Again, a section of ODM’s party officials for 2014 may be the best dimwits (or lets just call them idiots) the party has ever had in its short stint as a cabal of democrats. These dimwits may just win a nomination for the “Fool of the Year” Award -- at least if it existed. The futility of a failing party is to lose 10 while fighting for one. By appointing Moses Kajwang, winning the Suba vote will be easy, but again calming the revolt may be futile. While Moses Kajwang is tipped as likely to win by a landslide, Homa Bay will never be the same again for the ODM party, Raila and the diehard conservatives. Recently, the notion that ODM lacks democracy has given the professed democratic party an ‘F’ grade, rattling the nerves of the party’s conservatives who must always feel comfortable despite the wrong turn the party takes, or offended when an razor-sharp remark is made against Raila. Hours ago, former Rangwe MP made an expected but commendable public critique of the performance of ODM party before ditching the party for Maendeleo Party of Kenya. Same has happened with Rabongo, Dr Kambona and Silas Jakakimba. A large mass of people may be exiting ODM, what may remain is a shell of a party. Psychosocially, no one likes to associate with the losing or disappointing side. So, I guess many, Generation Ys or the Millennials (who have the penchant to show seek independence and lesser commitment than Generation Xers and Baby-boomers) may be shifting focus to a more satisfying party. There is credence for this apparent political apostasy since it is in their every democratic right to revolt against a transgressing party. Besides, I believe ODM anticipated this would happen. Unfortunately, as clueless as it is, it has no mitigation strategies to address the trust crisis. Yet the ambit of democracy in political culture has its failings. No political party in Kenya has consistently or successfully embraced the issue of democracy in political practice in an organic way. Stupidly, ODM has relied on this baseless statistics. The overall thrust of my statement unwittingly points to the relationship between party leadership and public opinion management. ODM party officials desperately need a crash course in civil discourse and democracy. Still, the civil discourse should not imply reliance on hushed conversation or boardroom coalition building.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 23:36:52 +0000