By Gabriel O
Daniel Arap Moi is 93 years old. Biologically, his locomotion muscles are contrained and his sensory nerve endings need a constant artificial boost. There are things he cannot conceivably do at that age, regardless of whether he chews a sack of beetroot every hour or injects himself with alligator serum every day. And if you add the political pressure that comes with running an African democracy on the dictator’s model for 24 years, you have a man who is, by all accounts, weather-beaten. You can see it in the photos.
Raila Odinga meeting President Moi is more beneficial to President Moi than to Raila Odinga. Here is a man who was forcefully retired by an angry mob of agitated Kenyans keen to see a new constitutional dispensation where the rule of all law overrides the rule of one iron-fisted man.
President Moi did not leave the Presidency on a celebratory note, those scenes at Uhuru Park in 2002 when his motorcade was pelted with rotten eggs and his Chief of Staff losing one shoe in the melee tells you Kenyans did not really forgive Moi for all those vile things he did running this country from the comfort of his ivory rungu. President Moi needs closure before he exits the stage, and he knows there’s only one man who can wash away all your political sins kwa mwosho mmoja tu. That man is Tinga wuod Nyalego Agwambo Kidi Kibudi.
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Past history has taught us that if you want power in this country, and you are ready to go the full mile, the only thing that can stop you is an asssin’s bullet. It doesn’t matter anymore whether you belong to an aristocratic caste or you’re the son of a poor cattledip acaricide sprayer. If you have money, and you’re willing to make concessions with the ruling elite on a few contentious issues they may be concerned about once you become President, my friend you will get to where you want to go regardless of the political artillery assembled on your path.
Because there is no honour among thieves.
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