post--before i take a break from jukwaa--- i will attempt to contest the media construct on raila odinga especially in regard to identity politics and with emphasis on the luo nationalism.

i shall interrogate your submission on the contradictions on raila,the persona and ideologue drawing from onyango obbo's argument that he is an expired leftist and try to reconcile it with miguna miguna's famed injunction in jukwaa that raila is invincible because he is an an idea.

in doing so, i hope to make an attempt at redressing the injustice that has been done on the raila narrative and the luo framing as is the case with tiny.cc/g3pux

[jakaswanga]

Jan 15, 2012 19:51:52 GMT 3 nereah said:

jakaswanga ;D, take this to the bank, this thread is compelling and a must reference to all those who come to jukwaa for insights, intellectual bearing and all that.

just as kionjo to my coming post--before i take a break from jukwaa--- i will attempt to contest the media construct on raila odinga especially in regard to identity politics and with emphasis on the luo nationalism.

i shall interrogate your submission on the contradictions on raila,the persona and ideologue drawing from onyango obbo's argument that he is an expired leftist and try to reconcile it with miguna miguna's famed injunction in jukwaa that raila is invincible because he is an an idea.

in doing so, i hope to make an attempt at redressing the injustice that has been done on the raila narrative and the luo framing as is the case with tiny.cc/g3pux

Nereah,
delay that break from jukwaa if you can! I can see your head is pregnant, and folks must sit baaaack ¨hi Jeff and take note!

[jakaswanga]

Jan 15, 2012 19:51:52 GMT 3 nereah said:

jakaswanga ;D, take this to the bank, this thread is compelling and a must reference to all those who come to jukwaa for insights, intellectual bearing and all that.

i shall interrogate your submission on the contradictions on raila,the persona and ideologue drawing from onyango obbo's argument that he is an expired leftist and try to reconcile it with miguna miguna's famed injunction in jukwaa that raila is invincible because he is an an idea.

in doing so, i hope to make an attempt at redressing the injustice that has been done on the raila narrative and the luo framing as is the case with tiny.cc/g3pux

This one handles Mudavadi's upcoming statement --started by phil.
jukwaa.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=6830&page=1
[quiting ODM?]

The Raila-Mudavadi 'horn' [combat union] has been a succesful venture, so when it bursts, a diligent post-moterm is needed. People like me watched it blossom and respected for it. During Ruto's challenge to replace Mudavadi, I disqualified Ruto as immature, unstable and still needed time to ripen and understand the meaning of consensus and sacrifice. And long-terminsm! Mudavadi I consedered non-captive to zealot-like nationalisms, and therefore amiable to minority groups.

But now if I were still in ODM, I would work from the premise he is gone. The second senior most member of a party does not do this kind of thing in the run to national elections. This is an adult defecating at his own front door in daylight in full view of the public! Act of no honour.

ODM is a party I watch with interest. I worked for her very intensely during the last elections. But it is important to put a caveat before the remainder of this post, since it may sound a bit mumbo-jumbo to those not familiar with the dialectical school of analysis which puts importance into the concept of 'comprador bourgeioisie'.

Currently, or lately, the proprietor of this blog in vintage form has penned a masterpiece ---(which, amongst other things, as otishotish observed correctly, swept Kathure-K once more off her cisgender feet, and reminded her why omena is such a great diet, and why those who worship the tiny fish are worth loving! )--- with a stringent analysis which unveils our ruling class as comprador in the classic sense, --puppets beholden to resident vice-roys. In that missive Oloo includes a definition of comprador. demokrasia-kenya.blogspot.com/2012/04/setting-kenyan-peoples-agenda-for-2012.html

Working on that premise, the much hyped differences between the axes Raila-ODM and Uhuruto, are not, as mulamwa ;D Omwenga would say, like night and day, but, on the contrary, are like two drops of water! In other words, the economic conciousness and practice of Raila and Uhuru are identical. Their medicine for the Kenyan crisis is similar, even if their personalities differ. They do not have a fundamental contradiction in thought between.

---[I have an answer why Uhuru having been a water melon counts for nothing in this thesis: A constitution must be anchored in the real economic relations. The new constitution is not. It is merely an expression of hope. A list of wishes beggars wont ride. For instance there is no police investigative infrastructure which can sustain justice as is envisaged in the new constitution. Thorough investigation is a first tenet in courts that take proof seriously. Proof beyond ...]---

The question which then arises, is whether the --[following the crisis in the aftermath of the PEV]-- apparent differentiation amongst the ruling class as the elections approach, is a window of opportunity which can lead to a furtherance of the popular agenda, and whether the leading comprador candidate, Raila and his ODM, are still the least worst of the lot --the way people like me reasoned in 2007.

But why the ganging up of his fellow compradors to stop him at all costs? --. Personally I think they can chill [as a class]. Their collective interests will not be threatened by a Raila presidency. Raila's instincts are to maintain the comprador neo-colonial state in the mode of primitive accumulation. Individually, of course Raila could grind some personal axes, just because he is human too!

With all these in mind, how do I view Mudavadi's high-risk set? that threatens the Raila succession or ascension!? [planning to disown ODM and his 'benefactor' Raila].

Self survival is always a good place to start looking for motive.
1. Mudavadi needed to be more assertive, in the face of criticism from an emerging Luhya nationalism keen to belittle him as Raila's puppet. {omukwhasi Eugene is finding this out too, being Uhuru's toy]. And Mudavadi reckoned challenging Raila would give him more credibility back home, and raise his national profile some.
[This challenge started good naturedly --as a pre-fixed match, but was hijacked by the dynamics of conflict, ballooning past the managerial skills of the duo Raila and Mudavadi, and discovering in the process the party machinery was in position to arbitrate either].

2. In the beginning Mudavadi could have reckoned he would easily succeed Raila, with Raila's backing too, in a kind of gentlemanly unspoken MOU. As the campaign got under way, he came face to face with the primitive wing of Luo nationalism. Her hostility, virulence, her desperacy in holding Raila captive, her historic sense of entitlement, informed him he would never get their backing --even with a dying Raila's support! ODM began to look like a dead-end to him.

3. If he looses now, after all this acrimony, what will his [fall back]position be? Wont he be condemned to ignominy? denounced as party wrecker, a G7 mole, a sea-saw boy of infirm mind! Really a dead-end like in number 2. And who knows? if the ticket is to be 'western', wouldn't Marende or Atwoli replace him with ease?

4. Ex President Moi has abandoned Uhuru [for abandoning KANU?] and is calling old debts. The far-sighted giraffe may have calculated his professorial cook-book can still resuscitate the party of independence to face his bumbling orphans. And save his tattered, discredited honour.

5. Mudavadi is thinking beyond politics. What are his options if his political career flounders? So behind the scenes, he could have hit a neat arrangement. In exchange for delivering Raila a deemed killer blow. Having his revenge for Raila ever having let his minions humuliate him so.
------------

NB: I am not so doom-minded on Raila's chances if Mudavadi goes. He still has an option. To date, Raila has done his politics in a way which fits the narrative of ethnic math, by default or not. He has always sought to sooth the fears of his fellow compradors, ruthlessly using and abusing his popular support at will, taking especially the Luo part for granted. Loyal sheep.

Now, with all his classmates having ganged up against him in ABR [anybody but Raila], it is time for Raila to betray them in turn, and win the elections pants down. He can betray them by immersing himself fully in the people of Kenya. TRUSTING their judgement! also to deal with the truths of their country!

[Outside referenda, Raila has never trusted the peoples judgement even in Nyanza, that is why he filled ODM with his hand-picked cronies until popular dissaproval warned him off publicly]. Now he can trust the people and win the way he has with the referenda, when he never spoke with a forked, glib snake tongue.

How does he immerse himself in the people of Kenya? To begin with, telling the truth! Trusting the people with the truth! And his cupboard is full of them skeletons.
The comprador in chief, must flirt with his class suicide to win. That is how steep history gets.

