“Governor Joho and Governor Kingi are all about talk and no action. They have offered nothing new. They have nothing to show for all the money they have been given to invest on your behalf. Only talk” – Uhuru Kenyatta (GoK, 2017).
“It is a sad thing to have leaders who don’t understand…don’t play with me….Mombasa is for everyone,” (…) “Why follow me? Why should we follow each other? I am not his wife,” (…) “Clean the city. Do your job, don’t follow us. If he plays with us we will flog him” – Uhuru Kenyatta (Otieno, 2017).
Well, today the Jubilee Alliance Party leadership and the ruling regime with President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto had a rally in Mtongwe Ferry Launch. There also Orange Democratic Movement leader and Mombasa Governor Hassan Ali Joho. This was not accepted as they even had to attack him at the rally. This seem like the tactic from the Jubilee this go around. In Turkana County the Jubilee leaders personally attacked Josephat Nanok.
Now, they are trying to attack Honourable Governor Joho by all means was the key figure and the one they had prepared to make like fool. They even used his willingness to pop-by the rallies in his backyard. This is for now and has been his stronghold. This is the man who was elected with a grand majority in 2013 and the Jubilee wants to unsettle his position. That has been in the works for months as CS Joseph Nkaissery have tried to take his gun, bodyguards and detaining him because they could on the last go around.
Governor Joho has been in the spotlight in the same reasons as Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago in Kampala; he is an opposition leader in a big and important county. Lukwago is the elected leadership of Kampala; the same is Joho of Mombasa County. It seems like what the National Resistance Movement (NRM) does to Lukwago, the same is the Jubilee doing to Joho. It is like machoism without anything to win for the ruling regime.
That Kenyatta and Ruto need to show strength and leadership, that is natural as they want to be looked as saviours and statesmen. Still, the acts of Kenyatta in Turkana and now in Mombasa are differing for the vision or wished perception any civil leader wants. That Jubilee has the upper-hand before this election. However, these sort of attempts to benign them, instead they belittle themselves and their own achievements.
Kenyatta and Ruto, should be grown men who could show of their own achievements, Jubilee has nearly ended their first term. Therefore, they should have enough facts to not bend into fiction. Where the Jubilee government claims that none of the governors in the counties they are visiting is delivering. Still, the government themselves has grand corruption and big scandals in their years in office.
So it not like Jubilee government have delivered the policies or the service delivery they promised in office. Kenyatta and Ruto should have offered a token of goodwill to the governors in Turkana and in Mombasa; instead they act like big-men who stand above them. They are right now higher in the hierarchy, but still they should be able to cross political affiliation. That is something that is hard for the President and his Deputy. They are in the backyards of Nanok and Joho, but there they had to act with vile attempt glory. Instead of showing grace and being statesmen, that is too far and too much to wish for.
If they cannot show grace and some tact, what is to expect of the rest of months ahead, the Turkana and Mombasa rallies proves the reality of their visions of themselves. Where they are acting as they are above Joho and as previous rally above Nanok. Certainly this is not the impression the ruling regime wanted to give. Peace.
Reference:
GoK – ‘President raps Coast ODM governors as “all talk and no action” as he wraps tour’ (13.03.2017) link: http://www.president.go.ke/2017/03/13/president-raps-up-coast-odm-governors-as-all-talk-and-no-action-as-he-wraps-tour/
Otieno, Brian – ‘[AUDIO] Stop following me like I’m your wife, Uhuru tells Joho at Mtongwe ferry launch’ (13.03.2017) link: http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2017/03/13/audio-stop-following-me-like-im-your-wife-uhuru-tells-joho-at-mtongwe_c1523952
MinBane 