MEMO TO ODM SUPPORTERS.
Since Ford Kenya and Wiper started making demands that their leaders be endorsed for President and Deputy President, ODM has been feeling cornered. ODM feels wrongly that if it breaks ranks with Ford Kenya and Wiper then everything is lost.
We need to think again.
Coalitions are never cast in stone. Even in mature democracies like Germany, UK and Israel, coaltions keep changing. You do not have to go to the next election with the coalition you had in the previous election.
It would be good for us to have Wiper and Ford Kenya in 2017. But we don’t have to force it…
In 2002, Raila Odinga put together a coalition of NAK of Charity Ngilu, his own LDP and Mwai Kibaki’s DP to form NARC which defeated Moi and Uhuru Kenyatta. By 2004, that coalition had turned against Raila and the people of Kenya .
Raila was able to put together a different coalition, one between Kanu and LDP to defeat Kibaki in the 2005 referendum. The same coalition went ahead to defeat Kibaki in 2007 elections forcing him to steal.
The lesson is, yes we need a coalition, but it does not have to be the same as the one of 2013. We would love to have the same coalition but we must not stop Raila from pursuing other options.
There is Kanu, Mashinani, Narc of Ngilu, Narc Kenya of Karua looking for partners. let’s not feel too tied to Wiper and Ford Kenya.
Above all, also consider possibility of Raila saying, I will work with Uhuru Kenyatta. In that scenario nobody will need Wiper or Ford Kenya or URP. And don’t take this as an impossibility. When no one expected it, Raila announced he was working with Kanu in late 2001 and Kenya changed forever.
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