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act ----george orwell.

[nereah]

jakaswanga,

i am yet to post my take on raila's succession even as the plot thickens.this and the other one on miguna's open letter are indeed overdue. lets hope the spirits move me sufficiently soon.

and talking of that word that my late hubby was found of here is pilipo the son of otani,as pretentious as usual tinyurl.com/c2gp47o

[jakaswanga]

Dec 26, 2011 11:25:36 GMT 3 nereah said:

the excerpt below from jakaswanga's ongoing series is worthy of my time in this stimulating thread. i must respond....

Dec 24, 2011 13:36:32 GMT 3 jakaswanga said:

So what really threatens to break Raila and all that Odinga myth, is that, while he is the leading reform candidate, the nearest thing to its personification, he chose working from the inside, and has not delivered the reform at his height in power. On the contrary, he is co-principal to a monstrosity the equivalent of Moi in the plunder of public goodies.

This strategy [cooperation] then becomes questionable; it leads to co-option, and not trojan-horsing a victory. But it serves the patronised section of Luo bareaucracy very well. Getting plum jobs, business ops and the accolades of power.

But Reform recognizes it is widowed and starts a search for a new champion, Raila having been outed as fake. This outing as a fake, because of the horrors of the GCG under which he is top commander, is what threatens to put paid to his political hold on any segment of the poor and progressives.

The perceived abandoning of the historic struggle which has been the Odinga patent, is what will erase the sway of Jaramogi's hold on public consciousness. Or the attainment of victory, naturally.

Raila does not have the power, the magic, nor the wherewithal to carry the Luos into a celebration of corruption, nepotistic patronage, ineptitude, plunder of public coffers by law or otherwise, impunity up to the murder of honest cops like Chimorei. Nor the other ills which Jukwaa has so highlighted as outstanding characteristics of the Kibaki II regime where he, Raila, is co-regent.

The evolving and further differentiation of the Luo nation into segments of consciousness which nolonger can be reconciled within one flag of monarchical leadership, is what disintegrates the concept of the ONE THRONE to be inherited. It becomes a construct with no base in reality. Therefore becomes the stage for clowns like Dalmas and the rest who Ongiri posts as contenders!
.....

Hey Nereah, you are sorely missed on Jukwaa. Pray tell, if you still exist among those who breathe? or is it the sad case of the Kenyan euphemism, you have been promoted to higher glory? Neither has the administrator of this blog shed light, for I think he would know. -----(Nereah Yuora, aseriti a nene higini, ka luwore gi kaka nene ichika romo, to ok isebiro. Koro ochunoa akwany okwacha, asong mbele kaka seche bende medo kadho, mondo kik atwo kama aselwokorae. Katakamano, e kindego ma an athoro, kendo asoro mosmos, abiro bendo karango chien, ka bende dipo wang’a nyalo mako tipo mari, ka ilawoya, wira ni mondo ijuka itiek singo nogo ma nene iketo maler, e yo manyadimba modhiero achune.)

Here is Achieng’ Nyar Suba, a song composed by yuori Ajossy Jabondo but made famous by Jerry Jalamo Kajohn in Extra Heka-Heka: Suba to bor to nyiri beyobeyo; nyiri dhum magalagala Jossy awuoro nyadiriyo. Aseko yie to an ayie, ayie ahinya, ni gimaber minegaga ng’ato!



THE LAST SHOT

But FF from 2011: and the elections came and went 2013. And now once more, Raila re-organises himself to position himself for a final stab at the all too illusive office of Ker mar Kenya.

So, what can the dying horse do, so that its last kick be of historical worth? What can the dying horse do, that its dying cries leave an echo which shall reverberate through the annals of history?

That to me, is the pertinent question facing Raila Odinga in the twilight zone of his career. How does he use his last years to crown his legacy in the liberation history of Kenya? Does he squander it all unto the ignominy of a comical Quixotic lurch, or does he refurbish it into a seed for the national liberation that has to flower somewhere in the morrow of the republic?
I will take a mild approach, concomitant with the historical class limitations of the gangster/bandit petty bourgeoisie.
That said, I advice a return to the source. A return to the tel [well] of inspiration. THE PEOPLE. We the people. I advice a shedding off, of the PR-constructs of re-branding and ingratiation into the chattering classes, and a return to a genuine grassroots rubble-rousing and activist communion with the mass of the people. ---(Later I will argue why, in my opinion, the current political situation where the onus is left on the American USAID to organise coup de tats in Kenya, has room for the kind of activist politics which Raila so naturally excelled in!]

KISUMU: This Raila being humiliated by a Luo lumpen in Kisumu is surely a lost one! No wonder Liz Ongoro broke down at the sight of watching him who she loves so dearly being LED ASTRAY. Should that hostility witnessed in Kisumu not be the exclusive subscription for the likes of Raphael Tuju and Miguna Miguna? Should not those jeers be the fate of would-be Luo rebels, those challenging the Patron in Chief of the Lakeside City with a hyacinth-clogged dead port? Pray, Amollo, what ill have you done the gods, that they turn your people against you? What message do the ancestors send you, that if you have the sense, you be the legendary old dog which re-learnt the tricks of old to save itself from a sad disposal at the political abattoir? In other words, where has the real Raila Odinga been burried? The one within whom resided the spirit known as Agwambo. The Agwambo which is a form of Mahia. --Hia being an impregnated form of galagala. The last being beyond a common man’s knowledge!
‘’How can I know you father? You are beyond my imagination!’’ that is how Chinua Achebe teaches us, the Igbo would respond to a direct look from an Agwambo, or an Egwugwu raising an eyebrow!
And here is Holy [in the Christian sense] Kisumu chasing an ‘Agwambo’ out of town, as they tear down a ‘peace monument’ donated by one community not subscribed to Jesus as the Messiah.

So we have a situation, Jodalawa, and not just in Luoland. ----Iwinja, Nereah yuora?

BACK TO THE SOURCE FOR INSPIRATION.

The challenge, or the hurdle toward political invincibility, is having confidence in the people of Kenya. Trusting their ability not to betray their own fate (as the rule is with the elite); trusting their capacity to have time for the articulation of a vision genuinely encompassing their popular dreams, their ideals, their aspirations (as was the case of those who campaigned for the reform constitution which was finally promulgated in 2010).

The challenge is having the confidence to base ones political career on that premise of a people persuadable to the ranks of struggle for their emancipation. It is a risk no calculating politician dare take when faced with presidential elections in Kenya! Because all statistics will return: DO NOT! Kenya goes ethnic loyalty on the Big Day. Common political sense will say: Kenya does not reward true champions of the people, neither in life, nor in death. Check the wretched fates of the Chelagat Mutais, George Anyonas, Brigadier John Odongos, JM Kariukis. We already have one Messiah, Jesus, and he sealed the deal of salvation long ago!

Expensive political consultants will point to the sociological superstition, that Kenyans worship wealth and money, however ill gotten, and the articulation of collective ideals is but empty talk, seeds broadcast on barren rock.
---Indeed one could check the list of the richest Kenyans published by the Daily Nation this past week. It is a powerful and unquestioning tribute to corruption, ineptitude in statecraft but excellence in state loot; a salutation to treachery and the derailment of the Uhuru ideals.

By PATRICK NZIOKA & By BERNARD NAMUNANE
www.nation.co.ke/news/Kenyans-Wealth-Families-Politicians/-/1056/2215578/-/rw5iryz/-/index.html
People with political connections control more than 50 per cent of the Kenya’s wealth that is owned by individuals, a new report has shown.
The Kenyatta, Moi, Kibaki, Karume, Kulei, Biwott, Nyachae, Odinga, Saitoti, Michuki and Mwau families are listed among the wealthiest in the report compiled by a British organisation. The same families also own large tracks of land.
……………….
Other large individual land owners include Mr Swaleh Nguru, Mr Saleh Said Sherman, Mr Tahir Sheikh Said (TSS) and Kamlesh Pattni.
The group is likely to get even richer because property prices continue to rise.

