A lot has been made in
the past few weeks about the use of insulting language in politics. The
warnings against incitement and provocative behavior were targeted mainly at
the political class. In the past week however, the Daily Nation has shown that
it too is deserving of a telling off.
On the 28th of
April, under the same campaign that led to a vicious attack on Mwingi South Mp
Kalonzo Musyoka, the Nation Group hid behind a Special Correspondent of some
sort to issue what is truly a vicious round of invective against the MP for
Langata and aspirant for the ODM-K Presidential ticket. Here's the link , give them some hits. Extra sales are after all the goal of every tabloid.
The article starts out tamely
enough, in the way that incendiary speech often does. It describes the Langata
MP in terms known to all of us, a master of doublespeak and a political
chameleon, capable of inciting to violence and conciliating in equal measure.
Then it begins to dip of the loony end, Raila is suggested to have violated
democracy and human rights to a degree unseen in modern Kenya. Now if a child said this it may be
forgivable, anyone suffering from amnesia more so, but for the largest
newspaper in East Africa to publish this (and not even as opinion) is truly
excessive. If that was shocking, the next line is dumbfounding, the writer
states, uncorrected by his editors, that Mr Odinga is today the only politician who commands the
unswerving loyalty of a strong ethnic base.
Even the most shameless
bloggers ( and there are many ) would be wary of publishing anything even close to so dishonest but again
the Nation shamelessly continues to publish this in the name of balance,
‘He has turned his political fiefdom into
a cross between some absolute feudal monarchy and the last redoubt of primitive
totalitarianism akin to North Korea's so-called Dear Leader Kim Jong Il. ( Huh??) This is a
state in which all wealth and influence must be directly controlled by one
person and his family, because an impoverished populace makes for a pliable
people. Dissent, to put it mildly, is not allowed. And anyone who strays
from the straight and narrow path of Odingaism and mind control will suffer the
consequences. ‘
North
Korea?
Really, and all the wealth controlled by one person and his family? Odinga-ism? Is
this not now bordering on slander against the people of Nyanza?
Raila Odinga is far from perfect, indeed even the casual neutral can see
clearly that he in no way represents a departure from present day Kenyan
politics. In many ways he is even a clear continuation of Kenya's ills and a
fake revolutionary but to cast him in the role of the special one, the malevolent
incorrigible is inciteful and truly shameful. Such an attitude ignores the very
real human rights abuses that have been visited on government critics in the
past, including The Nation having set
the tone, it is clear that such opinion is becoming more respected now, and inhibition
will be thrown to the wind in a free-for-all hate fest.
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Having followed Raila since from early on since his split from Ford Kenya, his joining with Kanu at the height of Kanu's raping of our beloved nation, the way he treated people who have a different opinion (organizing thugs to beat up akina Orengo, Anyan'g Nyongo, Shem Ochuodho, Raphael Tuju, people agitating for constistitutional review, and several other incidences), I have a feeling that Raila might end up a worse tyrant than Moi if given the highest position in the land. That is just my two cents, but what gives me hope is that democracy will allow Kenyans to elect whom they want. God Bless Kenya!