A BREAKDOWN OF JUBILEE’S NGC AND HOW THE ‘MGANGA’ STOLE THE SHOW
By Jackson Omondi
Jubilee sees Raila Odinga as a one-man political juggernaut and for a good reason; whenever Raila speaks the nation’s political pulse beats a notch higher. What was supposed to be a moment of pizzazz for Jubilants, turned out to be Raila’s messaging extravaganza.
That President Uhuru derisively, chose to plug in political expletives on the person of RAO was a telltale sign that RAO is on to something heavy.
By christening the enigma as “mganga,” the President, inadvertently directed the nation’s attention to the enigma’s press conference! What was supposed to be a low-key press conference became a national issue thanks to a presidential mention on live television.
Talk about free advertising from the nation’s CEO! Marketing consultants would kill to have a sitting President as a surrogate. Uhuru did it on the house and the enigma gladly appreciated the inadvertent favor.
Both UK and WSR dedicated acres of airtime to the so called Jubilee milestones and without batting eyelids, took credit for projects that were conceived and initiated way before they pulled their political junta on the nation and took charge of the country’s affairs.
Listening to them rattle out the coalition government’s projects as their ‘signature’ achievements was not only laughable but downright embarrassing.
The President dubbed Raila a “mganga” and went on to brag about rural electrification in the most juvenile way possible. Curiously, he said nothing that came close to a rebuttal of what the “mganga” has alleged. To make it worse, his deputy’s rhetoric also fell way short of a coherent response to Raila’s allegations. To lettered Kenyans, the duo’s effusive rhetoric was akin to watching an arsonist playing the role of a firefighter!
The casual dismissal of corruption allegations appeared to many Kenyans, as a slap in the face. No amount of statistics can eclipse the voodoo accounting that engulfed the Eurobond thing, no amount of finger-wagging can erase the fact that this regime is setting records with unprecedented levels of corruption.
Interestingly, the NGC came right after the country was treated to contradicting testimonies from leading actors in mega corruption scandals who are actually gunning for political seats on the same party’s ticket.
So why did the “mganga” thing dominate the NGC ? With no concrete record to run on and an all-star cast of corrupt individuals, the Jubilee government is going back to a tried and true political tactic.
The President knows that his core constituency is never interested in policies or records, he knows that his voters are never driven by arcane policy minutiae, he is clearly in the know that all he has to do to reactivate his base is to evoke emotions.
Displaying disgust on an imaginary enemy( RAO was ‘Njamba’ when he agreed and fought for the enterprise and then instantly became the ‘devil’ when he challenged them) excites the base and rallies them to the voting booths. That’s why RAO had to be “mganga.” And with that, Jubilee has signalled how they are going to wage the campaign. It’s going to be an angry campaign, a campaign against a “witch’ who doesn’t have the country’s interests at heart.
What the president and his deputy do not understand is that if RAO is a “mganga,” then he is what Kenya needs because his ‘uganga’ has been exposing mega scandals that Jubilee would like to keep under wraps.
Heck, the President himself, is on record pleading nolo contendere to the war against graft! How can he then, turn around and claim that RAO is upto no good?
In what now appears to be the norm, another mega corruption expose’ by RAO will be met by lots of libation, chest thumping and political doublespeak for we can now discern faux from real.
It’s now clear that Jubilee is going to seek a second term on playing victim and fearmongering. Kenyans will be given dark and innuendo-filled accounts of the enigma.
Expect to hear more about RAO’ s political montage because what you saw at Bomas was just a test-drive. They are coming to a town near you. And all that, is a coordinated effort to tame one man, a man who has done more for the country than the two Johnny-come-latelys who ran on political martyrdom to get to the top and after flunking the leadership test, are out to use fear and sympathy to rally the base in order to secure a fighting chance.
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