And then the mental meltdown in our two correspondents Nzioka and Namunane: They say

………… The list of the wealthy political dynasties and billionaire landowners reflects Kenya’s top political leadership.
However, the report does not give details about how their wealth was acquired and does not suggest in any way that the wealth was acquired irregularly.

BINGO!$ Correct: The report does not GIVE DETAILS ON HOW THEIR WEALTH WAS AQUIRED! But even as it keeps all that in the dark, the report does NOT SUGGEST IN ANY WAY THE WEALTH WAS ACQUIRED IRREGULARLY. [I can not explain how Bill Gates, Ted Turner, Steve Jobs or Zuckenberg of Facebook made their wealth!?
---KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! HALLO NAIROBI! ANY THINKERS OUT THERE? OR IS EVERYBODY BRAIN DEAD? (what did you gather from off the record chats with the lead investigator of the dead Kroll report?]

Those who have served in situations with men or women with no cobwebs in their minds will get straight to the heart of the matter without dilly-dallying nor beating about the bush. The wealth of these politically connected Kenyans should be confiscated and nationalised in toto. The 50% of private wealth they control are the proceeds of state looting. Right, Kenyatta Moi Kibaki Biwott Nyachaye Raila Pattni Ruto all must pray, that never in Kenya, a mental caliber the rank of Paul Kagame at his peak ascends to power. Nay and no way, the reasoning that it was your business genius that accrued you that massive wealth is a fantasy in your heads. But for the moment let us live in Lalaland and believe it. No worries.
So it is agreed then, there is no evidence these Presidential families and their politically well-connected acolytes stole their way to dollar billionairehood. Issue closed. For now. The future generations are of course free to commission more Kroll reports, erect Guillotines at Uhuru Park, and harvest the heads of state looters to their fill. That will be their prerogative to do or not to do.
For our generation, let us get back to Raila and his last act. His last attempt which is a do or die; his last arrow in the quiver which must be a dead shot.
Currently, Raila is one hell of a compromised, ballast-laden politician. As the ex supervisor and coordinator of the, I have said before, monstrosity called the GCG, he is a known quantity in power. His much flaunted track-record as a hero of the second liberation was not enough resonance with the people to punch Uhuru Kenyatta senseless at the last elections. The people had not seen any iota of his reform credentials at the GCG. The monster of the 10th parliament with pretenders then fallen angels like Speaker Marende, run amok in every negative fashion.
So, to regenerate his shine, ---[mondo olerre kendo opichni manyien kaka thuol moa roch]---, to refind his footing with the common man, to rekindle his Agwambo magic and be the doyen of popular aspirations once more, the depth of Amollo’s Mea Culpa must be an extremity in purgatorial supplication before Wanjiku. Either Saul to Paul, or Paul to Saul from the other end. Nothing less than a rebirth. Nothing less than undergoing a purification ritual: cleansed of the filth of corruption he has swam in the last decade. (I am using that religious imagery deliberately because apparently Kenya is a Christian nation, not a secular, materialist political polity!)

Veteran Raila has by now tried every seduction technique in the book of Lies, ----duplicity, smokescreens, snakes and ladders, chicanery----, such that Wanjiku can nowadays smell him out from a thousand kilometres: there comes Raila the Fake with his new PENTAGON arrangement, expanding ODM’s executive secretariat to keep all frogs in the wheelbarrow as he pushes. Forewarned is forearmed.
I therefore think, that if Raila is still interested in being Agwambo Mahia, he has to be absolutely genuine, which allows him to draw on his renowned natural talents and strengths. He should Fight Wanjiku’s corner, like he nor another has ever done in post-colonial Kenya. And no, that is not even class suicide yet! Class suicide is a revolutionary step! Raila merely needs a religious transformation, being genuinely righteous for a change. The PR-packages he has adopted to market himself as something he is not, make him nothing but a comical, desperate wolf in sheep skin underestimating the intelligence of its prey.

Actually this genuineness or coming out of the real Raila, means he has to be at war with some of his best bed fellows. That is, the new Raila must totally purge himself of the slime of corruption which is the class trait of his fellow politicians. Yo Yo Yo! Cleansing himself as it were, in a ritual of faithful marriage to the ideals of Wanjiku. But then, are not these political parties beholden to rich funders? Beholden to the owners of Kenya,-- those all who would crowd at the top of the list of embezzlers any Kroll clone would produce after investigations?

Perhaps the ideals of Wanjiku are not well defined? I mean where is the proof the people of Kenya do not want to be ruled by corruption, theft and political debauchery? Statistically verifiable, is that not what they vote for, in free and fair elections? Yo Yo Yo! Therefore steady as you are Raila, course is correctly set. Lipstick on the pig will do! One can fool enough people all the time to win!

This pragmatism for lack of a better definition, is what sets the stage for a powerful show down in the unfolding history of Kenya. For there is a contrarian view, that those ideals of Wanjiku have always been open and simple, incorruptible and straightforward, inalienable. But all the more impossible for most generations of our politicians.

Actually it has always taken electoral riggings to derail Wanjiku’s correct choice. It has always taken an authoritarian system to keep Wanjiku down. It has taken murder to traumatise Wanjiku into an occasional confusion. We all know JM Kariuki died because in a free and fair election, he would sweep from Busia to Mandera. A genuine article sells.

And when Kenya was a Whiteman’s Island, the British could never hold a free and fair election here like they were doing in Mother England, because the people of Kenya would immediately vote out the colonial administration! But now, a new generation of Kenyans think the people of Kenya vote their own executioners to power!? You go to believe the people are morons first. Me? I believe when there is no choice, you shrug. Any will do.

A fake Agwambo can not sell. Then the people will vote a genuine reactionary instead: Kalonzo Tosha it be!

www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/ODM-to-launch-new-programme-for-youth/-/1064/2217654/-/lq5r4gz/-/index.html

ODM leader Raila Odinga will on Monday launch a new party programme seeking to reconnect it with the youth and address their issues.
Mr Odinga is set to launch the Arise Programme at the Tom Mboya Labour College in Kisumu at a function to be attended by youth leaders and party supporters from Nyamira, Kisii, Kisumu, Homa Bay and Migori counties.

that is how bitter it gets: if only when in office as PM he had run KKV [Kazi kwa Vijana] well! The youth would now be mobbing him as if he were Christian Ronaldo in Lissabon or Madrid, instead of chasing him away as if he were a chicken thief come to raid! Nitiere ang'e ma telo! yawa!

