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President Uhuru Kenyatta allowing ODM leader Raila Odinga to receive the visiting Burundian President is a boost for the former premier’s political strategy in terms of perception. But in terms of reality, it is highly doubtable if there are gains that come with it.
Raila has a bigger international stature than anybody else. Burundi is not one of those serious states; actually, it is more or less a basket case.
Receiving a Burundian president will not earn Raila much in terms of stature and international connections as he already has those. So for public relations purposes, the reception is significant, but in terms of real value, I doubt.
What I see is Uhuru managing Raila so that he finishes his term without trouble. Look at the Kisumu stadium; can you compare it to what has been done in Kakamega?
In fact there was talk that the President might not commission the stadium because of the noticeable shoddy work. The poor work shows that there is nothing serious worth a presidential launch.
The delegated roles Raila is being assigned are thus purely for public relations. It is a question of seeking to manage the guy, keep him busy as time goes. By the time they finish, we’ll be in September or October and the ODM leader will not be able to cause any trouble. Even if he wants to bolt out of the handshake, he will be so much damaged.
One pointer that these events are purposefully to manage Raila, why is it that President Kenyatta has never taken him to Mt Kenya? Have you ever seen them go to campaign for BBI in the region? Raila goes with the likes of nominated MP Maina Kamanda, former Gatanga MP Peter Kenneth and so on. Why not with Uhuru? Why hasn’t Uhuru called people to Sagana and taken Raila there? It raises a number of questions, but that is politics.
The perceived gains for Nyanza are also isolating Raila from the rest of the country. He has been the candidate of the rest of the country. Uhuru was the candidate of the mountain and sections of the Rift Valley because of his alliance with DP William Ruto.
There was very little acceptance outside the two regions. But now when you take all projects to Nyanza, you are basically isolating him from Kisii, Western, and Coast – his bedrocks, and packaging him as a tribal kingpin who is selfish. When he goes out there, there will be questions.
The political analyst spoke to the Star
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