Why Raila must crack the whip in ODM

By MAKAU MUTUA
Posted Saturday, October 2 2010 at 18:15
In Summary

Perception: Many Kenyans think that ODM is alienated from the people. ODM has lost touch with ‘the street’

Opinion polls show that Prime Minister Raila Odinga would be unbeatable if the contest for the State House were held today. But today is not 2012. Two years in politics is an eternity, and anything can happen between now and then.

My crystal ball tells me that Mr Odinga faces a grave risk unless he fixes what ails ODM, and does so soon. But that is easier said than done.

It’s a fact that as Mr Odinga goes so does ODM. He is ODM. The party could not exist without him.

This is both “good” and “bad”. Good for him, but bad for the party and the country. Kenyan political parties must be freed from Big Men. Democracy demands no less.

Mr Odinga has staked his claim on Kenya as a democratic reformer. He has the scars to prove it. That’s his legacy. Even though he “owns” ODM, Mr Odinga knows that democracy – the sort envisioned in the new Constitution – is impossible without real democratic political parties.

That’s why, as the quintessential reformer, he must transform ODM into a model political party. You might say I am being unfair to Mr Odinga.

Perhaps. But the man is larger than life in our politics.

There is no way around that fact. He is the centre of gravity of the country’s politics. It is his burden in history to launch Kenya into the democratic orbit.

A few months ago, the country held its collective breath when Mr Odinga was admitted in hospital for a head surgery. No one – not even his opponents – wanted to imagine the unthinkable.

This tells me that Kenya’s young democratic experiment is inextricably tied to Mr Odinga. Sure, there are other able politicians on the scene, but none has attained Mr Odinga’s status.

This means that he must exercise the responsibility of leadership without fear or favour. “Fear” that he will lose close allies. “Favour” that he must be held captive by “kinsmen”.

These are the hallmarks of a statesman. Does he have what it takes, and will he – can he – imagine a nobler place? Does he have the guts?

I can safely predict that Mr Odinga will be virtually impossible to beat in 2012 if he rises above the fray and becomes the bridge between Kenya’s dark past and its bright future.

He will not do so unless he slays the monster called ODM and reconstructs it from the ground up. ODM, like other registered political parties, is “public property”.

It is funded by tax shillings. We – the people – “own” ODM. Yet ODM speaks and acts as though it is the property of a cabal.

Politics of patronage
That’s why it has lost a string of by-elections. ODM behaves as though the politics of patronage will never end in Kenya. Isn’t the party aware that we have a democratic Constitution? Hello, ODM headquarters.

Why has ODM failed? It doesn’t have a coherent legislative agenda. Within its ranks are individuals implicated in post-election violence and corruption.

It’s been silent on the controversy surrounding ambassador Bethuel Kiplagat’s “truth commission”.

It has sent mixed signals on the perverted attempts to resurrect the Provincial Administration. The list goes on. Most importantly, ODM lacks democratic structures at the grassroots and at the vaunted Orange House.

People in dark glasses and dark suits make decisions behind closed doors without transparency or accountability. Many Kenyans – even supporters of ODM – think that the party is alienated from the people. ODM has lost touch with “the street”. This is a recipe for disaster.

The “face” of the ODM secretariat looks “old” and “arrogant”. Doesn’t the party have new blood? Its officials are “clubby” and “predictable”. One might even say “boring”. Its press conferences are “business as usual”.

Where is the face of the “new” Kenya in ODM? I mean, aren’t there vibrant, reformist, and youthful professionals – whiz kids – who can revitalise the party? Why is the party stuck in the past? Look at what Labour did in the United Kingdom?

After a drubbing in the elections, it elected 41-year-old Ed Miliband to lead it back to greener pastures. I know you are going to say ODM hasn’t lost a General Election yet. That may be so. But must ODM wait for the coroner?

What, then, must Mr Odinga do to clean up ODM and relaunch it? This is my two cents worth. I believe that he has no choice but to ask chairman Henry Kosgey, secretary general Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o, and executive director Janet Onge’ra to step aside.

Of the three, I have a soft spot for Prof Nyong’o, the giant intellectual who has served the party with dedication. He has a strategic mind, but the transformative reform I am thinking about cannot be done under his watch.

Future of ODM
Mr Kosgey and Ms Ong’era certainly are not the future of ODM. The party needs a complete overhaul to reconnect it to the grassroots, the middle class, and “the street”.

You know a party is adrift when it blames the electorate for losing elections. ODM said that it lost the Makadara seat to newcomer Gidion Kioko Mbuvi (Mike ‘Sonko’) because his supporters were “touts” and “hawkers”. Say that again?

Aren’t those the people ODM must connect with to win in 2012? Are “touts” and “hawkers” lesser human beings? This attitude will be the death of ODM.

I know it will be a herculean task for Mr Odinga to crack the whip in ODM.

But he must democratise it to free it from himself and the cabal that controls it.

Makau Mutua is Dean and SUNY Distinguished Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School and Chair of the KHRC.