Apr 14, 2012 19:57:53 GMT 3 nereah said:

jakaswanga,

i am yet to post my take on raila's succession even as the plot thickens.this and the other one on miguna's open letter are indeed overdue. lets hope the spirits move me sufficiently soon.

and talking of that word that my late hubby was found of here is pilipo the son of otani,as pretentious as usual tinyurl.com/c2gp47o

[b6k]

Feb 23, 2014 17:02:46 GMT 3 jakaswanga said:

Those who have served in situations with men or women with no cobwebs in their minds will get straight to the heart of the matter without dilly-dallying nor beating about the bush. The wealth of these politically connected Kenyans should be confiscated and nationalised in toto. The 50% of private wealth they control are the proceeds of state looting. Right, Kenyatta Moi Kibaki Biwott Nyachaye Raila Pattni Ruto all must pray, that never in Kenya, a mental caliber the rank of Paul Kagame at his peak ascends to power. Nay and no way, the reasoning that it was your business genius that accrued you that massive wealth is a fantasy in your heads. But for the moment let us live in Lalaland and believe it. No worries.
So it is agreed then, there is no evidence these Presidential families and their politically well-connected acolytes stole their way to dollar billionairehood. Issue closed. For now. The future generations are of course free to commission more Kroll reports, erect Guillotines at Uhuru Park, and harvest the heads of state looters to their fill. That will be their prerogative to do or not to do.
For our generation, let us get back to Raila and his last act. His last attempt which is a do or die; his last arrow in the quiver which must be a dead shot.
Currently, Raila is one hell of a compromised, ballast-laden politician. As the ex supervisor and coordinator of the, I have said before, monstrosity called the GCG, he is a known quantity in power. His much flaunted track-record as a hero of the second liberation was not enough resonance with the people to punch Uhuru Kenyatta senseless at the last elections. The people had not seen any iota of his reform credentials at the GCG. The monster of the 10th parliament with pretenders then fallen angels like Speaker Marende, run amok in every negative fashion.
So, to regenerate his shine, ---[mondo olerre kendo opichni manyien kaka thuol moa roch]---, to refind his footing with the common man, to rekindle his Agwambo magic and be the doyen of popular aspirations once more, the depth of Amollo’s Mea Culpa must be an extremity in purgatorial supplication before Wanjiku. Either Saul to Paul, or Paul to Saul from the other end. Nothing less than a rebirth. Nothing less than undergoing a purification ritual: cleansed of the filth of corruption he has swam in the last decade. (I am using that religious imagery deliberately because apparently Kenya is a Christian nation, not a secular, materialist political polity!)

Veteran Raila has by now tried every seduction technique in the book of Lies, ----duplicity, smokescreens, snakes and ladders, chicanery----, such that Wanjiku can nowadays smell him out from a thousand kilometres: there comes Raila the Fake with his new PENTAGON arrangement, expanding ODM’s executive secretariat to keep all frogs in the wheelbarrow as he pushes. Forewarned is forearmed.
I therefore think, that if Raila is still interested in being Agwambo Mahia, he has to be absolutely genuine, which allows him to draw on his renowned natural talents and strengths. He should Fight Wanjiku’s corner, like he nor another has ever done in post-colonial Kenya. And no, that is not even class suicide yet! Class suicide is a revolutionary step! Raila merely needs a religious transformation, being genuinely righteous for a change. The PR-packages he has adopted to market himself as something he is not, make him nothing but a comical, desperate wolf in sheep skin underestimating the intelligence of its prey.

Actually this genuineness or coming out of the real Raila, means he has to be at war with some of his best bed fellows. That is, the new Raila must totally purge himself of the slime of corruption which is the class trait of his fellow politicians. Yo Yo Yo! Cleansing himself as it were, in a ritual of faithful marriage to the ideals of Wanjiku. But then, are not these political parties beholden to rich funders? Beholden to the owners of Kenya,-- those all who would crowd at the top of the list of embezzlers any Kroll clone would produce after investigations?

Perhaps the ideals of Wanjiku are not well defined? I mean where is the proof the people of Kenya do not want to be ruled by corruption, theft and political debauchery? Statistically verifiable, is that not what they vote for, in free and fair elections? Yo Yo Yo! Therefore steady as you are Raila, course is correctly set. Lipstick on the pig will do! One can fool enough people all the time to win!

This pragmatism for lack of a better definition, is what sets the stage for a powerful show down in the unfolding history of Kenya. For there is a contrarian view, that those ideals of Wanjiku have always been open and simple, incorruptible and straightforward, inalienable. But all the more impossible for most generations of our politicians.

Actually it has always taken electoral riggings to derail Wanjiku’s correct choice. It has always taken an authoritarian system to keep Wanjiku down. It has taken murder to traumatise Wanjiku into an occasional confusion. We all know JM Kariuki died because in a free and fair election, he would sweep from Busia to Mandera. A genuine article sells.

Jakaswanga, did you have to revive this thread and risk being pounded on like the Sikh statue the next time you walk the streets of Kisumu? You seem to have a death wish that mirrors MM, the political advisor currently known as Njuguna Njuguna

In a separate thread, Podp referred to Agwambo as the much maligned politician in KE. Yet here you have clearly explained why it cannot be said that he is much maligned but that he is maligned for very genuine reasons.

To add to what you have stated above, I propose to take us back to memory lane. If you will recall back in 2012 when RAO announced his bid for the presidency (PORK), he curiously elected to do so not in Kenya but in far away Malibu, California USA. Indeed the news was broken to us mere mortals on Jukwaa by someone we have always believed to be a the Goebbels PR man of ODM thus:

RAILA NOW DECLARES HE IS IN 2012 PRESIDENTIAL RACE

An article from The Malibu Times was included by the said Jukwaaist:

Prime Minister of Kenya visits Malibu, announces presidential candidacy



Raila is on the left (duh!) while in the middle is his host, one Amir Heshmatopour. The Japanese guy is a scientist who specializes in the "treatment" of sickle cell anemia (keeping in mind that there is no known cure for that terminal condition!)

Why would I unearth a tale from the crypt, so to speak? Well apart from the fact that RAO was literally auctioning the people of Kisumu who were unfortunate enough to have sickle cell anemia, what happened well after the presidency was lost (and presumably no sickle cell victims were forthcoming for "medical trials")is indicative of the duplicitous nature of the former PM & the company he keeps.

You see, eventually it came to light that his host, Amir Heshmatopour was little better than a conman. He's been charged for fraud (check <cheque> kiting to the tune of millions of dollars) as well as being instrumental in dissolving of the partnership between his company, AFH Holding & Advisory, and other players who were waiting in the wings to conduct the "clinical trials" in Kisumu of their drugs on hapless Luo Nyanza residents. Apart from the cheque kiting charges, Amir allegedly did not graduate from the University of Pennsylvania (sound familiar?) as he had purported on his CV. He also had "an arrest record, tax liens & judgements against" him as well the unfortunate fact that he had once filed for personal bankruptcy...not a good thing if you intend to go into multi-million dollar deals such as the sickle cell (for cash?) deal he signed with the Japanese scientist and others.

Read More Here

Now this is just one character whose home RAO decided to launch his election bid from. We haven't looked at his other "friends" such as Pastor "Miracle Baby" Deya, who is due to be extradicted home from the UK after his child trafficking (and even at least one rape of a minor) antics came to light.



Pastor Gilbert Deya Arrested, Charged with Sexual Offences

This is only the tip of the iceberg as one could go on and on about the dodgy characters that RAO surrounded himself with in his pursuit of the highest office in the land, primarily for (election) funding purposes. Wanjiku can do a whole lot better than trust in this man who keeps very strange bed fellows...

[jakaswanga]

WHY TOILETS ARE BURNING IN KIBERA

2ND TAKE: VERY VERY FAST FORWARD:

TAMING RAILA AND HOW THE NYS TITANIC HIT THE ICEBERG

She came, she saw, she did
how come it all came to this?
The NYS in shambles, Anne on the run.

–---------------
The people are the water,
In which I swim like fish
With the Communist Party of China
–------Mao Tse Tung (Chairman CCP)
–----------------------
Watch me drain the water
And starve you of your swim
O thy wretched Communist fish
–----General Chang Kaishek (Nationalist forces)
–------------------

Of course Raila himself does not matter. It is what he reminds of that does. What he, a fetishist relic, hints at or not. He is a historical who, lip service not withstanding, has pedigree that mythically embodied the possibility of change in a land ripe for it, for the better. And that change, in the main, is recognised as having consequences to the detriment of an elite best served by the status-quo. That Raila as one of their own may be fake and empty is of no soothing influence to the power constellation. In deed, looking at Raila's tenure as Prime Minister, and worse, the kind of administrative nightmare his ODM sycophants precipitate in his LuoNyanza stronghold since Devolution, one would think his fellow comprador lot at the top of Kenya would recognise one of their own, but no, their instincts of survival dictate a hollow feeling in the belly confronted with the volatile Enigma. His natural-born and instinctive talents for trouble-shooting make him indeterminate, catalytic, volatile, treacherous.

