The Revolution that never was

Most were hoping that Saba Saba would be a day for Raila Odinga and his CORD team leaders to save the nation from the ineptitude of Jubilee Government

There is a Chinese Proverb that says, “To know the road ahead, ask those coming back”. It means that when you choose a certain path in life, you have to seek the knowledge and wisdom of those who have been through that road before.
That, not only prepares you for the journey ahead, but also ensures that you either avoid making the same mistakes those who walked through the path before you made or you learn on how they overcame the obstacles they encountered.
When revolution luminaries embarked on the journey to transform their nations, they were driven by passion, devotion and were focused on issues that they believed would better the lives of their own people and ensuring that their nations were governed by laws that were just before the eyes of everyone regardless of gender, race, age or religion and that those laws were upheld by the Government.
When Martin Luther King Jnr, for example, was agitating for an end to racism in the United States of America, he appealed to all; black and white even though it was the black people who were being disenfranchised. He kept his eye on the important issues and was not sidetracked by frivolity. He made it clear in his last speech in Memphis, Tennessee that the movement would not engage in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. He chose non-violence to get the message across. It was that frankness, sobriety and focus that saw him gain the support of judicious white politicians and the middle white population that participated earlier in the March on Washington in 1963.
For there to be a successful revolution, leaders must have the support of the masses, a neutral judiciary and the media. The leaders, too, must be focused on issues and they must also be able to articulate the issues to the ordinary people. They must be able to convince the people to be relentless and not to stop until they achieve what they seek. A revolution is about going up together or going down together.
Raila Odinga’s agitation for “some sort of revolution” (he never made it clear what he really wanted) against the Jubilee Government on July 7 2014 was anything but a success and most people saw the spectacular fail that was the revolution coming. While he had most of the ingredients that make up a successive revolution, he was his own worst enemy.
In all the rallies across the country and with all the cameras rolling ready for Raila to grab the proverbial “30 seconds of fame”, his generals, perhaps taking a cue from his reckless rhetoric, ran their mouths turning the intended revolution to a dark and foreboding event. Reckless talk like “Kenya going the South Sudan way”, in reference to the slaughter of innocent people in S.Sudan, divided the nation in the middle.
Raila’s revolution, thanks to his unversed and petty generals, was quickly turned to “if you are not with us, you are against us” instead of “you’ve got to be with us no matter what”. That, for thousands of years, has been a precursor to an abortive revolution. By dividing instead of uniting the masses regardless of ethnicity, Raila created a resistance by making the revolution a quest to wrestle power from “two communities” instead of “two individuals” (President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto). He failed to keep an eye on the ball: The ineptudes of the Jubilee Government. All Jubilee had to do was sit back and watch CORD’s cookie crumble. Thousands of years ago, the Pharaohs of Egypt managed to keep a grip on slaves because the slaves were too divided to have a united stand and similarly, by failing to appeal to the “two communities in power”, Raila did a huge disservice to the revolution.
Those who voted for Jubilee but, like CORD, were equally dismayed by its ineptude were automatically locked out of the revolution by association regardless of the fact that Kenya is a democratic nation. By failing to hold a rally in Central Kenya and Upper Eastern, two perceived Jubilee strongholds, Raila and his generals confirmed the fears that his was a selective revolution. He may not have done it deliberately but that was the message that was understood by his supporters and the narrative the Jubilee spin doctors spread to the “two communities”. The consequence of this was the heightened tension across the country with the revolution now turned to an imminent war between Jubilee and CORD supporters and a possibility of Kenya descending into chaos.
Most Kenyans, having experienced the bloody Post Election Violence (PEV), were not taking any chances with reckless talk like “going the South Sudan way”, “kunyolewa bila maji” and “two evil communities in power” and Raila’s revolution turned into a perceived attempt to grab power from Jubilee through violence. His was an uncalculated and it cost the revolution half a population, the media and the business sector, all who were not ready to go down with CORD.
Raila too, in his quest to steer a revolution, was not clear on what he wanted and instead of being articulate on real issues, he dwelt on empty and tired rhetoric of “bei ya unga” (cost of living), “ushuru” (tax) and public appointments. As a Prime Minister from 2008 and 2012, he did nothing to bring down the cost of living or lower the taxes and most of the appointees in his office were his cousins or those from his community. It was, thus, hard to sell a revolution to most Kenyans and as he went across the country recycling the same rhetoric, it appeared as if his was just a quest of self-preservation and attempt to gain political mileage.
His generals who included Machakos Senator Johnstone Muthama, Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula and former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka among others did nothing to elevate the face of the revolution. If anything, they did more bad than good. Musyoka, for example, served in former President Moi’s dictatorial regime and he dismissed the first Saba Saba (Raila’s D-Day for the revolution)in 1990 as a futile event funded by foreigners and thus, it appeared like a bad joke for him being among those who believed in the spirit of Saba Saba. Add that to the fact that Raila, as ODM’s party leader, has never explained to Kenyans the shamblolic party elections that were disrupted by the infamous “men in black” and you have Kenyans with divided loyalty in regard to the revolution.

 The writer, Lenny Njau, is a journalist