Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka
By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- Kalonzo is a renowned mediator and negotiator. During the tenures of Presidents Daniel Arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta, he represented Kenya in peace building processes aimed at resolving political crisis rocking our neighboring countries and the region.
- His efforts would bore fruits. He helped to restore peace and stability in many troubled countries.
- Bearing this in mind, there is no doubt that Kalonzo is fully aware of the pitfalls that must be avoided in order to have successful negotiations and hammering a deal to end crisis.
- He, therefore, knows one of the key steps is to ensure the parties were involved in all the deliberations that commences with crafting of the rules of engagements and matters of house-keeping.
Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka, who is leading the Azimio La Umoja-OKA coalition team of negotiators, has written a letter to the Kenya Kwanza team leader Kimani Ichungwah, who is also the majority leader in the National Assembly.
While stating that time was of essence, he avers that Azimio wants the talks aimed at resolving the political crisis that had engulfed the country to commence on Monday next week.
Going by the timelines they have crafted, he said the opposition Coalition also wants the negotiations to be concluded in one month.
This, in my view, was yet another indication that the coalition did not believe in dialogue and it was out to throw the spanners in the work.
The endgame was to see the talks collapsing in the initial stages. Was Raila behind this? He was known for changing goal posts. Time will tell.
Kalonzo is a renowned mediator and negotiator. During the tenures of Presidents Daniel Arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta, he represented Kenya in peace building processes aimed at resolving political crisis rocking our neighboring countries and the region.
His efforts would bore fruits. He helped to restore peace and stability in many troubled countries.
Bearing this in mind, there is no doubt that Kalonzo is fully aware of the pitfalls that must be avoided in order to have successful negotiations and hammering a deal to end crisis.
He, therefore, knows one of the key steps is to ensure the parties were involved in all the deliberations that commences with crafting of the rules of engagements and matters of house-keeping.
This would erase the fears of suspicions and mistrust.
Kalonzo’s move sharply contradicted this spirit.
Azimio and Kenya Kwanza members had not met to deliberate on the two issues and make a decision.
For this reason, I’m sure Kalonzo knew the latter is unlikely to accept that decision.
Media reports have indicated that some political players in Azimio were opposed to the talks and hence they were burning midnight oil to sabotage the dialogue.
Is Wiper leader pushing thier agenda?
One does not need to be a rocket scientist to know those opposed were not doing this because they cared for public.
This has nothing to do with resolving the myriad of challenges that ‘Wanjiku’ face.
They were doing this because they felt their selfish and personal interests had been threatened.
It is worth nothing that one of the key issues that Azimio has lined up is that of inclusivity in Government. What does this tell you? Raila and a few of his diehard allies were out to lay ground of joining the government through the backdoor.
The fear is that Raila is done with them and he longer needs them.
Remember these are his diehards who used to wear Sufuria on thier heads during the bloody, destructive demonstrations. They were ready to pay the ultimate price while defending Baba Raila.
To me, these people do not learn or maybe they have very short memories.
The history of Raila is replete with betrayals that would among others leave the victims of his bloody confrontations in tears and suffering alone.
Some would be left maimed and confined to their hospital beds nursing life-threatening injuries.
The hearts of the families who had lost their loved ones would remain hurt for the rest of their life.
This strategy worked very well for Raila in the aftermath of 2007 and 2017 general elections, respectively.
Many people lost their lives. For how long will Raila dine and wine on fresh graves of victims as he wormed his way to join the government?
As they say, it is hard to teach an old dog the new tricks. So, one would not expect him to change?
Kenya is a democratic country governed by the rule of law. This means that the power belongs to the people.
A general election to elect the leaders is held after every five years.
The tenure of the President and that of the County governor is capped to a two terms of five year each.
For the rest of the elective seats, there is no term-limit.
Last year on August 9, Kenyans of all walks of life turned up at respective polling stations to elect leaders of their choice.
Dr William Ruto was elected as the fifth President of the Republic of Kenya.
Raila immediately contested the outcome.
This did not come as a surprise. He had done it before, challenging the results of the four elections he had unsuccessfully contested.
This time again his petition was dismissed.
In a unanimous decision, the judges of the Supreme Court of Kenya ruled that the petition contained no iota of truth.
Dr William Ruto’s victory won this election and consequently we reaffirm and upheld his victory.
The local and international observers including those drawn from America and European Union (EU) had also released their separate final reports.
They shared one common thread. The elections met the requirements of the relevant laws. We congratulate the national electoral body, the IEBC, for doing a good work. The outcome reflected the popular will of Kenyans who cast thier ballot.
Back to Kalonzo, I want to tell him. The history will judge you very harshly if you allow yourself to be used by those hellbent on sabotaging the talks.
If you do so, this will erode the gains you have made over the years.
Remember the international community respects and recognizes you as peace diplomat.
The other day the diplomats drawn from Western EU and US visited your Karen Home in Nairobi where you hosted them.
Sources indicated the agenda was to discuss the ways of ending the political crisis that was triggered by Raila Odinga’s refusal to accept the outcome of the polls.
This was a rare occurrence. I have never seen diplomats visiting the residence of a leader to discuss official matters.
So, the foreign envoys did this out of respect for you.
The agenda of the Azimio’s hardliners opposed to the talks is to return thier supporters back the street.
The talk that they were out to prepare the ground that would culminate in overthrowing President Ruto from power was just meant to mobilize gullible Kenyans.
They knew this will not happen because Ruto was popularly and democratically elected.
For them, the aim is to misuse Kenyans in pursuant of their selfish interests. The deaths of innocent Kenyans and destruction of people’s businesses and properties won’t matter.
Kalonzo has since confirmed that Raila lost the elections to Dr Ruto. Speaking during Saba Saba demonstrations, he however stated that the gap was too narrow.
President Ruto defeated our leader Raila with a small margin of 60,000 votes. This is why the country is divided. As such, dialogue is the way to go.
Both sides should soften and drop thier hardline stances. The country is more important than an individual.
Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi
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