It would be a cliché to describe the crowd at Uhuru Park in Nairobi on Saturday as mammoth. But it was huge.
Cord
leaders had vowed to bring in a million people. Well, that number was
not achieved but thousands of political supporters, and maybe hecklers,
turned up at the venue to welcome former Prime Minister and Cord leader
Raila Odinga.
The event had been a subject of social
media discussions since last week. It was also a subject of police
directives to ban it but which were later reversed. It was allowed to go
on.
However, for a crowd that thronged the venue from as early as 6 in the morning, Cord leaders showed up at 3pm.
Still, there are lessons we can draw from all that frenzy.
The police were the winners after all
Inspector-General
of Police David Kimaiyo could have felt a sigh of relief when the crowd
at Uhuru Park started milling away. Finally, he might have felt the
event that brought him so much flak this week had ended, at least
peacefully.
On Tuesday, Mr Kimaiyo announced he had banned all political rallies for “security reasons.”
A
few hours later, he appeared to speak from the other side of his mouth
when he told Citizen TV he had not banned any political rally.
Minutes later, he told the Nation he would allow the rallies if they occurred away from the venues of Madaraka (self-rule) Day celebrations.
But
things happened. Cord announced they would defy the ban and a Cord
supporter rushed to court to overturn the ban on legal reasons. The next
day, Mr Kimaiyo reversed the ban much to the mockery by those on
Twitter.
But it now appears he was right to reverse the
ban. Political rallies carry both ants and termites and standing in
their way could have turned chaotic. To deal with excited supporters,
you simply allow them to shout but guard the area. They will go home
after all. It is the same logic teachers used in high school to tame
noisy students: Give the noisiness some formality by allowing them to
talk in your presence. Chances are they won’t talk much.
On
this occasion, the police simply patrolled the streets, stood guard
around the venue and could be seen whisking away one or two deviants. It
generally was a good day at the office for them.
Political rallies are still a source of entertainment to many Kenyans
Covering
a rally like this homecoming is stressful to journalists. You want to
get every happening of it yet the crowd keeps pushing forward to create
mini stampedes. But the crowd does nothing wrong.
Politics
remains a good source of entertainment for many in Kenya. Happening on a
day when there was no football match and drinking is becoming
expensive, attending the rally was an easy way of soothing their souls.
There were those who went there to deify Raila Odinga. They called him Baba.
Yet
there were those who went there to settle scores with politicians they
feel have deserted them. On the receiving end was of course Nairobi
Governor Evans Kidero who was heckled down twice when he tried to speak.
He will need to save face soon enough considering there is a case in the Supreme Court over his election last year.
But these hecklers were simply enjoying themselves. It was a free entertainment for them.
Cord needs Raila, he may not need it
Raila Odinga appeared to have shiny cheeks and a frame larger in size than two months ago when he left for the US.
He might be in larger suits these days. Yet that description could fit his presence in Cord.
A year after the Jubilee government won elections, there were critics who argued they had failed on many fronts.
Jubilee
politicians retorted by arguing they lived with a sleepy opposition.
That was irrelevant but it has taken Cord closer to Raila’s return for
them to start talking but they were often stuttering.
Earlier
when they organised elections, they ruined them by having Men in Black
tearing through the ballot boxes. When they called a press conference,
they ruined their message by attacking a journalists’ tribe. They
apologised, but they had already poured milk, the message they had was
forgotten.
It is only in the past three weeks that they
awoke, perhaps because Raila was coming back. But it has something to
do with Jubilee’s pronounced failures. Insecurity, corruption and
infighting have given Cord a lifeline to earn public sympathy. However,
it is not that these issues started three weeks ago, they are annual
problems. Whether Cord will sustain the talk is another issue, but one
thing was clear at the rally: They still need Raila to help them
criticise the government.
Cord and Jubilee are two sides of the same old dirty coin
Most
of Jubilee politicians today were associates of those in Cord today.
The circumstances have changed, their interests remain the same.
At the rally at Uhuru Park, Cord was criticising Jubilee for its failures, but politicians said they want to take over power.
It
is not that Jubilee will not respond to these criticisms. We expect the
response from Sunday when President Kenyatta hosts the Madaraka Day
celebrations. In fact after the rally, Jubilee supporters on Twitter
were already mocking Cord as the “best gift” politics ever brought them.
Thus, in the weakness of Cord, Jubilee thrives. Yet it is the supposed
weakness of Jubilee that is re-germinating Cord.
At the
end of the day, those supporters who clang on trees, on lamp poles and
those who pushed one another to catch a glimpse of Raila remain the used
lot. They may show up again at the same venue next week when Jubilee
holds a political rally there.
After Raila is back, nothing really changed
Raila’s
best gift is charisma. His speeches are rarely substantial, but there
is a way in which he woos listeners. Some politicians depend on his hand
to succeed. Supporters simply pass time listening to him.
Cord
had announced that his coming and the eventual rally would symbolise
the start of a long journey ahead. Politicians who told us that did not
clarify the journey to where, but former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka
told journalists on Thursday that they wanted to elaborate their “points
of departure” from the Jubilee.
When the day came, it
emerged there was no formal programme. Speakers kept calling random
names not based on rank within the party.
One was
heckled, some were ignored and others were told to wait and speak after
the person called later. It was a little confusion that made it
difficult to elaborate those points.
Raila wants dialogue with Jubilee over continuing national problems.
In the meantime, the problems we faced yesterday remain large in the room.
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