Let us all wish Raila success in Ivorian talks

 

By PHILIP OCHIENGPosted Saturday, January 8 2011 at 17:34

Kenyans seem aware that they have a single national destiny. Why, otherwise, would they express such unity in joy and pride whenever a Chelimo or a Rudisha bags a gold at an international meet?

At the back of the mind, they know that Chelimo is a Kalenjin.

But the thought never quite emerges to dominate our consciousness or drive us into negative actions. Every year, a few Kalenjin boys or girls unite Kenyans into forgetting — if only momentarily — that Kenya’s tribal leaders are perennially at daggers-drawn against one another
What happens to our faculties of thought when it comes to politics?

Did the African Union (AU) have local rivalries in mind when it latched onto Raila Odinga for continental duty?

Was the AU setting out to promote Mr Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM)?

Was the African organisation guided by the fact that the ODM is associated with the Luo, a community which — for I know not what reason — occasions so much fear in the minds of Kenya’s other ethnic communities? For it is clear that the possibility of an Odinga presidency is the worry.

So why does anybody seek to extend this purely local rivalry to Abidjan, where Mr Odinga has gone only with the invitation of an organisation which has no ethnic interest in the local struggles for the Kibaki succession?

I will not deny that if Mr Odinga succeeds in reconciling the perennially troubled country it will heighten his prestige and enhance his presidential chances.

Yet it won’t make any difference to me. Although I am a Luo, I do not say that our next president must be a Luo.

Unlike most of Kenya’s voters, I am not a slave of any tribe.

I do not lend my intellect to the service of anything so insular and bigoted. I cannot say that I love Kenya and, at the same time, campaign for privileges for my ethnic community.

Whatever I may feel for Mr Odinga, I also differ with him on some issues.

Gratitude will go to Kenya

But when it comes to state duty, I would rather let the man do his work. I cannot “predict” that he will fail merely because, here at home, I have a bone to pick with him.

Such is not a prediction but a wish, and a malevolent one, to boot.

When outsiders pick him or any other Kenyan for a continental assignment for which he did not even apply, I should feel proud that a fellow Kenyan has been honoured.

Whatever my local differences with him, I should be big enough to send him felicities and wish him success.

Ghana garnered a great deal of national capital — tangible and intangible — from Kofi Annan’s activities as an international functionary, not only as UN secretary-general but also, more recently, as a much cherished peace broker in our own country.

Mr Odinga — who was deeply involved in those talks — may have watched Mr Annan at work and learned great lessons from him as to how to conduct such reconciliation talks. But, if he succeeds, the Ivorian gratitude will go not just to him but to Kenya as a whole.

Imagine the diplomatic, political and, indeed, financial gains that Kenya can bag should things pan out for our Prime Minister.

When outsiders express such confidence in a brother or sister of yours — even if your differences concern Mau and The Hague — you should be duty-bound to encourage him into success.

But, as we have read in our newspapers — because of incredibly puny-minded local political differences — some politicos will chortle in their joy if Mr Odinga fails. They see only their short-term personal interests. The nation’s longer-term good does not concern them.

Luckily, the individuals are already notorious for their reactionary and chauvinistic politics. Their isolation from national leaders is long overdue.

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