Was the Fiasco in Nyeri President Kenyatta’s and Jubilee’s Waterloo?
By Dorcas S
Make no mistake about it, the decision to embarrass and exclude Kenyans not fluent in all 43 languages during the Madaraka Day Celebration in Nyeri was not a “faux pas” as some would have us believe.
It was not the decision of “one man” – the governor – nor was the “playlist” and entertainment a “unilateral decision” of some “junior staffer”.
What Kenyans saw in Nyeri did not happen in a vacuum nor without the express acquiescence of President Kenyatta and his handlers.
Such high profile national events – involving the president and his deputy no less – are choreographed to near-perfection including the sitting/standing arrangements, pre-screening of ALL the speeches and entertainment and who arrives and leaves when!
What Kenyans saw on June 1 at Nyeri’s Kabiruini Stadium was orchestrated from State House by State House for State House – Period!
What fair-minded Kenyans witnessed in Nyeri was Jubilee’s shameless use of a national event to rally the base while pitifully trying to embarrass the opposition – Raila Odinga.
Fortunately, Kenyans also saw through the pettiness and Jubilee’s calculation failed – flat. And now, the party’s spinmeisters have been forced to work overtime to extricate themselves from the disgraceful use of a national event meant to unify ALL Kenyans as a partisan campaign rally replete with ethnic overtones.
And how are Jubilee’s “Communication Analysts” spinning the churlishness?
By crying and playing victim.
My favorite line by one such toady is the claim that the scathing criticism many Kenyans are leveling at the president and his party’s treatment of an invited guest “is ‘ethnic profiling.’…that anything Kikuyu must be demonized”.
No Ms. Communication Analyst. This has little to do with demonizing one of Kenya’s most storied tribe and everything to do with a flailing tone-deaf and ethnocentric president who also happens to be thin-skinned.
Ms. Analyst, the blowback to yesterday’s “dog whistle politics” has zero to do with “ethnic profiling” and everything to do with a country calling out a small clique around a nervous president who shamelessly decided to allow use of a national event as a campaign event AND in the process, ethnicized an occasion meant to unify ALL Kenyans.
What’s not “right” or “fair” Lady Analyst is the mistreatment and total lack of respect afforded a man who for all his faults and foibles (and God knows RAO is flawed) almost single-handedly brought Constitutional multi-partyism AND devolution to a country that oftentimes saw itself as the bank account of a select few.
No Ms. Strategic Communications Admin, what is utterly “disrespectful” is your party’s crass and calculating use of fair-minded and hardworking Kenyans who simply wanted to see and hear the symbol of national unity – the president – unify ALL Kenyans as they get ready to cast their votes – in August.
Folks, Jubilee is flailing. It is also very nervous.
You see it in a thin-skinned president picking fights with governors and anyone who calls out his BS.
You see it in a suddenly-curiously silent deputy president who now realizes that he was brought aboard, not because he was seen as an equal governing partner, but as a conduit to the presidency AND more importantly, a bulwark against charges the duo were facing at The Hague: A reality fully embodied in the diabolical but effective “tyranny of numbers” calculus.
You see it in their pitiful attempts to wrap themselves around an SGR project that has its roots in the 2006 Vision 2030 proposal and a MOU between the Coalition Government (Kibaki & RAO) and Uganda in 2009. Why? Because Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Ruto have very little to show for their 4 years in power other than utter corruption and unabashed incompetence.
You saw it in Nyeri with President Kenyatta’s embarrassing display of dog-whiste politics to a base that deserves better given their rich and storied history in Kenya’s madaraka.
Kenyans, lets show our utter refusal to be used and embarrassed by sending Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Ruto home come August 8, 2017.
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