Nasa needs a new crop of leaders and ideas to steer coalition towards 2022

Nasa leader Raila Odinga, flanked by his co-principals, speaks about the fate of the coalition in a media briefing at their Okoa Kenya offices in Nairobi on February 1, 2018. The principals must support and front new leaders and ideas to energise Kenya’s opposition. PHOTO | DENNIS KAVISU

What you need to know:

  • Mr Musyoka, Mr Wetang’ula and Mr Mudavadi left Mr Odinga exposed and vulnerable and despised and unmasked.
  • The Nasa was comprehensively beaten last year because it botched its nomination, and set out to win the presidency.

When National Super Alliance (Nasa) launched its civil disobedience campaign last October, I wrote that Kenya’s opposition needs new ideas and leadership, which the campaign would both generate and demand.

I argued that the campaign would be a success if it led to a renewal of the opposition and helped it win the 2022 General Election, form government and cease being a protest movement.

But, I warned, in a fast unravelling world, Nasa’s test could come sooner.

It did on January 30 via the futile investiture of Mr Raila Odinga as the people’s president and in the resultant dictatorial overreaction of government.

The responsibility of leading the challenge against Executive dictatorship falls squarely on the shoulders of Nasa’s principals Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka, Moses Wetang’ula and Musalia Mudavadi who have long experience in politics, diplomacy and government.

OATH DATE
But on January 30, when they needed to demonstrate leadership, courage and conviction, Mr Musyoka, Mr Wetang’ula and Mr Mudavadi skipped Mr Odinga’s investiture.

Never before in Nasa’s year-long history has an absence remained so conspicuously ever-present.

Not since 1983 when the late Elijah Mwangale called Mr Charles Njonjo a betrayer of President Moi, have the words traitor, coward and hypocrite been so abundantly hurled at political leaders.

Never before have a troika with presidential pretensions been so publicly reviled.

The message from the Kenyan public to the troika has been simply that leaders show up; they do not run away; they take responsibility; they lead by example; and they flank, and are flanked by, colleagues, allies and friends.

BETRAYAL
When Mr Odinga needed them most the troika fled, yet they had led the world to believe they would be at Uhuru Park.

They should have made their decision public and not only stood by it, but also persuaded their followers to back them.

By staying way, the enduring picture and symbol of the installation features Mr Odinga and lawyers James Orengo, Tom Kajwang’ and Miguna Miguna, all Luo and all ODM (Orange Democratic Movement) members.

Yet Nasa is a multicultural amalgam of political parties.

Mr Musyoka, Mr Wetang’ula and Mr Mudavadi left Mr Odinga exposed and vulnerable and despised and unmasked.

Now all must reset their presidential buttons.

But for me new faces should find places on Nasa’s high table or of affiliate parties, and stake claims to leadership.

PARLIAMENT
Why? One, Kenya already has a legislative dictatorship courtesy of Jubilee Party’s massive parliamentary majority.

The Nasa was comprehensively beaten last year because it botched its nomination, and set out to win the presidency, but failed to prepare to win the General Election.

The principals must bear the blame for Nasa’s dismal performance, which drastically reduced the opposition’s representation in Parliament and governorships.

There is no evidence yet they, individually or collectively, have fresh ideas, strategies or battle plans to reverse this slide.

Two, when charged crowds rejected dialogue and told the principals they wanted Mr Odinga sworn in, they were signalling that they had moved on, without the leadership.

A leadership that plays catch up to its electors richly deserves fertile competition.

DISPARATE GROUPS
Three, among the Nasa base is an influential, militant and increasingly impatient coterie.

It would gravitate to fire-eating Miguna, Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho and not to Mr Musyoka & Co.

It reserves evangelical adulation for Mr Odinga and has won his heart.

It has no time for moderates. Yet moderates include young, thinking and articulate emergent leaders such as Kitui Senator Enoch Wambua; realists such as Turkana Governor Josephat Nanok; technocrats such as Kisii Governor James Ongwae; intellectual powerhouses such as economist David Ndii and reliable old guard politicos such as Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya.

FRESH IDEAS

These disparate visions need positions on Nasa’s high table or those of affiliate parties for their strengths to be channelled into strengthening the opposition with novel and election-winning ideas and strategies.

Four, the lasting lesson from the lengthy struggle against Kanu’s dictatorship and the equally drawn-out fight for a new Constitution is that if dictators are given an inch, they take a mile; and when unchallenged, they impose rule by Executive decree, ministerial diktat and party fiat.

The principals must support and front new leaders and ideas to energise Kenya’s opposition.

Opanga is a commentator with a bias for politics [email protected]