Picture: Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga getting a
hand to climb stairs up the podium to address Kisumu residents who have
been protesting for the last three days over erection of a Hindu statue
in the town.
I have taken time off my busy schedule to respond to a matter of media confabulations that Raila was heckled in Kisumu.
I
watched the video footage, and nothing can be further from the truth.
Raila wasn’t being heckled. It was just an impromptu meeting or an open
air Town Hall if you like where speakers were not moderated. It’s the
reason we raise hands in class or town halls. That’s because human
beings tend to behave in a disorganized way when there aren’t rules set
down to governing them.
First of all Raila is Kenya’s most popular leader. He
is the reason the Ipsos Synovate Directors were threatened with the
revival of a matter of more than 10 yrs ago in which the company was
acquired without the Competition Authority being notified.
Jubilee
has been in power for 1 yr now, but it’s only after Ipsos did a poll
that puts Raila and ODM in a commanding 54% lead, and Cord at 63% that
TNA decided to counter that by enlisting the services of Strategic PR,
in a poll whose sole intention was to portray Raila and ODM as waning
political entities.
Raila
despite being rigged out of office continues to be a decent, dignified
and globally respected leader whose foresight and Mandelaisque persona
earned him a place as the keynote speaker at the star studded Liberal
International Convention attended by the who’s who. Raila’s diary is
fully booked.
The
Liberal International invited him to officially open its convention
held in South Africa because with Mandela gone, Raila remains the most
celebrated African visionary who has gotten it right on matters that the
world Liberal movement cares deeply about.
And the Sikh Monument was a major test on Raila’s cool. He could have chosen to be a populist and just yell “hii monument tutachoma kesho”
but as a responsible leader, who understands the dictates and tenets of
freedom of religion and the rights of the minority, he maintained his
cool, portraying a man who chose to endure what was fodder to the media
all in defense of religious freedoms.
The
world and even the US went through numerous upheavals which culminated
into this concept called Religious freedom, through the agitation of
folks like Thomas Jefferson- a man I respect for getting it right in all
his major writings even at a time when his positions would not have
been popular in the 16th C America.
And
for Jefferson’s fidelity to what is right- his push for religious
freedoms was repulsed by the media and religious fundamentalists as “the
views of an infidel who “writes aghast the truths of God’s words; who
makes not even a profession of Christianity; who is without Sabbaths;
without the sanctuary, and without so much as a decent external respect
for the faith and worship of Christians.”
3
Centuries later Raila Odinga- a Kenyan leader is like Thomas Jefferson
confronted with a similar challenge of telling his people the truth
about religious tolerance. Because religious freedom is about letting
Rashid and his Muslim brothers sing in the streets during Hajj so long
as we stay out of terror, or Christians erect a “Mary mother of God
holding Jesus statue” outside their church in my home town of Kitale.
The
$80m Question is- would the Christian supermajority in Kisumu have
protested had a “Mary Mother of God statue holding baby Jesus” or
Jaramogi statue been erected at Kondele? The answer is No!
Folks that’s tyranny of majority analogous to the evil of “tyranny of numbers”, by an arrogant people
who are currently victims of the same Jubilee doctrine, ramming their
beliefs down the throats of minority Sikhs. So what will they tell the
majority Kikuyus and Kalenjins who continue to impose their illegitimate
domination on them driven by their appetite for what they without
apologies call tyranny?
You
see. It’s bad when it’s you the victim, but OK when you are the
villain. At this rate Luos are taking away their moral authority to
complain against “Tyranny of Numbers” because they have demonstrated by
this small act that they too can be vindictive should they craft a
Tyranny of Numbers like Coalition.
I
think this Sikh Monument debacle portrayed vintage Raila as a leader
who can stand up to his people when they are wrong and avoid the
temptation of playing to the gallery.
Instead
he appeared to say “I don’t worship, wont bow before your “god” but
will respect and uphold your dignity and respect to worship the god of
your choice, but I will seek a way out, if in the expression of your
religious rights public peace and harmony will be affected”.
That’s
a perfect mix of Jeremy Bentham’s Utilitarianism and Immanuel Kant’s
deontological ethics. That yes I will be consistent because am guided by
certain progressive principles, and live with the consequences, but I
will also seek a middle ground solution that addresses the concerns of
the “greatest number” of disparate parties.
That’s
what leadership is. Standing firm for what’s right, and even paying the
media consequences for it, even when the political cost is too high.
Raila is the man in whom Eldorobos, Jemps and even Kikuyus alike can
entrust their lives to. A once in a lifetime political leader willing to
rise above the ethnic chauvinism of his ODM Luo Nyanza leaders in
embrace of a national image for the nation’s single largest political
and most national party, ODM. A leader who can not only unite the nation
but also defend the rights of the minority Sikh population even when it
means losing his own base political support. A leader whose election to
office for 2 consecutive terms has been vetoed by the incumbency, but
still accepted to move on in the interest of peace…who else can have a
larger than life heart like you Agwambo? Can any other leader ready to
pay the price for consistency, like Raila Amolo Odinga, please stand up?
Zero! Watch this space
Rashid Wanjala- Canadian Based Legal Analyst
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