PHOTO:

Kenya's Suna East MP Junet Mohammed addressing the public at Kwa Mixed Secondary School on Saturday Image: MANUEL ODENY/ THE STAR

By:

ALEX KAMAU

Posted:

Feb,27-2021 14:54:13

It was sorely embarrassing listening to Suna East MP and ODM stalwart Junet Mohammed poking fun at the albinism of Senator Isaac Mwaura. Common decency and good manners demand that one never makes derogatory remarks about an individual's physical appearance or their disability.

Not for Junet and other goon like characters in ODM. This is the party whose vocal MP called the president of Kenya the "child of a dog" as other senior ODM loyalists excitedly cheered him. Yes, the party whose secretary general made unprintable words regarding the genitalia and rape of a female MP he disagreed with. It is the party whose MP engaged in a thug like public brawl on live TV at a funeral in Kisii.

The ODM supremo who was present at the funeral elected not to condemn the terrifying thuggery that horrified the nation. It felt like approval by silence. The broken glass principle predicts that petty offences if left unchecked often incubate grand crimes. And you'd see why.

ODM's leadership has repeatedly failed to challenge the toxic words of its members and MPs from Aladwa's warning of "tumembakisha risasi moja" to mtoto wa mbwa and now albino slur. Fish rot from the top and soldiers do what the General encourages.

Indeed the deliberate acts and utterances of ODM MPs and members have sent a clear message: That loyalty to party and leader is worth more than doing the right, lawful and decent thing. The message has been rightly understood and interpreted. The involvement of current and past ODM elected officials in looting of public funds (NYS among others), ruinous trades as well as heinous crimes is in the public domain.

Nominated Senator Isaac Mwaura. By Courtesy/The Star

There was a time when ODM under Raila's stewardship felt like the party that represented the future many Kenyans aspired and dreamed of; corruption free, orderly under the rule of law, fair distribution of resources and meritocracy. Today ODM represents none of these things. As Raila's own son Junior warned, the party has evolved into an outfit of the greedy, proudly displaying flashy lifestyles funded by the public purse.

Indeed there are Kenyans who believe that all the corrupt suspects need to do is visit Raila Odinga's Upper Hill office, meekly pledge their allegiance to him and get sanitized; a blind eye henceforth turned irrespective of crimes committed. ODM the party that criticized Kenya’s historical injustices has in its ranks murder and attempted murder suspects.

No pressure has been employed to require their resignation until court acquittal, something ODM zealously did in opposition, famously against then Devolution Secretary Anne Waiguru. Yes the party whose popularity bloomed from promising that under ODM, all Kenyans would answer equally before the courts, under a scrupulously independent judiciary.

ODM's nauseating hypocrisy has not gone unnoticed and it is unlikely it will be in 2022 the electoral juggernaut it was previously. Raila is no longer the priest among monks. He is in all but name viewed as a gilded member of the eating community and ruling elite. He is technically the second most powerful individual in Kenya especially after the Handshake. He looks less of the inspiring leader he once was.

His presidency would feel more like a swap of manner less gorillas into the very forest, rather than a change of guard to a better future. It would feel like the replacement of one cabal of gluttonous hoodlums with an even greedier one than a fresh start. Raila and ODM seem diametrically at odds with the public mood; on the side of the oppressor, oblivious of the cries of the suffering voters that have faithfully stood electorally with him from Kibera to Kilifi and Karachuonyo to Kakamega.

His words admonishing health workers for asking a pay rise but advocating the costly BBI only one example. The ODM of today feels like a tired political outfit at ease with what many Kenyans rightly see as calamitously reprehensible. Unless there are more Kenyans who disagree with this assessment, ODM and by extension Raila's political future looks perilously bleak.

This situation is exacerbated by the fact that unlike in the past where challengers to Raila were few, kingpins from previously loyal regions such as Western, Eastern and Coast have their own restless and bellowing bulls ready to challenge the once invincible stallion.

Raila has only himself to blame. He unwittingly natured but failed to tame the rookies who have metamorphosed into the toxic dragons who by their actions are destroying ODM's electoral fortunes with their every utterance, scandal and violent brawls. Thankfully this is NOT inevitable. Alex Kamau is a lecturer in London. @ akkamotho@yahoo.co.uk

Source:

AJABU AFRICA NEWS