They know in their rot, and we all know in turn, the near-religious mobilising power of a symbol with deep historical roots. Before Raila there was Jaramogi. And it always took the ruthless exercise of raw state power, and state violence, to interdict the rise of an Odinga to the top.

–--(Vice President Jaramogi was incrementally marginalised, his KPU banned, himself detained then house-arrested, his allies terrorised by the state, banned from political activity and condemned to economic excommunication. The torch was passed to Raila who underwent similar tribulations, only to emerge as the most electrifying politician in the land. This all in public space and make believe distant memory. But one wouldn't know it from the official belittling by the many moths from the KANU carcass!)

Embedded somewhere in the bureaucratic memory of the Kenyan state, is that fact, and how for all his political corruption, the princely son of Odinga fathered the –-in my opinion moribund-- second liberation. Well, now as you have small boys like Uhuru Kenyatta denying Raila his pension bonus, insisting he first retire from politics, one is reminded that kind of pettiness is genuine aversion, toward something. And I propose to investigate, theorise and hypothesise on this latest episode of the intra-comprador antagonism, unfolding as a disguise under which the fundamental contradiction in the Kenyan society at large, temporarily manifests itself. (the dynastic clash is a mask, a smokescreen.)

First: A symbol is a representation of an idea. Even if the symbol itself is bull or horse manure, even dodo dead, the idea it holds –--eg freedom--- can be epoch-shattering. As far as symbols go, if there is none ready made, one will be invented. That is us humans dreaming of better futures, waiting for Messiahs, and Kingdoms come.

Let us go to Kibera, Nairobi.

WHY ARE TOILETS BURNING IN KiBERA?

The Kenyatta dynasty and the Odinga dynasty are making moves for the next generation.

And now, correctly perceived and well engineered, the NYS became a tool of taming Raira in Nairobi. And, correctly perceived countermove, the positioning of Powergirl Rosemary to carry the standard of the dynasty in the Nairobi backyard, is in the chess board.

The toilet fire was the flash of the clash of the swords of the two dynasties.

Every Kenyan knows the flash in Kibera was not about the National Youth service and flying or permanent toilets, no, not even about Queen Bee Anne Waiguru and her illicit pleasures if any, commercial or otherwise. Things are simpler. Much more ruthless. Dynasties in formation are joking for ascendancy. (just as oligarchal/aristoratic capital is battling upstarts behind the scene)



The Kenyatta dynasty and the Odinga dynasty are making moves for the next generation, openly. The Kenyatta court, in power as Kenyatta II but Muthamaki 1, is mobilising the advantages of incumbency to hack off the Odinga foothold in Nairobi, ie using state power (like his father did). It is a good move but one fraught with tremendous risks. Kibera is thus the epicentre of a titanic clash, in proxy. And so it will flash, and given the explosive forces in operation, occasionally explode. The 'Odinga fifth-column' in Nairobi needs a permanent solution, a prophet in the employ of the Kenyatta court once exhorted. So schemers went to work.

That is the simple truth!

HOW COME THE NYS FRONT COLLAPSED?

Because the officer core is mercenary, and so in typical comprador purposelessness unless on mission theft, they abandoned mission and went thieving. And cut Waiguru's feet from under her, assuming she knew not!

The NYS which should have been the sword to cut the foothold hence proved very rubbery and drew no blood. On the contrary, the wielder, Amazone Waiguru, is now the fleeing, hunted quarry. The NYS is outed as an instrument of loot, and, a stricken ship taking in water, is forcing even State House water-carriers to join in the rescue operation.

It has been a terrible debacle (given the runaway propaganda mileage which could have been accrued by portraying the toilet-burning as Raila orchestrated anti-progress!)

Now, lets handle lies and more lies as the elite would have it, (we will take an in depth look at the Presidential spokesman Noah Esipisu in defence of Anne Waiguru –-he says the usual suspects want to darken Kenya's name before Obama and the Pope visits! That level of shocked irrelevance and hysterics from State House, just shows how deep the public punch-softening of Waiguru has rattled the son of Jomo.)

I will not suspend Waiguru, says President Uhuru Kenyatta

By Geoffrey Mosoku. Friday, June 26th 2015

In a statement laden with claims that the Opposition was keen to taint the image of his administration ahead of planned visits by Pope Francis and US President Barack Obama, President Kenyatta through his spokesman Manoah Esipisu declared that in any case, not a coin had been lost in the bid to raid the NYS cash troughs.

The Presidency also brought in the line that only hard-working ministers like Waiguru were on the radar, insinuating that she was a victim of her ‘good work’. “I must warn though, that the global attention on Kenya ahead of the Obama visit for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit and the visit by his Holiness, will attract attention-seeking politicians. These are likely to engage in schemes that depict the Government as corrupt and incompetent,” said the President through Mr Esipisu.

The opening statement in defence of Waiguru, who is under pressure from the Coalition For Reforms and Democracy led by Raila Odinga to step aside until her name is cleared in the NYS cash controversy, was on its own quite telling: “The corruption investigations at NYS have been twisted to meet certain political ends. It is for this reason that we need to put the record straight in the spirit of ‘Uwazi’ (transparency).

Read more at: www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000167068/why-uhuru-won-t-suspend-waiguru-over-raging-row?articleID=2000167068&story_title=i-will-not-suspend-waiguru-says-president-uhuru-kenyatta&pageNo=1

'I like the phrase 'twisted to mee certain political ends!', since it would appear certain quarters in Kibera also felt the NYS slum upgrade of Waiguru was 'twisted to meet certain political ends!' As such, as an onlooker, like the animals at the end of Orwell's animal farm, one looks from kettle to pot and from pot to kettle as accusations are traded, and ... dare you spot the difference between?

ENTER ROSEMARY!



A few moments later

Yesterday, State House insisted Waiguru was not under any investigations. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has opened investigations into irregularities surrounding the procurement of consultancy services for a software used to install and maintain IFMIS. Waiguru was then the acting Director IFMIS who signed the contract alongside Finance Secretary Mutua Kilaka on behalf of the Government while Neeraj Pradhan, a director of Copy Caty Ltd, signed on behalf of the IT firm.

Read more at: www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000167068/why-uhuru-won-t-suspend-waiguru-over-raging-row?articleID=2000167068&story_title=i-will-not-suspend-waiguru-says-president-uhuru-kenyatta&pageNo=2

Okay, granted, the best thing you do with Kenyan newspapers is wrap donkey meat in them! But if one thinks that through, what then do you do with Kenyan politicians themselves, and their crony bureaucrats who turn every page of the meat-wraps into a catalogue of theft, graft on public funds and horrors in statecraft?

Here is a hint of what the true Kenyan feelings towards thieves are: ''our true historical personality in Cabralian terms. In our hearts cook insane rage at thieves!

krazyinsidekenya.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/mob-justice-is-it-justice-or-brutality/


And in Ghana, a robber before being torched is doused in oil.




TWO suspected car thieves were yesterday lynched at Tumaini area in Ol Kalou constituency, Nyandarua County

Who is it who thinks the heart of any man celebrates a thief?


waiting to be burned alive.


Mob lynches man in kenya. Then the police execute him. aug 2012

Note: these are scum, the wretched of the wretched of the earth stealing peanunts. But watch the punishment. Now, those at the top of Africa, stealing and stealing trillions, what do you really think the heart of Africa wants to do with you?

You just got to hold on to that power mates, there is no mercy in the heart of man for thieves.

The moment Uhuru Kenyatta is now defending an Anne Waiguru enmeshed in theft directly or not, he no longer can use her and the NYS to tame Raila Odinga. It is back to the drawing board. Anne should have stayed cleaner than white pants on a periodic day. And that now is the lesson for young Rosemary Odinga.

