By Okeri Orina
I have come across so many weaklings who profess to be leaders,and in the test I have found them but the slaves of a nobler class. They perform the will of the master without question. To me a man has no master but God. Man in his authority is a sovereign lord. As for the individual man, so of the individual race.This feeling makes man so courageous, so bold, as to make it impossible for his brother to intrude upon his rights. So few men can understand what it makes to make a man-the man who will never say die; the man who will never give up; the man who will never depend upon others to do for him what he ought to do for himself; the man who will not blame God, who will not blame Nature, who will not blame Fate for his condition; but the man who will go out and make conditions to suit himself. Â – Marcus Garvey.
Change is good.
It may however not be palatable from the start. While nobody can stop an idea whose time has come, it is also true that not everyone will welcome the idea. Others will gaze at the idea, some will ignore it, a few will resist it, and a determined minority will want to resist it.
The determined minority resisting change in ODM have had their fair bite at the game. This team being led by the ‘Mapambano ‘ soloist represent to me the ‘weaklings’ noted by Marcus Garvey who only serve to profess to be leaders but never are, and, never will be.
So they begun by branding the General a mole,a jubilee sympathizer.Others hid behind the national brand and so it wise to have a list that in their wicked wisdom they thought would be ready culinary for the cunning delegates. They even made the Party leader a god and sought acceptance in his ‘divine’ name. So now they are shaken by the seriousness with which the young team has approached this internal elections.
This fresh team has invested their time,energy and finances in the people’s will.Old Kajwang’ and his baraza have only known how to compose tunes and throw in Raila’s name in the chorus. This used to guarantee them cheap victories.Too bad for him and his company,the game and the rules have changed.
Now they have begun cheap propaganda that the new team is planning a mass walk out of ODM.While it is wise for any drowning man to clutch at a straw, sometimes it is more prudent to die without such pit low struggles. ODM elections do not only mean a lot to the party,but everything.
The former Prime Minister has in the past determined the special army to be around him.This team led by the outgoing Secretary General ,whose tie was with the likes of Kajwang,was tested, failed and made the party fail and will continue to fail as long as they hang around. As the party goes to war with itself,the Party leader too needs a contest against his self. In this contest I envisage a few battle lines:
i) Former PM vs Raila Odinga
ii) ODM vs Raila Odinga
iii) ODM vs ODM
In the first contest, Raila Odinga must win.The party leader must shed away the stalks of Banana that he carried along with him from the Coalition Government.This simplistic approach of inclusivity is a foreign attribute in the Raila we have always known.The party leader must respect the fact that real and true liberations obey the Law of the Few. Raila must pinch himself hard,knock his forehead against the wall just to remind himself that he is meritorious in the faces of majority Kenyans, Africans and the globe at large not because of his hat and coat, but because of his heart and mind.
The many titles he is chasing,just to look good,are taking him away from the person we knew.We want the title-less Raila who would prefer to be right rather than appear the gentle good.
In the second contest, ODM must win. Raila Odinga must concede defeat. He must let the party put on the lenses and determine the path of its political future rather than him determining the political future of the party.This is the greatest contest. Raila is a good player and this will be the hardest thing for him to do but he must do it.
ODM elections as I pointed out earlier mean everything. The party must come out as the final winner. If Kenyans will not have a feeling that ODM is people-owned, then Raila will be in for a dead-long political journey. If it is Ababu, and that is how it was even from the look of things, let him be. The voice of the delegates is the voice of the party.
People argue that some wars are bigger than some dogs.Others see some dogs as being smaller to some wars. Neither of this applies to ODM.ODM is a big dog engaging in a big war. The dog is well fed, all its gears are set and this is why I see hypocrisy in any ODM member who wants to denounce the now famous “Men In Black”.
They have been part and parcel of our politics and so they too had come to participate in the big war. This club of hooligans’ best fits my third match, ODM vs ODM.
There are things that have been part of this party and they are neither orange, neither democratic and neither do they form a movement. Hooliganism is one of them. Shambolic nominatios, political favoritism, hybrid sycophancy, political intolerance, family meddling, patronage etc form part of this list.
ODM must live to be a movement, a party and not a factory for processing people into worshippers of some imaginary demi-gods. ODM ought to plant and irrigate seeds that shall offer leadership for future generations. The party must go into battle with itself and win this battle. While it shall be ODM vs ODM, ODM must emerge the ultimate winner.
Had the party adopted such of these practices as should be in any democratic arrangement, then we would be discussing Friday’s events with the other side of the mouth. Any status quo will always dread the ravenous energy of them that are youthful. Any youthful idea is a threat of the unknown and the unfathomable to the minds of the old. No wonder the many stories surrounding Team Ababu.
This is not only a party issue, it’s a societal concern. Nature has it that the elderly must pave way for the young. Shakespeare himself noted that a time comes when the “main actor” must leave the stage. It is Lupita’s turn today, so Anyang’ must leave the stage. It is the turn for Joho and Ababu, the rest must leave the stage.
This team has proved it can stand alone and create a path for its self. It has proved that it shall stand and play for Raila in the match against him and the former Prime Minister and is best positioned to guarantee the much awaited win in the final match of liberating our country.
Unlike the rest of the political Pharisees, they will sharpen him from within for their lies his real strength. As I pen off, I wish to remind this cherished team of a Kikuyu proverb that goes, “He who desires beauty does not mind pain”. We desire victory. Your victory will be our victory. Go all lengths, all miles and grant us this victory. Use all imaginations, all impossibilities to secure this win. We can no longer allow ourselves to play pity and engage luck in shaping the destiny of our country through our party.
My side of it? Team Namwamba!