HOW RAILA CAUGHT US OFFGUARD AT UHURU PARK
MUSALIA MUDAVADI’S BOOK: SOARING ABOVE THE STORMS OF PASSION.
On 25th October 2017, a day before the repeat poll, our supporters began turning up very early in the morning for our much anticipated rally at Uhuru park. The moment of truth was here. The NASA principals and a few other political party notables assembled in my office to review the situation ahead of our meeting at Uhuru park. Raila arrived soon after me, followed closely by Johnston Muthama. We sat in the large visitor’s lobby taking tea and assessing the Journey so far.
Moses Wetangula who arrived about this time asked Raila to now tell us what exactly, he intended to tell Kenyans. We had remained patient all the time when he told us to wait for the right time to know the message. Amidst mouthfuls of tea and peanuts, he announced that we would tell Kenyans that we would not recognize Uhuru after the repeat elections to be conducted the next day. Wetangula was quick to the punch.” But Tinga, that is what we have been saying all along. What is new about that? That cannot be the big announcement we have been promising the word”.
Raila groped about with the expansion of the message without sounding convincing. We were not saying anything new. Some of the people had began talking about secession. Others had even speculated that we would march to State House to take over the reigns of power. How could we possibly go back to tell them such a humdrum message like not recognizing Uhuru. Had we not already said we did not recognize him. Eventually, a member of ANC Party came up with the thought of non violent resistance against the Government and all institutions and individuals who were abetting abortion of democracy in the country.
The idea was quickly picked up and before long, there was a message of sorts to take to Uhuru park. Deep down somewhere. however, there was a feeling of emptiness. Was this all the people had been waiting for. Even more disappointing was the fact that it was now past mid-afternoon and we were only beginning to have something to tell the people, despite two weeks of anxiety and anticipation. Yet this was only the beginning, more closely guarded slipups in our activities were on the way. We proceeded to Raila’s office in Upper Hill where the points we had raised were to be coopted in the speech.
We then left for Uhuru park and we agreed on account of the hour of the day, only three people were to speak. James Orengo was the master of ceremony, he took a few minutes then handed to me . My message was very brief. I reminded the gathering the journey we had travelled so far, Kenyans had been cheated out of an election. ” Tomorrow there will be another election”, i said, “But it will be a mockery of democracy”. There was no reason for us to participate in such a sham. I told the people we now would begin behaving differently and now to know the forward, our leader Raila Odinga was going to tell us what next.
There was stirring of excitement in the crowd but not like we had been used to during the campaigns. Raila read through the written speech with a sense of conviction. At some point, Raila introduced a new dimension. NASA, he declared had now transformed into the National Resistance Movement. (NRM). This was completely unexpected, we had not discussed it anywhere let alone agree on it.
He would explain to us later that seeing the crowd was not sufficiently enthused by what he was reading, it had suddenly occurred to him that he should make this proclamation. Soon enough, NRM would begin taking a life of its own, away from the formal NASA management Team and constituents parties and their organs. NRM simply swallowed everyone and everything. We would just hear announcements that we were supposed to be part of, even without any consultation at all. Wetangula, Governor Kivutha Kibwana Senator Johnstone Muthama for Kalonzo and i were reading from the same script. Not all cards were being placed at the table. Our ODM colleagues seemed to know something that the rest of us did not know. This state of affairs would culminate in the confusion of 30 January 2018, the so called swearing in affair.