She can choose the politics of corruption and financial pillage of the public coffers, or she can genuinely take the side of the people, push their agenda with uncompromising drive, and emerge a force in her own right, not just an appendage of her father; ride and develop her own abilities charting an independent path, and not end up like Queen Waiguru who is now but a mere appendage hanging on Ouru.

So, methinks the best thing for Rosemary to do is to offer Waiguru a ceasefire. Walk to her office and declare: ''You are Queen Anne and I am princess Odinga, and Kibera is a battleground of dynasty. Let us work together and lift it up as girls. Fix forever this syphilis sore of a sewer in the belly of Great Nairobi. We can share the bonus later, you for president, I your running mate. Think about it!'

And thus it becomes Anne's move to reject the truce and continue the war.

That is politics at this level, looking beyond Raila's lifetime and Uhuru Kenyatta's tenure. Moving on

[podp]

Dec 17, 2011 11:11:36 GMT 3 jakaswanga said:

Ocassionally there is a ripple on the surface.
the standard: who leads nyanza after Raila? An more wil come in rapid succession as the inevitable dawns even on the professors of denial.

My first instalment.

THE KINGS IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE KING! chants the court crier then.

But Odinga’s story is not ripe to write yet. If there is one thing he can do, that he must do, it is to run for the President in 2017. It is a win-win situation. Winning would be a bonus. If he loses, he will have fought the good fight and lost. Not running would be criminal. JAP would obliterate the opposition. Then, we can settle to write his legacy. - See more at: www.the-star.co.ke/news/railas-towering-and-tragic-legacy#sthash.LqJZzUBp.dpuf

therefore it follows

Throwing an unseemly tantrum by threatening to boycott the 2017 general election unless the IEBC toes its line and timing it to coincide with President Obama and President Kenyatta’s hosting of the world at the 6th GES is juvenile politics.

A general election boycott would divide Kenyans dangerously and set the stage for instability as the opposition leadership faces the prospect of an entire election cycle out in the cold and on the sidelines.

Things are getting better in Kenya, not worse, the country is achieving steady progress and optimism has made a comeback among millions of Kenyans. Others, far from Kenya, have also noticed.

- See more at: www.the-star.co.ke/news/billionaires-came-talk-and-found-government-was-ready-listen#sthash.31W2Y44x.dpuf

and so the man RAO has to succeed himself first before grooming a successor or becoming an M7 variant or fading out like a slow punctured tire

[jakaswanga]

IF ROSEMARY WONT RISE TO BE COUNTED, LET US MOVE ON: NEXT!

CaliphateRehash: For the past two plus decades, Agwambo Tinga has held power over the Luo polity in absolute terms. His dominance has been unrivalled and unchallenged, a majestic walk-over. Whether it has been the KANU$Kalausi men (Dalmas$Kidero), or Social Democratic pretenders (Orengo&Nyong'o), or the earlier young Turks (Ochuodho&Tuju), or the later young Turks (Name Them), these (mounted challenges) have been the proverbial harsh winds against ancient rocks; or, to think the then KANU-zealot Mwai Kibaki, abortive razors that went about cutting a mugumo ora great baobab tree. This underlines how Agwambo's power has been absolute and, most importantly, popular and populist. He has been the nearest thing to a divine King in deed, echoing Ramogi Mahia.

But even the tenure of the Great Ramogi came to an end. Ramses the great too. Mag Piny Rumo –--which is to say Things of the World Come to an End, more often than not, sooner rather than later.

Peter the Great after whom St Petersburg in Russia is –--if one considers it was once renamed Leningrad--- ahem, renamed, could not have supposed how sordidly the Divine Romanov line would rot in a century, so much so that it would be tossed into the ash heap of history, or as it was literally, a disused mine shaft. Therefore, even as royal lines continue staggering around the historical dais, comical like drunken power bums or the macabre puppets of finance capital, the ghost of that cold 1784 January day in Paris ever hovers around every palace. This date was when the husband of Madame Antoinette, the monarch Louis the XVIth, lost his head to a new understanding of legitimacy.

A spectre was in deed haunting Europe, but not that of communism! Two wars aka world.

Of old it was told, Kings are Kings by divine providence! Of old it was told: they descend from God! and like the Catholic Pope or the Kaliph, they rule on behalf of God; their subjects have no voice in the matter: God's will no appeal, the Heavens are always right. For some like the one of Japan, the option of abdication was out. Gods, or sons thereof, do not abdicate!

Abdication, resignation, execution … death … is stuff for mere mortals!

The French Revolution shrugged unimpressed. Power to the people, shouted the riff-raff, and the blue blood showered the mud. Power resides in the people, the new order proclaimed, going even further: there is no other legitimacy than the peoples will. No? then the monarchy is uprooted in toto: renaissance republicanism was telling God his will was supreme yes, but only in Heaven. The earth was the devil's share. And the devil had a healthy pact with death.

FINANCE CAPITAL IS INSTINCTIVELY ATTRACTED TO ARISTOCRACY, MONARCHY!

It would appear FINANCE CAPITAL, as the current (OFFICIAL) global system of capitalism, precipitates ROYALTY as its prefered political form of organisation. Finance capital needs monarchic successions to underpin its order, necessarily because the pendulum swing of the peoples will is …. –- Lo! check out Labour's Jeremy Corbyn in Britain for instance: the peoples will is too much of an uncertainty principle for the business of finance capital. This is how it comes to pass, that the battle for the presidency of the chief capitalist power on earth and current world hegemon, the USA, worked out to a battle between the House of Bush against the Clintons!

That is a very narrow pool of talent. In fact it was the regressive smell of incest about it.

'Independent' usurper Donald Trump is a universal hate figure for the establishment. How to quarantine him into a pariah is their headache, though even the establishment-loyalist-at-heart Bernie Sanders was with his tirades against Wall Street already too much for finance capital!

The establishment candidate Hilary Clinton is set to win the coming presidency. If she does not get the peoples seal, she will get it nonetheless in a process called rigging. RIGGING? That is how an earlier Bush beat Al Gore, and, in this year's primaries, how Hilary Clinton ALREADY beat the Bernie Sanders rebellion.

Amid furore over an email leak that revealed a bias against Bernie Sanders inside the Democratic National Committee, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced Sunday she will step down as chair.

Hot Debbie will no doubt be rewarded with lots of seed from Bill's shrinking balls, or from Hilary's deep wallets if she prefers of course.

Finance capital has become an oligarchic merry-go-round complete with its ideological aristocrats in key centres of power, and the oligarchs will have their ROYAL, appoint their MONARCH, and their (socially aristocratic) bureaucrats will ramrod the people to endorse the same. It is not so much divine providence as CAPITAL PROVIDENCE nowadays!

NB: Historically in their emergence, the industrial bourgeoisie quickly realised the land gentry and court aristocracy were not really their greatest enemies. In deed these were their natural allies against their greatest fear, the working class aka proletariat. The aristocracy in any case capitulated quickly and went to work on behalf of the new class at the top, as auxiliaries. Finance capital as the successor of industrial (and monopoly) capital instinctively understands this game –--the game of a joint front with a monarchist, feudal patriarchal ideology to bulwark against a proletariat consciousness always heady. From hence that Monarchy is back in full glory. Howbeit it means the times are desperate, for dynastics is inherently historically regressive.

Sawa. That is the background on which events in Luoland are unfolding.

The periphery with its undeveloped potentials is a good place for old ideas to run amok in the glory of relic practice: even in pretender republics like Angola led by ex Marxists, hereditaty succession is on the cards. Also, think Kabila to Kabila, Khama to Khama, Ortega to Ortega –-(the intended successor is no blood relationship to the former, but is family, ie wife! just like in the looming Museveni to Museveni next door, and earlier on in Argentina, Kichner to Kichner)! Kim to Kim and Park to Park (the Koreas), Trudeau to Trudeau, Papandreau to Papandreau, Lee to Lee (Singapore), Aquino to Aquino …. etc etc ...

