This Is A Quagmire

We are stuck!

Tell me, what in the world happened to Prime Minister Raila Odinga? Is this the same man we thought was a democrat and voted for in droves? Is this the man the Diaspora Kenyans welcomed to cities across the globe, hailing as the man to bring needed change to Kenya? How can it now turn out that he is railing against the media, threatening to deal with "...a certain media house?" And how did it happen that his party was not in Parliament to stop the passage of a bill that was to gag the media? Incidentally, have you heard the PM or any of his brigades talk about reversing that dreadful signature the President scribbled somewhere to bring the law to life? In my opinion, all these incidents amount to this: Raila Amollo Odinga is no democrat, and neither is he a reformer. This man may well be a dangerous dictator hiding his true colors from us until we make the big mistake of electing him president.

Let us rehearse for a moment the Raila we've come to know since he became Prime Minister. He started off by trying to betray his friend and erstwhile fighter, William Ruto. It took the threat of a serious rift in the ODM for him to change his mind. Next came the issue of unga. He went out of his way to assure us that prices would immediately go down. Tell me if they have. Then came the gas/petrol mess. Apparently we should be reassured by the fact that he didn't know what was going on there, so he is clean. And the corruption that's now roiling the Kibaki-Raila administration? The two principals have found a way to deal with it: Collective responsibility. If this is not a quagmire, what is?

In fact, what should we make of Raila's son's alleged involvement in shifting of corn/maize from its intended point of delivery to Southern Sudan? And what should we make of his younger son's involvement in crashing a government BMW when the rest of us were asleep? What, I ask, should we make of the Prime Minister's increasing agitation and his wish to shut us up? Is it because he doesn't want his increasing goofs to hit the headlines? Or is this just a man who being in the government has finally exposed his true character?

We have four more years to go with this painful load we're carrying called the Coalition Government. In that time, the full character of all the key players in this Kenyan version of a Russian Roulette will be revealed. But if what we have seen in all of them, especially my brother Raila, is anything to go by, we're in deep trouble. As we have called for in this and other forums, the time to seek new leadership has come. We must be prepared to lock horns with Kibaki's man, Uhuru Kenyatta, or we will watch as Kenya goes to the dogs in the year of our Lord 2012.

And just like Mutahi Ngunyi yesterday, let me pledge my support and admiration for the teachers who are fighting for "Haki Yetu." Teach us how to deal with and defeat the insensitivity of this cartel that has its grip tightly on Kenya's throat.

We shall overcome!