By Kenya O Gilbert
Miguna Miguna is one very interesting character. There’s something extremely uncanny and unsettling about the self-declared opposition “general”.
The man who has written three voluminous books about one Raila Odinga, in a span of less than a decade, seems to be peculiarly obsessed with Tinga Wuod Odinga – son of Nyamira.
Nobody can begrudge him with that though, since many people have always been obsessed with the man who has dominated the Kenyan political landscape for close to three decades now.
However, what amazes many is the ease with which Ja Nyando gives away what seems like very intimate secrets.
What happened to the once coveted “word of honour” and code of secrecy?
What happened to the trustworthiness that used to be emblematic with those who were privileged to sit on the king’s high table?
Indeed gone are the days when men and women of honour lived!
If such men and women exist today, they’re in the ratio of one in a million.
When they gave you their word of honour, you could as well use it as a guarantee for a loan from the biggest bank around.
Such were the wise men and women who sat around the king as his inner circle of advisors.
Their code of secrecy could only be comparable to that of ormeta – the proverbial Mafia code of silence. They would rather die than give away secrets they gave their word to protect.
Of course, it is important for the citizenry to have a glimpse of what goes on behind the closed doors of their leaders’ boardrooms before ground shaking decisions are made…
But, there is something disturbingly petty and indecent with the way Miguna x 2 has always gone about spilling the beans anytime he was allowed access to the high table.
With loose mouths like Miguna’s around them, it would be utterly impossible for leaders to lead!
This is one major reason why the man will never be entrusted with high office, where confidentiality is the order of the day.
Those deep in government (siri-kali) – an organ that is normally shrouded in deep secrecy – will only touch Miguna using a one kilometer long stick.
In his latest book, “TREASON: The Case Against Tyrants and Renegades” Miguna seems to relish in giving away very intimate secrets about the behind-the-scenes happenings in Raila’s inner circle, a few days to his swearing in as the people’s president in Uhuru Park, early last year.
Reading through the book, you see a man so determined to give unnecessary details of very intimate secrets.
He runs short of describing the exact time when Raila farted, how thunderous the farts were and how those around the table reacted to the farts!
However, nobody can dispute Ja Nyando’s storytelling prowess. His memory must be razor sharp, if the details he gives in his books are anything to go by.
Yes, just like his other two books (written on the same man), this latest book will attract a short-lived fanatical readership.
But, that will be all it can ever achieve. In a few weeks; nobody will be talking about it anymore.
He knows well that writing about Raila, instantly gives him a huge audience. After all, even our own media houses have long discovered that anything with Raila on it automatically becomes newsworthy.
So, they always find a way of spinning the name Raila into their news items even if they’ve to speculate why he didn’t show up in an event that he was never meant to attend in the first place.
In a nutshell, through his books on Raila (the only books he has written so far), Miguna Miguna keeps proving to all and sundry that he simply can’t be trusted with even the most trivial secret, let alone any sensitive secrets.
What’s more, his know-it-all and self-righteous writing approach, whereby he’s always right when all others are wrong; makes him a very dishonest writer.
As much as he tries to depict Raila as a spineless leader who can’t be trusted, he seems to cherish the opportunity of having closely worked with Tinga.
He obviously can’t even disguise his excitement about this fact, which he masterfully uses to elevate his own stature.
After all is said and done; Miguna Miguna will be remembered as a pathological attention seeker, a rebel without a cause, and a “general” whose mouth always itched to give away the secret war strategies, used by his camp, in their latest battle.
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