ODM DEAD LIKE DODO!

By Barrack Muluka

I am thinking I should be Monsieur Jean-Batiste. I see that the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) is posturing for raw power. They want to bamboozle us to install them over us, so that they can do to us what Kanu and Narc have done to us.

ODM big guns assemble not to discuss what they can do for Kenya, but how to divide power and wealth among themselves. I see that I will have to be the voice of the man screaming in the wilderness. I will call their bluff. These power hungry ODM people cannot save Kenya – and you can take these words to the bank.

In my dream, a dear friend asks me, from the blues: "What is the dream of your life?" My response is equally abrupt: "To witness the day when we will look back and say, ‘this far have we come. We travelled on a rocky and slippery uphill road, full of thorns.

But we have built a good country. We mounted on wings like eagles; we ran without getting weary and walked without being faint. Alas, we have this beautiful country! We renewed our strength in hard times and so we have this blessed land and nation, where justice is our shield and defender. We are counted among those who truly dwell in unity, peace and liberty.

See how service is our earnest endeavour and our home a veritable heritage of splendour. We are proud to defend this home, any time. See how with one accord we are all united, in a common bond to build this our nation together. I am proud to witness this day, today, when the glory of Kenya and the fruit of our labour fill every heart with thanks giving’."
But the derisive words of the mocker interrupt my dream: "I will not sack anybody, and nobody will resign! Even if you do not like them, they are going nowhere. And there is nothing you can do about it." Now this is classic contempt after the fashion of the Greek hubris. It is the substance tragedy is fashioned from. I give up on wasting my precious words on those who scoff.

And I am admonished by French dramatist and Nobel Literature laureate (1947), Andre Gide, when he wrote in ‘New Fruits of the Earth’, "Stop transferring poetry into dream; know how to see it in reality." And so I decide to see it as it is. I see that in the end I am bored of pouring poetry onto rocky ground, in a futile dialogue with the deaf. If the dreams I cherish must be fulfilled, then I must dream ahead, with a new generation. Those who once said, "Fellow Kenyans, I am inheriting a country which has been badly ravaged by years of misrule and ineptitude. There has been a wide disconnect between the people and the Government, between the people’s aspirations and the Government’s attitude toward them," have betrayed me.

I see that ODM is enjoying itself, turning the spoon, even as the Government that lied to me about the "return of the culture of due process, accountability and transparency in public office" roasts in its own fat. ODM has affected pious rage.

Kanu vampires and barracudas who ran down one State Corporation after the other, to line their pockets, now deafen you with refrains of "Oh, when the Saints Go Marching In…" As the battalion rings "Oh Lord I want to be among the number, oh when the Saints go marching in…."

I am acutely reminded of how the Catering Levy Trustees and the Kenya Airports Authority once sunk billions of shillings in deposits and liquid investments in collapsed financial institutions in the Kanu sunshine.

Even at the rate of Sh200b, this is Goldenberg 15 times! Sadder still, I know that these funds were sunk despite Treasurer’s guidelines and circulars, and especially Circular No. 10 of 1991.

I am reminded of the Ngemwa Pump Station under the aegis of Kenya Pipeline, in which a paltry nine- kilometre road (yes, kilomita tisa!) cost the Treasury some Sh510m, in effect some Sh56.7m per kilometre! And between 1991 and 1994, KPTC financed fake projects to the tune of Sh1.8b. Consultancy alone, consumed Sh1.75b. The project never took off. Elsewhere in Mombasa, the Kenya Posts Authority paid – between 1995 and 1998 – Sh666m for a container freight project that never was.

These are not Joseph’s dreams. No, this is what you witness when you stop transferring poetry into dream. ODM is nothing, but Kanu just before the Uhuru Project –of course minus Moi, Saitoti and Biwott. And I have told you nothing about all manner of grand theft through emergency import of goods regulations, import duty exemption, diversion of transit goods, disposal of goods impounded by customs, Government tenders and procurement, pending bills, fake contracted services, public asset stripping, external and domestic loan system; and a whole whale of other thieving tricks under the good old Kanu.

Now, because President Kibaki’s inaugural address and his self-serving pious promises of yesteryear have evaporated into hot air and water vapour, the Serpents of yore are disguised as democrats, securely ensconced in ODM.

Youth for Kanu ’92, the singular highest beneficiary of Goldenberg in 1992 is chanting: "Oh when the saints go matching in…." This ODM solidarity is a slippery path for a people who would seek justice as their shield and defender.

Has the time not come when we must look beyond ODM for the beautiful ones who would lead this nation to the land of milk and honey? If President Kibaki and all the President’s men constitute the rocky corner of the deaf, is the ODM the cacophonous sinking sand?

After the constitutional referendum, ODM has outlived its welcome and relevance. I will say it again; Kenya wants new leaders who will be responsible and dignified servants of the people, and not the mandarins of yesteryear, under whatever guise.



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