ODM-Kenya: "D" for "DEMO-CRAZY": The other side of mass action.

Wapenda Kenya Wenzangu,

I have been accused of 'hating' Raila Odinga although what I am trying to do is size him up to see if he is the man I'd be proud to call President of my beloved country Kenya. To those who see me as a "hater", please don't take me seriously. Just let me play my harp.

My friends, we all love Kenya. We would love to see real true competition of ideas to make our country better. We do not relish in witnessing the kind of infighting that we are witnessing in ODM-Kenya at the moment. I for one would have wished to watch a debate between the major candidates vying for the position of President of Kenya. The debate would be centered around how and what good each of the candidates plans for Kenya. As of now, we are forced to watch the specters in ODM-Kenya. So let us see what this specter has for us. What are some of its basic implications?

Fellow compatriots. It is as clear as day. The so called de facto ODM-Kenya officials led by Henry Kosgey as Chairman with James Magara as Treasurer General and Anyang Nyong' as Secretary General are all declared Raila Odinga supporters. Nothing to deny about that. Mr. Magara has even said that he will die for Raila!! It then is a fair question to ask: How would one expect Kalonzo Musyoka to accede to the demand by Kosgey and company to be handed the leadership of the party? How do you hand over tools of war to your adversary? Now that Kalonzo is in the house as it were, how does he hand over the keys to Raila who will swiftly get in, push him out and lock him out?

The de jure ODM-Kenya leadership under Maanzo and company may be inconsequential as individuals but they are the ones that have the real power in ODM-Kenya. Now that the Maanzo team has indicated that they are in tune with Kalonzo Musyoka and that Kalonzo has their ear, the die is clearly cast. Raila's group has just two options.
1. Genuinely negotiate with Kalonzo and company.
2. Quickly form a party of their own.

Then this is absurd really. Just look and think about it. Today, I read that the Raila-Mudavadi-Ruto group put the Registrar of Societies on notice and announced mass action if the "recognised" party officials led by "Chairman", Mr Henry Kosgey and "Secretary-General", Prof Anyang Nyong', were not registered. I do recognize that the Registrar's office has been abused in the past. However, the registrar can only register new officials when they show that they have been elected following the laid down rules and regulations of the registered organization, ODM-Kenya in this case.

If mass action and public demonstrations should be what is needed to get decisions made as the Raila group would have us believe, then it is a valid argument to make that in the event that Raila is elected president, the registrar of societies under his administration will be required to register and/or deregister officials of societies or parties based on public demonstrations?

We have heard threats of public demonstrations by Raila before. When you see Raila start to call for public demonstrations, then you know that he is extremely desperate and in a very tight legal corner. Unfortunately, Raila's "demo-crazy" has never achieved a thing. Public demonstrations did not succeed to register ODM. Some ingenuous ways had to be found to finally have the ODM-Kenya registered. It will be a bad day for Kenya when decisions begin to be made on the basis of public demonstrations and mass action. It will be a bad day indeed.

Thanks.

Michoma Moenga

Article originally written on August 1, 2007 as Raila's faction in ODM-Kenya was threatening mass action to force Kenya's Registrar of Societies to recognize the slate of ODM-Kenya officials led by Henry Kosgey.