The dynastic succession (give or take an interregnum as the weak seedling is couveused in the mental intensive care unit) is thus a thriving business in the officially republican lands! The dynasty idea is still residual, its divinity still romanticised. Out there then in the future of history, there will be another big squaring off, with, if not final, the constitutional monarchy a worthy stalemate or, if final, a collateral damage that shared the same fate.

NB: couveuse or baby incubator



Next: breaking it down.

FIDEL GOES UNDER, ENTER ROSEMARY

[jakaswanga]

MONARCHS SERVING UNDER THE REGIME OF FINANCE CAPITAL: GO, ROSEMARY GO!

In Kenya too we do our best to be a normal periphery. From Kenyatta to Kenyatta, Moi to Moi, Odinga to Odinga, Wamalwa to Wamalwa, Onyonka to Onyonka, Mudavadi to Mudavadi … and I am sure this list is easy to extend. I think (gotta fact check it) two or three women have inherited the seats of their late husbands, so do not think Argentina's Kirchner is a show far from our bed, nor that Museveni priming Janet to succeed him is crazy! (of course he is, but in a crazy continent, crazy is normal! The next thing we will hear is Rwanda Kagame too is booked in on the formula! There is something called KAGAME'S DILEMMA. –-later on that)

Howbeit this week there were public cries from incumbents that William Ruto should not endorse his son Nick R. for one of the URP safe seats!

Remind me, of the case of the GC's Orwa Ojode's widow –-Keeping it all in the family is big business in power. My late senator is Kajwang', and my new senator!?

Just saying you know, it is 2016 and the periphery is an atavistic revelation! we are in a good mood, so let us think of it as FARCE, not tragedy.

THE ODINGA DYNASTY AND LUO REPUBLICANISM

When the times are good, Patriarchy is iron willed to reserve the throne to MALES. Here is a peak at Japanese tempers fraying when the first child of the divine couple is female

In contrast, Naruhito and his wife Masako's daughter Princess Aiko is not eligible for the role, according to Imperial House law. When Aiko was born a lively debate was sparked in Japan about whether the law should be changed from that of agnatic primogeniture – whereby the closest male ancestors inherit the throne – to absolute primogeniture, whereby gender is not an issue.

Whereby gender is not an issue then!

(O Henry the 8th! Thy base heart, fainting c0ck, and superstitious wishes!
Divorcing by chopping head after head of concubines who bore daughters!
Yet thy majesty be the bearer or X and Y, determiner and shedder of either!

O how cunning be the Fates!
That Elizabeth climbed the throne, fitted it beyond any male!)

The late Crown prince Fidel Odinga proved himself a feeble-willed and weak-minded clown. A big disappointment to all, he dissipated himself in suicidal over indulgence with booze, reckless wh-ores and other mind-dissolving concoctions of toxic fun. Intellectually lazy, he was always out of his depth conceptualising the crises faced by the Kingdom he was born to inherit. He was in effect a kind of Alexei Petrovich at the feet of a daunting, Great Czar, unfit for the Crown. And so he prematurely expired to the theatrical horror of his royal dad, bless his soul.

NB: Dynasts don't do personals. 5 millennia of recorded imperial behaviour in royal successions is my basis for that statement. The tears of a King are all crocodile. That is what houses get when married to power. A golden heart instead of a human heart. A god has no emotions. That is the absolute corruption of absolute power.



But well, times could have changed. Dynasts could nowadays be doing personals, like fall in love and marry of free choice. And then of course they are little less than sleazy amusement. Not a bad career switch if living of a large state stipend like most constitutionals do!

But in the classical case, the expiry of a substandard crown prince is a blessing in disguise to a Kingdom in a crisis. (this is now the kind of stuff rated adults only!)

But, classically in its historical rivalry with feminism for power, a disaster for Patriarchy is more often than not a blessing for matriarchy. When boys are weakly constituted, matriarchy develops a fighting chance to more than hold the line, in deed fill the vacuum, and, considering Elizabeth of England or Catherine the great of Russia, achieve the destiny of propelling the Kingdom to realms undreamt of.

But true is also to say desperate times enforce reform, even in the house of the descendants of the Son of Light himself, The Japanese royal house. As I write this they are discussing ABDICATION in Japan. But of course that concept does not exist in relation to the Japanese imperial house. There can be no such thing as a LIVING ex emperor!

But there soon will be! And I hope to follow and understand the mental fireworks that shall expend before the (modern) precedent is set!

NB: In primitive terms, in historical time, the ascension of an Afro-American and a female to the white house after over 200 years of independence, can be called reform and progress, that is THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT crowned, and feminism too, crowned. But it can also be seen for what it is, finance capital harping on identity politics to help shore up its rule, finance capital engaging in spectacular PR offensive to mobilise the sheep for the slaughter house, locally and globally, more so, given the looming open challenge by Eurasian upstarts, China and co.

The White House can have a first black commander in chief, then a First Man, surely Japan can have a first living ex-emperor!

Interesting times!

NB: Of old like a century ago: The various national industrial European bourgeoisie in conflict, decided to use nationalism to rally their nation's workers to
1. Support the violent colonial project of racism and pillage abroad
2. Go go to war on their behalf against their classmates in other European countries (when capital's expansionist drift run into walls from other competitors in the struggle for existence and dominance).

And so 50 million European citizens would die in horrific TRIBAL wars as German Capital, French Capital, and English capital slugged it out on a global scale.

I had to tap my nose on this narrative when the word TRIBAL broke cover, for it is possible in a state like Nigeria, Yoruba, Igbo, Fulani and Hausa primitive capital in various alliances to multiply, could be driving the Ogaland to civil war, now that the hero Buhari is not making headway modernising, or kick-starting the moribund Naijaland. It is a rich carcass, Nigeria, and no shortage of vultures!

I preferably thought of Nigeria as a 19th century European scenario because I do not think we have that kind of matata hapa in Kenya!

And so back to our little story from the lake: The Raila succession.

The opportunity is now Rosemary's to squander. I am going classics with her ... Majesty. Her Highness's feelings are irrelevant in this matter. Only the mission counts. Like it or not, historical forces have colluded and converged to catapult Her Highness Rosemary into the eye of the storm. On the ground, the monarchist, royalist, tenderpreneuralist, Jubilee supper and comprador wing of Luo nationalism, has already erected her to take over the standard from the limping hands of her Father King. (these are the factors behind the irritations of people like Eliud Owalo who are eyeing the family seat, Kibra/Lang'ata). So willy nilly, she has already been yoked. And in a crisis there is not time for apprentice.

What rests HH Rosemary is to absorb her fate and inherit the OGAYI with consolidated soul and mind, or, if of feeble predisposition like her late elder brother Fidel, abscond even before she can abdicate. Both ways the ruthlessness of this game stays the same. The King is dead, Long live the King ...

But we modernised –-like Japan-- to where gender is not an issue. Non-agnatic primogeniture! So the King is dead, long live the Next! Queen or King! And who said we can not beat Japan to the precedent of a living, abdicated God!?
And if the royal line is defunct or dead, usurpers galore, for it is evidently a brand which, given the international rule of finance capital, is not passing on in toto yet!

Next: conclusion 1.

[jakaswanga]

Reading PETER KENNETH!

Gikuyu nationalism makes a move, The Kaleos scare, the Luos adopt the ostrich pose!

Mirror mirror on the wall, tell us of the futures you reflect!

A blogger's random rant:

Power hates a vacuum. The apparent ABDICATION of President Kenyatta II must therefore, necessarily, have apparent consequences. The most formal of them would of course be the elevation of DP William Ruto.

And that is apparently the case.

