Whereas, I hold no official brief for the ODM, I trust that like other Kenyans, I am entitled to the inalienable right to hold opinion on a matter of such gripping public interest. Hence, from this perspective, it is inconceivable if not highly unlikely, that my two former hall-mates: the very honourable (Mr) Musalia Mudavadi and my very dear friend, Mr Kibisu Kabatesi(KK), could be among those to preside over the possible murder of the most popular political outfit in the land (the Orange Democratic Party(ODM). As any proper reasoning would conclude, such actions would result in almost no gain; not a penny! If anything, it would be a gross mis-calculation and an unfortunate mis-reading of our collective history as a country.
For the two gentlemen, as Mark Antony would euologise of the 'noble', Julius Ceaser, are "gallant and honourable" men. I have experienced their acquaintance all these years, besides enduring the indelible ignomy of August 1 1982 marooned with them on the fifth floor of good old, hall five! I thus owe them some tremendous 'benefit of the doubt', till anyone can proves the other wrong, or, as in my case, taken to be plainly gullible-like 'General' Othello in Shakespeare's aptly famous drama.
Yet, I do not think that KK and his honourable Deputy ODM Party Leader would be easily whimsical, or deficient of critical strategic matter more so, at a time when it is needed most. Can't possibly be! For when we did theatre those years (KK is a proud veteran of the Education Theatre II) the lines, "no more tears in the land of apartheid; no more regrets...no more blood" still reverberate with meaning as immortalised in Lindiwe Mabhuza's poem, 'Death on the Gold Mine'. Those "Poets to the People" as Barry Feinberg chronicled, were meant to inspire, irrespective of just how brutal or diabolical apartheid ever became.
It must be known that the struggle against oppression and injustice took an even more vociferous turn in spite of the infamous Soweto Massacre of 1976. Apartheid was still conquered and a new era dawned in South Africa ( no matter the challenges people complain of even today). If you have thus had a chance to visit the repository in Johannesburg's, 'Apartheid Museum', and probably shed tears over that gory past, you must also be mollified, that at long last, the forces that dehumanise others are often, ultimately, vanquished.
The bearing on our immediate story is that the litany of upheavals against many post-colonial African regimes is lesson enough. There is something, you must learn (however deaf) about the recent fall of the Gaddafi edifice; of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt; Ben Ali in Tunisia and the inevitable fate awaiting those who refuse to read the chronicles of ever-changing tides and times. As our own Francis Imbuga would say, tyrants, too, like the proverbial "Boss" can fall; "almost like Chicken! In essence, it is something to do with the infantile wisdom that makes the forces of retrogression and denial always opportunistically coalesce to smudge at freedom whenever it is about to be born!
In the very columns of our esteemed dailies, we presided over the same for FORD, in 1992 and NARC in 2003. Yet, if you decipher mutations, the essential motif of struggle has simply refused to melt away. Sometimes it requires phenomenal sacrifice. The very forces of retrogression and abuse that saddle progress then hoping to have a peaceful sleep seem ever to backfire badly. The logical observation is that they have been so hopelessly disappointed because, the authentic struggle is like abiku-the unwanted child popularised in West-African folklore; ever mutating; a happening that ever-re-invents itself. Such is why those who fought so hard to even smother the post 2007 dispensation ultimately square out with its damnation , chewing the gum of perpetual disappointment.
The role of prophets since biblical times is merely to forewarn. The media, can, of course fabricate major sensations, but quite seriously can never alter the course of destiny.
Hence, my final thought is that only some madness would propel men (and women) to murder their Party when it is at its most popular: ditto the UK conservatives who are still mulling from the folly of having ejected their Margaret Thatcher – at the most wrong time! From the love of Literature, it is that proverbial "Autumn of the Patriarch" getting its high noon, and that some races so-condemned to One-hundred years of solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez), ultimately win.
Conclusively, one can say without much fear of contradiction: that the struggle for Kenya is far from over; ODM or not. Those burning the midnight oil in mortal fear of history, had better ready themselves for some discomforts. And it will happen, long after many of us in the current generation will have returned to our makers. My dear friends owe it to our generation to re-think these things in the best tradition of St Paul to the Corinthians.
*Dr George Odera Outa works as Communications Advisor in the Office of the Prime Minister. The views expressed here are however personal.
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