Dikembe Disembe
Kidero’s China Forays Fails to excite Base, supporters keeping a Safe Distance.
From the faces we have seen, and the pictures relayed back home, at least we can tell the following: Mike Sonko is doing nothing in China except facebooking. President Kenyatta is enjoying every moment, not because of you, but coz he is sending a rather long and loaded message to the “Westâ€. Kiambu Governor William Kabogo and Nairobi Women’s Representative Rachel Shebesh are doing unknown things. The other faceless 60 plus ‘business and industry people’ are on long fiesta. BUT one man is outrightly in the wrong place: Nairobi Governor Dr Evans Kidero.
We are talking about politics here. Not development.
A politician must find means and ways of remaining relevant. At all times, a politician must be conscious of the messages he is sending to his base. Uhuru’s visit to China massages his base -the jubilee supporters – the right way. Sonko, because his base includes the ‘easily excited’ of Nairobi, for example bar attendants and form four leavers, has continued to feed his base with photos, photos and more photos on end.
 But Kidero is a politician who has consistently proven he acts without thinking. The Nairobi Governor does not just get it. It was James Ortis, that great Bostonian, who said taxation without representation is tyranny – the adopted rant of residents of the District of Columbia fighting for statehood- however, for Kidero, it is the other way round. The base now thinks Gov Kidero is a tyrant. The base is saying representation without consultation is tyranny!
 Kidero needs to live up to the realization that he is not going to achieve any meaningful development in Nairobi. He needs to know that globe-trotting alongside President Kenyatta is giving him a bad name, and annoying his base. His new-found love for everything Jubilee is sending cold-jitters home, because the base has seen where such ‘cooperation’ ended before.
 Finally, he needs to know that his party is engaged in an initiative whose significance is more than the ksh 80 billion shillings he has been loaned in China. Governor Evans Kidero was a product of a big trade-off. Rather than just watch ODM and CORD from a far, Gov Kidero needs to get involved. If CORD is on the offensive, Kidero should be at the very frontline. If CORD is hammering Jubilee on devolution and skewed appointments, Kidero should be the spokesperson, or near thereof. ODM under CORD, which sponsored Kidero to the current gubernatorial position, is the party of the ‘outsider’.
 This is the party of the sojourners still fighting for a more ‘inclusive’ government. Often they do not win, but its members are acutely aware, and hypersensitive, to disguised insults – be they political or economic. Representation without consultation is tyranny. Consultation in this age need not be through mass rallies. Gov Kidero must begin to ask himself how and why Gov Rutto is holding the Jubilee Alliance government at ransom, despite coming from the junior party of that alliance, URP.Governor Kidero needs to play politics. He is determined to be a one term governor.
 Kidero is chasing the wind. He is being fattened for slaughter. You see, Kidero’s China forays is good. His visits to the Diamler vehicle automaker are laudable but how do they translate to ‘work’ by his core constituencies. While he is away, even the watchmen that guard most Nairobi businesses are saying the governor is an out-of-touch politician living in some utopia; and dreaming along, that he is on the right way.
 Gov Kidero’s poverty of politricks has left his support base scattered among the other governors in CORD who understands their party, base, and the issues at play. Some have already crossed over to the Isaac Ruto side. He is hell-bent in copying everything President Kenyatta does. From those ‘begging you’ facebook updates to the events he attends, Kidero stinks pungently of Jubilee.
 When recently part of the base questioned Kidero’s lukewarm relationship with party affairs, he was quick to say he is around, even the ODM party released a press statement; but how do you convince the base that looks at him with scepticism? The base wary of his marriage with Jubilee?
 CORD’s main function in the next five years is to keep the Jubilee Alliance government in check. CORD will owe the people of Kenya no development debt at the end of these five years so Kidero better comes home and begin keeping the government, and its agencies and organs in Nairobi on check. Kidero needs to tell President Kenyatta that his manner of civil service appointments is wrong. He needs to openly scold this government on its systematic firing of certain communities. He needs to remind Uhuru that every part of Kenya pays taxes thus deserves representation in the government. He needs to do every so often that his own life becomes a matter of safety concerns!
 Yet we also want him to develop Nairobi. But, even when the action is purely development, it must reverberate with political overtones that everyone agrees that is CORD on the driving seat. Gov Kidero has been an uninvited guest in the Jubilee government.
As I conclude, maybe Kidero should borrow some leaf from Republican Governors and politicians. The work of opposition politicians is to keep the government in check!
 Is Kidero aware his cousin, President Obama’s signature issue-the affordable healthcare plan, has been repealed by Senate republicans over 40 times? Even when they know the odds are against them? Opposition politics has no place for dillydallying and pussyfooting and compromises. Grow up boss!