This apparent elevation of Ruto is a psychological variation on the ICC theme, which was the play when President Kenyatta stepped aside for a 24-hour period, to avoid the Atahualpa syndrome. So did Ruto step up into Muigai's wife, sorry, bed, for a night; but power has some tricks; history is replete with puppet regimes. ----Atahualpa was a god-king who became a toy of men whose minds were a calibre outside his supersititious imagination. It took a while for his people to figure that out, and come to terms with the fact that the god-king was now nothing but an owned private wh-ore, serving foreign c.ock. By then their state was as good as bankrupt and, themselves, on the verge of extinction. Apocalypto.

The apparent elevation of William Ruto in concert with the abdication of the Muthamaki must, elsewhere, incite an equal and opposite reaction. In this case, a Gikuyu nationalist countering set. The Kenneth move.

Anyway, talking of puppet regimes, Raul Cubas and General Lino Oviedo gave us a very comical one in the late 1990s in Paraguay. There was also a time when it was rumoured John Major was internally derided as being in the driving seat while Margaret Thatcher, his predecessor, drove from the back seat. One may therefore need a trained skipper's look to separate smoke from rock in the thick of the fog.

Power generates a lot of fog.

The game of power in Kenya has for instance thrown up a rolling bolder, the above mentioned Peter Kenneth; but is he just a ball of noisy, foaming sudd, a phantom trick of the senses, a magician's diversionary ruse, or is Pete a ship-sinking monster? –-MV Kidero, MV Ruto all doomed at once!



Lengendary monsters from the deep which loomed to doom swift-sailing ships,
Be you scarecrows, myths told with relish as bedtime stories of great folklore!


Some abdication are followed by periods of strife and instability. That is when the jostling behind the scenes is intense but indecisive. In our case, I want to say this jostling has become very visible, and it is what has propelled Peter Kenneth into the limelight. Pete's is a stardom which has come earlier but not totally unexpected. –-The mortality of a Muthamaki is an obvious fact. It leads to a permanent search for a successor. Gikuyu nationalism which has had a near lock on the presidency, is power savvy and perceives this instinctively, unlike mainstream Luo nationalism which, traumatised, clings to its beloved Ker Raila with morbid passion. To imagine him gone is to commit high treason. To declare him immortal is to be politically smart. To voice his mortality is to execute a suicide wish! –--Well, not subscribed to the cult of personality and not bound by the charms of the courts hypnotisers, I will soon rise to the challenge and write a clarion call: when Raila dies it will be chaos, better prepare now O my fellow Luos! Kenneth or William, Joho or Kalonzo + Mulembe!?

They will come bearing gifts in one hand, and a firm whip on the other
The Luo nation wallowing in fresh widowhood will be a spoil to sack and rape.

Do not wait for the spirits (juogi) to anoint a successor! Take the matter into your hands now and raise a horse! –-more about that later. Rosemary Odinga is taking too long to get into her role. Hesitant princess creating a vacuum, loosing the nation!

Continued.

[jakaswanga]

ABABU NAMWAMBA AND RAPHAEL TUJU, SPOT THE DIFFERENCE!

Secondly, (continued on the Kenneth head), while this jostling behind the scenes advertises itself to many, there remains plenty of blinds to whom it stays invisible. Howbeit power is too important to be left to random events. In deed humans even invented ritual murders of Kings to cope with some problems to do with succession. Call it a very decisive term limit, but institutionalised murder hinted at just how deep this political problem is. Unnerved Kings, unappetised by their own pending ritual slaughter, invented another way out. Gentle suicide upfront! It evolved into resignation, old word abdication. But there was another deadly option. The incumbent killed off all potential successors! Remember that passage in Genesis? and later Herode?

Yes, necessity is the mother of invention, and invention of evolution.

For the case of the many to whom the jostling at the top of Kenya is invisible, I feel not like bothering with deliberate states of denials, but I admit following that thread –-of those living in denial--- does lead to some quintessential shots of comedy which are too exquisite to bypass the national archive of humour: –---take Ababu Namwamba for instance!

The former ODM frontline General was in Mombasa the other day. Bitten by the Mulembe bug, the bugger fronts Ingoo consciousness, but in his PR-pitch he now fights the workers' corner in the curious Labour Party. How he got it from Julia Ojiambo is a story for another day. Howbeit he is still a baby in compartmentalisation; his personality is not yet disintegrated enough to sustain intensive and repetitive public acts of hollow lies. His mental fluency is thus found wanting. So he suffered a massive slip of the tongue: 'sisi kama watu wa Jubilee!' he said of himself and his crowd.

The once ace ODM Jenerali with a silken tongue subsequently took some time to remember his designated character, took some time to come into his adopted public persona in the pantomime act of power pawns. His new paint-over, or apportioned identity, is so shallow it does not even register in his mind, so he just confessed who he knows he is. Some understanding members of the public were quick in forgiveness. They had never been fooled all along, but they enjoy Kenyan political theatre, when tales mutate into muscle to wag dogs.

'Hakuna shida Jenerali! Mwaga tu Eurobond alafu uende!'

Personally I did not like that joke, the idea that Ababu Namwamba is just a sponcy, degenerated into a political prostitute procured to launder the Eurobond billions as reward for doing a Mudavadi once over on ODM. –--I want to posit the Mulembe nation is not that prideless that twice in a row, it can produce prominent sons that traitorous to the cause of an Odinga in half a decade.

(NB: For those who want to know what projects the eurobond fund catered, Harvadian Henry Rotich washes his hand with a 'don't ask me, I have no records; ask the respective ministries!' –--That would be a smart answer coming from any Tom Dick and Harry –-like Njeru Githae or Uhuru Kenyatta, the two immediate former finance ministers. But when you come from Harvard where fellas like Obama no Drama come from, and you are the –--Tombo young Maasai--- math genius of the Kerio valley, such an answer drives even a moron of a Luo bodaboda into a superiority complex.

This is the way I heard it when in the aftermath of HE Ouru's insult at AG Ouko I posed: 'Rotich is from the school supermen like Obama went to. When he says the eurobond is safe and dry, he knows what he is talking about!'

The bodaboda, parking me infront of a Kinyosi behind the Kisumu stend, spat at me: 'Ori, rombo en rombo kata odhi 'Harfart'. Rotich nyocha oseteng'o lwete ni en okia kaka pesago mag Yurobond otiyo. Oa skund gi Obama ndiyo, to pod en aena rombo ming'eyo cha! Ouko ohewe mabor e kwand pesa! Luo wiyebith omera, kik adog ayud kipimo gi rombo!'

Now, why do I advise Raila surrender to Kalonzo?

Because there is a saying in Kisumu: it goes, 'Jaluo ok sechi!' (Luos beseech not even God!)

I first heard it when I was arguing loudly for Ababu Namwamba's stay in ODM. I wanted him handled with kid gloves even as he behaved very stupidly.
'Ooyo baba, Jaluo ok sechi. Kata Ruto ma nokonyo Luo ka Mungiki odinonwa oko, ok wasa. Ka dwaro dhi to dhi! Ka dwaro bet to bet!'
(Even Ruto whose troops came to the rescue of Luos when marauding Mungiki besieged them, we beseeched him not stay with us!)

'To ere kaka di waserrne Raila kura oko e ogendini moko ka Jaluo ok sechi!? I posed.
(How do we seduce and entice others to vote for Agwambo if we wont beseech and plead?)

'Ka Raila paro ni Jaluo moro biro dhi sayone kura ir Okuyo ma yanye ni Kiihii, kata ir Jamwa moro ma chunye ariyo, mano to owe aweya owek wuondore ni gini dokaw. Kata anindo kech ok asechi! Obedi!'
(If the bringer of devolution thinks we will plead with doubting Tom groups or Kikuyus who abuse him for uncut, then he is fooling himself!'

it is an authentic feel a politician does well to mind.



And the animals looked for pig to man,and from man to pig, and back again. But they could no longer tell the difference!

But now it is matope time!? He?

continued.