This question can still be asked:
WHO WILL BE RASANGA'S CLOSER? -.At about that same period, WAY BACK IN OCTOBER 2013, the Mombasa-born ex-Canadian who hails from Odera-
Akang'o's Gem wrote a series of articles on the
Siaya race. one of his missives questioned with wide cheek, if a SIAYA SPRING could be in the offing.
Let me leave all that --possible Egyptian
al-Sisi parallel---- aside for the moment and take but a snapshot of today. That today is this week in which the Quixotic President has been photographed fondling a massive machine-gun mounted on an APC (armoured personnel carrier) vehicle, of which the first batch of 30 have been purchased in stealth for the Kenyan police. There is a big windmill out there to be charged.
Ride O knights of valour, ride!
Political currents like the market, seem to have an invisible hand which really can work things up. Take the recent storm about the Siaya nuisance and grotesque,
Cornel Amoth Rasanga. There is always a suggestion of illegitimacy hanging around his neck, as if he some pirate captain sticking on after a black-spot pin. The chicanery of the ODM paty establishment during the last elections is still fresh in some memories. It was a chicanery which dictated Raila Odinga himself appear in Siaya rallies to plead with the people to accept Rasanga, a man whose imposition threatened to reduce the voter turn-out and award the ODM with an own goal.
That there was a by-election in which Rasanga consequently defeated
William Oduol has not made his tenure any more like Ceasar's wife ought. Below the surface in Siaya are treacherous waters. Fellow royal
Midiwo has been at his throat more than once. Senator
Jim Orengo and lacklustre PAC chair
Nicolas Gumbo are in the running to replace him. In fact Rasanga was a
compromise royal candidate who emerged when it became clear neither the blue-blooded
Oburu, the governor designate, nor the bastard-upstart Oduol, the peoples choice, could be the man. The people tied with the King's court in a tug of war. That was the birth of Rasanga, a flash from the collision of these two titanic forces in Siaya. He is essentially a usurper, something of a parasite. But so are many ODM men in Nyanza who
out-auctioned their rivals. (Currently in the ever turbulent HomaBay is a running sequel featuring Sister
Wanga and Brother
Kaluma.)
It is a vey soapy affair.
Such public men as feeling the ground ready to give under their seats are likely to ride dangerous currents in an effort to secure their relevance. And in this bout of populism they can become catalysts of an unintended event. They could uncock a passion lurking just below the surface of an otherwise docile people. Take the quip by Rasanga that Raila's photo be the one for
CORD zones. That is news of course. I mean that the country has zones, red and blue zones, sheep and goat zones; donkey and arss zones.Rasanga is of a politician zoning for
populist mileage at home, and I am sure he has not thought about it at length. Nevertheless, from the strength of the reactions he has elicited, obviously he hit a raw nerve in the country. The zones may very well imply an even
greater faultlines than that between sheep and goats. The zones could forebode some horrifyingly terrible breakline if things are mismanaged, by bad politics for instance.
And so there have been
denunciations with heavy terms like
reckless! there are calls for his arrest, and calls for the law to be specified on hanging portraits of whoever!
So what is happening here!?
Why should taxpayers foot the burden to hang anybody's photo anywhere? Especially when there is no agreed national heroes! (Some women hang Jesus is the master of this house to the annoyance of their husbands!)
If there were agreed national heroes in Kenya, we would have their portraits in denominations of currency for one. -The field Marshalls of Mau Mau for instance. But if we can't bother to hang the portrait of
Dedan Kimathi or MeKatilili, I really do not see the point in hanging the portrait of
every Tom Dick and Harry chicken thief who rises to the presidency even for formality if
the political space is democratic. The presidency can be achieved by cheating, a coup, a rigging or some other such chicanery. So I wouldn't give a rat's rears for its portrait ---given a
choice! And in Africa the presidency is definitely a looting instrument.
Then there is this: If the folks over there at Siaya entertain the
thought that the Mungiki who arsoned their kith and kin during PEV in Naivasha were in some way sponsored by the Muthamaki, now the president, it does not take much of an imagination to see Rasanga does not hang the portrait of his Excellency in his office.'He? yawa! he sponsors the burning of Luos and you want us to worship him!? --is this not the question Rasanga faced at a funeral in Alego, his hometurf, which forced him to order out HE's official portrait?
Did anybody think a sheepish goat like Rasanga would have the guts to do such a thing if his life did not depend on it!? The man has no history of rebellion. His instincts are too tame for this kind of stuff. It is
local public pressure which drove him into a corner, after his usurpation of Oduol's blessing (like Esao and that Jacob tale!).
At the same time we know in our hearts we have very little loyalty to the institutions of the land. The military are
lootenants; Kiganjo Police is Harvard
inverted;
Legico is a mpig's sty; the Judiciary is rotten; the treasury is holding water with a wide-eyed sieve, and the IEBC are chicken addicts, just to mention a few. Rasanga's move therefore sounds like what it is:
secession mentality. The logical end point of devolution.
Majimbo steshen mwisho. This is the can of worms Rasanga has kicked open. Once again.
O
paranya of Kakamega proposed
flags for each county. That is a variation on the same topic. A governor raised a storm in a national tea-cup when he was pictured with an
Aide-de-Camp who suspiciously looked in pose like an imitation of the president. The poor copper was sacked.
The governors demanded diplomatic passes for themselves and their wives, which entitled them to state treatment in foreign lands. This too was a bridge too far. They also wanted to open diplomatic offices abroad, in addition to flying flags on their beasts. And of
course they wanted to negotiate foreign loans without via Nairobi.
What I am saying is there is a pattern of 'secessionist' tendencies, or at least various stated intentions of robust autonomy at the county level. It is like the counties are naturally pre-programmed like wildebeest toward a particular pastureland, utopia or not, 20 meter crocodiles in the river crossing or not. It makes lots of people nervous.
For the moment it is the Mombasa man of the republican movement who is the bogeyman carrying all the water: Mr
Omar Mwamnuadzi.
What really is the crime of this man Omar? The reluctant Kenyan I call him!
The 1885 Stamp: MADE IN BERLIN does not ride for his ilk. The want out!
And that is the dangerous subtext of Cornel Rasanga's quip. A bull's eye shot in every Kenyan heart. We instinctively understand the depths.
Sometimes it takes a child to point out the emperor is naked. In this case the nobody governor of Siaya who senses his political grave has been dug. What does he have to loose? Aaah, his clown's mask.
And the people are watching. Grinning in anticipation. That is the Roman crowd for you.
inverted; Legico is a mpig's sty; the Judiciary is rotten; the treasury is holding water with a wide-eyed sieve, and the IEBC are chicken addicts, just to mention a few. Rasanga's move therefore sounds like what it is: secession mentality. The logical end point of devolution. Majimbo steshen mwisho. This is the can of worms Rasanga has kicked open. Once again.