Wednesday, May 25, 2011

It has always been about party politics, never leadership

Bonny Khalwale is quite a fascinating man. Look at any active MP and chances are he/she has a legal background. And by active i mean someone who seems to understand what it is they are doing in parliament, not this mediocre of Sonko like leaders we completely have refuse to let go. Khalwale is a medical doctor by profession but he certainly seems to have done his home work when it comes to what kenyans require of him. It cant be easy mastering all the italian legal jargon that our lawyers seem to be too proud to throw around without thinking that half the kenyans dont really care. The man still has time to participate in the bull fighting events and that kind of balance to me makes him a political genius. However, this is not about Khalwale's prowess in politics, its about the failure of many in the political arena to differentiate between when to play party politics and when to act as good leaders.

Khalwale is the most vocal leader in parliament, and i mean in a relevant way. That should make every political party want to have him on their camp and if not, at least back him as we saw Martha Karua do. Instead what we saw as usual are the same power politics with the competition now focusing on Ford Kenya and ODM: Basically Mudavadi and Eugene Wamalwa. Now that Khalwale has won, the debate is not on how kenyans will benefit from Khalwale's victory but more on what this means for Musalia Mudavadi and ODM. Mudavadi even seems to be blaming some elements within his party who supposedly funded/supported the Ford Kenya Candidate. The issue is now whether Mudavadi will have his people's support if he ditches Raila and runs for the presidency or otherwise risk loosing to Eugene. why cant it just be that Ikolomani people voted for Bonny the man and not Ford Kenya?

I always thought Raila was an astute politician. He has always known how to lie with a straight face and that takes practice. he always seemed to know which lie to tell for each scenario. however this is the one time where truth would have really worked for him. in my opinion, ODM already knew that Ikolomani was a near impossible win and that should have prompted them to swallow their pride and support the best man for the job. An act of bravery like that would not have gone unnoticed by kenyans and may b, just may be, this would have bought mudavadi an extra lifeline in 2012. in 2002 Raila stepped aside for Kibaki, Kenyans saw that as a sign of good leadership and as many of you will bare me witness, Raila has played that card many times for the last 9 years. so why not do the same for Mudavadi in the of case Ikolomani.

Anyway, enough of politics, Im sure all kenyans look forward to having Khalwale back in parliament. I wonder what he will say about the CJ earring issue?? All said and done, it has been a good week for Kenyan politics.