By Jackson O
As a martial arts practitioner, I am going to use a hand-to-hand combat analogy. In kumite ( Fighting), a fighter never shows an opponent any signs of injury, pain or fatigue no matter what kind of hit they may have taken in a given session. The logic here is simple: the moment your opponent realises that you are in pain, is the moment they will close in for the kill!
Governor Evans Kidero did his part, the lady of the cloth had surrendered the park to the opposition, the government officials were already speaking in ‘tongues’, the courts and human rights groups had already cosigned CORD’s push for a parallel rally and the supporters were, yet again, ginned up for another political showdown!
In other words, the politically schizophrenic Jubilee government was on a steady path to Weimar Republic. Kenyans were dropping phrases like “Dictatorial regime,” “Dark days” etc. Jubilee’s overreach was nauseating to many a Kenyan and the public confidence level was clocking embarrassing lows. All the suits had to do was to hold tight just for ONE day and go for the jugular on Madaraka Day!
And then everything came to a screeching halt.
An ‘injured’ Jubilee government used a state visit to deflate CORD’s populist push, dilute the momentum heading into tomorrow’s rally, mask the embarrassing stunts that they pulled in the last couple of days, and then crowned it all with a priceless political trophy by way of a ‘bipartisan’ photo op that was promptly disseminated to media houses and the blogosphere!
Talk about a political chess move! In one photo op, Jubilee managed to make Orange juice out of freaking lemons! The utter dejection and disappointment among CORD supporters is so profound that one wonders how those smiley faces at Statehouse will be able to turn around and be ‘very angry’ on Madaraka Day!
This is a huge debit on our political ledger and to make it worse, that money is right on Jubilee’s books! Amazing.
