SABA SABA HERE WE COME

By Sospeter Otieno Saba Saba is approaching fast. And Jubilee seems to be developing cold feet. The forces of darkness and retrogression have sought the intervention from all corners. Men of the cloth like Cardinal John Njue have suspiciously been echoing the Jubilee position in asking Cord to seek dialogue through parliament. Witchcraft galore was evident when elders from Uhuru’s tribe tribe slaughtered hundreds of chicken and drunk blood from dying chickens’ necks at Uhuru Park. A nation’s people who are disgruntled with the direction that the nation is headed will on Saba Saba day gather to, in one accord, swear to stand together in defense of the values that the patriotic in this nation cherish. Of course, the meaning of patriotism in the Jubilee era has been tweaked to mean Uhuru- Mania. Taking on the ills of this government has been described as incitement and high-treason requiring one to record a statement. The CORD rallies- a constitutionally sanctioned right- have been demonized as intended to dislodge Uhuru from power. Smarting from a month-long whirlwind and whistle-stop tour of the nation, Raila, a man with the heart of Alexander The Great is living up to Alexander’s guiding mantra that “it is royal to labor and very slavish to luxuriate”. Strategically, Uhuru has nothing to lose from Saba Saba, so long as he doesn’t respond to it violently. In fact he can use it as an opportunity to regain his fading legacy. Uhuru in his 2014 New Year message promised to “pursue a theme of Reconciliation and Unity towards inclusive growth”. Calls for national dialogue play right into Uhuru’s 2014 script, if at all his new year message was from the bottom of his heart. You know that CORD is setting the national agenda when Jubilee creates cosmetic National dialogue initiatives in parliament to ward off Sabasaba. You know that Jubilee is running helter- skelter when led by the President himself, they, with dis-ingenuity and impunity ignore intelligence opinion from world renowned sleuth agencies and Al Shabaab’s own claim of responsibility, and instead proffer concocted theories that associate CORD and its leadership with the Mpeketoni massacre. You know calls for National dialogue are irking Jubilee, when they start spinning by engaging the religious leaders to intimidate Raila and Cord into calling off the rallies. You know the Jubilee security watchmen have gone amok when Ole Lenku resorts to propaganda theories like “some former leaders are recruiting MRC, Mungiki and Al- Shabaab to cause chaos” to explain insecurity in Kenya. You know that URP is diminishing in clout and its sycophancy growing when Senator Keter is quoted in a local daily as begging Uhuru to become a “rude dictator and ban CORD’s Saba Saba rally”. You know the Right Wingers are rattled when they seek the services of some “Wiper” rebels to create a wedge between Cord leader and his co-principal Kalonzo Musyoka. Machakos Governor, Alfred Mutua, buoyed by a 33 km road(a street), is upbeat that those kind of short- term propaganda- laced development initiatives(streets) are a panacea for the problems bedevilling Kenyans. Saba Saba is about placing Kenya on the path to Super Highways- not some “33 km streets”. The good Governor should be reminded that Kenyans want posterity not just short-term prosperity. They seek systems to be instituted so that development does not depend on the goodwill of their current Governor. The sovereign will of the people is that development projects are a right, not a privilege or avenue for self aggrandizement and cheap propaganda to hoodwink Kenyans that you are a “special breed of a Governor”. Kenyans realize they are about higher ideals and not about basking in some park at Machakos where they can be slaughtered in broad daylight, by some truck-load of balaclava wearing gun-wielding thugs. Kenyans want all round development not hyping about some “33 km two way street” one day, and then presiding over a Masaku sevens where Nacada complains “drugs were sold in the open and alcohol served to underage drinkers” the next day. All I hear from Machakos aren’t “tractor noises” that Mutua brags about but rather cries of innocent, drugged underage girls, who, thanks to Mutua’s incompetency as described by NACADA may have conceived underage pregnancies and their dreams shattered at Masaku Sevens. No amount of Mutua’s “33 km streets” can undo such a scandal. Kenyans on Saba saba day- will desire systems that will ensure that even the person who defeats Mutua in 2017- for disrespecting his Wiper Leader Kalonzo Musyoka- lives upto the expectations of the sovereign will of Machakos residents. The masses that will converse at Uhuru Park on Saba Saba seek to fix the system by unclogging the pipe of development so that development just flows, unhindered, without being a function of personalities sometimes positioned as magnanimity of Statehouse. You know that they are feeling the heat when Ruto’s URP brigade led by the House Majority Leader and Charles Keter are trembling about Saba Saba and national Dialogue. Even though the CORD leadership has been clear that they aren’t interested in “mkate nusu”, the paranoid URP Establishment remain unnecessarily preoccupied with jealously defending their half loaf that no-one seems interested in. The fear within URP is that His Excellency in his magnanimity and generosity may feel obliged to slice up the URP half loaf and give some to CORD in the interest of inclusivity and national cohesion. That’s why Ruto’s loyalty and URP sycophancy to The President seem to grow each day as calls for national dialogue intensify. It could also be that URP has been shortchanged by TNA long enough and in retrospect they also recall the LDP:NAK MoU, and even the ODM:PNU Coalition, and they freak that if push comes to shove- and His Excellency decides to offer some slices of bread to CORD, then its only the URP half that may be on the chopping board, as TNA’s half remains intact. And that may be real cause for worry for the URP Supreme Leader who hasn’t missed an opportunity to throw salvos at CORD for being in sync with the voices of the 60%. Time is fast running out for Jubilee. Will the center hold post- Saba Saba? Posted in: Opinion | July 5, 2014 29 2 1 0