Way back in 1997, Maina Kiai sent me to plead with Raila Odinga to spare the progressive Anyang Nyong’o in the General Election who had opted to run for parliament on the SDP rather than Raila Odinga’s popular NDP. On raising the matter with him, Raila replied; “You are in a nutshell asking me to choose between an individual and an institution. Individuals, however good come and go, but institutions live on. The NDP must ensure that Nyong’o loses the election.”
By attacking the PM soon after his recent employment crisis, Miguna’s purported revelations of anomalies in the office of the Prime Minister put him in the same league with those who opt to destroy institutions in the defense of personal good. That is the legacy of the biblical Samson. All of a sudden Raila is not a reformer and is presiding over corruption. Is this the same Miguna who praised the PM for occasioning the appointment of heads of the Judiciary? Whom does he expect to believe him having praised the PM beyond his rightful stature in the last year? Are his vitriolic regurgitations preludes to a public apology to the effect that he has all along been lying about the PM’s credentials? From an independent prolific opinion writer, he declares himself a jukebox writer, actually a mindless “slave.”
After the formation of the coalition government, Miguna lamented to me saying that he had been betrayed by Raila by denying him a job. “Why didn’t you warn me about this betrayal?” Miguna had complained to me at the Java restaurant in Nakumatt Junction Supermarket. I told him that was nothing compared to what we had gone through since 1992. I referred Miguna to the countless comrades with greater qualifications who have never gotten jobs despite several “transitions” but still maintained consistency.
Prof. Okong’o Oyugi who has always played father to many of us started lobbying with the PM and Nyong’o that they give Miguna and I jobs. It did not take long before Miguna got engaged as Advisor to the PM. I similarly got a call from Raila’s office and found the PM seated with the then Minister for Agriculture, Hon William Ruto whom he asked to secure me a job. That’s how I started earning Sh40,000 per month as a task less Personal Assistant to Hon Ruto based in parliament till the 2010 referendum when I opted out because my boss had chosen to oppose the new constitution which I supported. That Miguna is giving up on Raila is actually a record replayed because he gave up on him before for delaying to employ him sooner than he wanted after the election.
Miguna’s criticism of the PM, the embodiment of reforms in Kenya compares him badly with Chris Hani when he found himself in a conflict situation with the ANC. Chris Hani had led the first ever military campaign of the ANC’s armed wing in the 60s, got arrested and jailed in Botswana. Upon being released, he learned that the leaders of the ANC had lapsed into self-seeking engagements. Many had set up commercial businesses in Zambia while others like Thambo Mbeki were pursuing their studies abroad rather than prioritizing the liberation struggle.
The disappointed combatants resolved to write a memorandum with a view to righting the wrongs within the ANC. The hard hitting document nearly split the ANC hence the military tribunal recommended that the Chris team be executed for insubordination. Joe Slovo launched a campaign that managed to save the necks of the youthful revolutionaries. In reference to the Chris Hani team, the President of the ANC, Oliver Tambo, had been quoted saying “beware of the wedge driver. The man who moves from ear to ear carrying a bagful of wedges…comrades watch his poisonous tongue.”
The stand Chris Hani took differ with the one Miguna Miguna has taken in a similar context. Hani accepted his demotion and maintained his membership of the ANC and its leadership. He merely deployed himself on the political mobilization front. Chris Hani understood the symbolic significance of the leader of the ANC and resolved to spare him a public dress down in the interest of the greater goal of the struggling people of South Africa. It was a matter of time before he was elevated to the rank of Commander again and deployed to Swaziland and as is now known, he died the second most popular leader second to Nelson Mandela.
As an expert in chopping tall trees which sometimes include branches on which he sits, Miguna should not be discarded but deployed appropriately. He has made a mistake similar to the one the PM made by giving him the wrong job. Rarely can one get involved in public affairs and survive the stain of being wrong hence the world famous proclamation that those who fear making mistakes had better do nothing. “Miguna, take a break. All is not lost."
The writer comments on topical isues.
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