How Raila birthed enigmatic ‘handshake’

Exactly two years ago, Kenyans watched with bated breath as Opposition leader Raila Odinga, took an oath at Nairobi’s Uhuru Park as the “People’s President”.

The historic event was not for the faint-hearted as fears of assassinations and a bloodbath were in the air.

Only a day earlier, Nairobi County police commander Japheth Koome had vowed to take unspecified military action against anyone accessing Uhuru Park grounds. Indeed, few doubted the tough talking Koome, especially considering the bloody events of November 18, 2017, when Mr Odinga’s return from a trip abroad resulted in the deaths of at least 10 people. Hundreds of youths, who had thronged the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) to welcome the National Super Alliance (Nasa) candidate in the 2017 presidential poll, similarly suffered serious injuries including bullet wounds. 

There was an added threat to the Tuesday swearing in ceremony from the so-called Nairobi Business Community, which claimed to have been allowed to use the same venue. Led by Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria, the group claimed to have booked Uhuru Park to hold “a free medical clinic targeting street children who wished to get circumcised”. Mr Kuria had threatened to circumcise anyone else showing up at the venue.

However, on the eve of the swearing in ceremony, the “Nairobi Business Community” backed out of the contest over the venue, thereby laying ground for a confrontation between Nasa supporters and the police. On the D-Day, though, the police were curiously absent from Uhuru Park.  

The secretary-general of the ruling Jubilee Party, Mr Raphael Tuju, considers Mr Odinga’s swearing in anniversary as a very significant day in the calendar of the country since it is an apt reflection of the deep divisions among Kenyans.

“If you recall, the President ordered the withdrawal of all police and security presence from Uhuru Park. He deserves credit for his guarded temperament, otherwise there would have been a bloodbath and today Kenyans would be marking an anniversary of the January 30 massacre and not Mr Odinga’s swearing in ceremony,” says Mr Tuju.

Terming the events of two years ago a threat to the Kenyan state, the Cabinet Secretary credits President Kenyatta for diffusing “a potentially explosive situation”.

Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) secretary-general, Edwin Sifuna, similarly considers the Odinga swearing in event as “the most significant day that happened to Kenya’s political history in recent times”. 

According to Sifuna, this is the day bold Kenyans opted to validate their civic authority: “This eventually resulted in the biggest political dialogue in the country, where even the leader of Jubilee Party is in agreement that Kenya needs to fix electoral injustice and the runaway corruption, among other ills.”

Mr Odinga has previously stated that it is the bold and daring action that persuaded President Kenyatta to reach out for a truce “in the public interest of Kenyans”.  Stating that there was a plot by his supporters to secede from the central government and even replace Mr Kenyatta’s portraits with his in public offices as well as kick off collection of taxes, Mr Odinga says  discussions were inevitable to arrest the situation, which would have otherwise hurt the common mwananchi.

Speaking during the official launch of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report at Bomas of Kenya on November 27 last year, the President confessed that his arch-rival’s decision to swear himself in as the “People’s President” presented a big dilemma to the country.

“I had the option of ignoring him and even use the state machinery to deal with his threats since I had been declared winner and duly sworn in. But with the realisation that the country is bigger than the two us, we opted to reach out to one another,” said Mr Kenyatta.

The overtures between the two bitter rivals quickly reshaped the political landscape in the country with far-reaching consequences. Members of Parliament allied to Deputy President William Ruto say the resultant “handshake” was meant to isolate the second-in-command.

The MPs are questioning why the ODM leader is enjoying preferential treatment in government. Dr Ruto himself has said Mr Odinga has more or less joined government and in the process “effectively killed the Opposition”.