WHY GEMA NATION ARE FEARING RUTO-RAILA HANDSHAKE POST 2022?

 Leave the Azimio la Umoja of Karua and Raila and kenya Kwanza Alliance of Rigathi and Ruto alone , that's not something that has split the GEMA nation at the middle but there is something else which is making them skeptical and may highly contribute to high voter apathy in the larger Mt Kenya region and in the diaspora. By diaspora I don't mean the mountaineers who are outside Kenya but GEMA nation residents who have settled in various Counties in Kenya. It is true that since the advent of multipartyism , the only time the GEMA nation went in the ballot divided politically is in 1992. This is when Kenneth Matiba of Ford Asili and Mwai Kibaki of Democratic Party found themselves in the presidential ballot. Mt Kenya region was divided between pro- Kibaki and pro- Matiba.

Exit 1992 enter 2002 and again in KENYA'S history , GEMA nation again found themselves torn in the middle. KANU'S president Moi groomed Uhuru Kenyatta to run for the presidential seat and on the other hand NARC had groomed Mwai Kibaki to run for the same presidential seat. Mt Kenya region residents again found themselves supporting either Kibaki or UHURU. But all this period where the region found themselves being divided, it is when one of their own clashed in the presidential ballot. This time round, the community is torn by two outsiders and a situation which GEMA nation have never found itself since 1963. When some of us say there will be high voter apathy is because , lacking one of their own in the presidential ballot , they lack something to motivate them to come out and vote in large numbers. The two leading presidential contestants , Raila Odinga and William Ruto aren't warming in the hearts of the Mt Kenya region residents. For Raila , he is a man who have been demonized , disparaged , loathed and sneared for a long time. The only time GEMA nation warmed for him is back in 2002 when he declared Kibaki Tosha.

For William Ruto , it is the indictment of him  and Uhuru Kenyatta by the International Criminal Court ( ICC) that brought the two communities together. After the Post Election Violence ( PEV) of 2007/08 , Kalenjin and Kikuyu nations fell out both politically and socially. They started treating each other with suspicion and in that whole issue , Ruto was dragged in that whole conflict. The scars of the 1992 and 1997 were revisited and in 2013 , UHURU KENYATTA stepped in. After forming his own political party after breaking ranks with the independence party KANU , The National Alliance ( TNA) was born. His fellow ICC indictee William Ruto too formed his own political party , the United Republican Party ( URP). One of the reasons Uhuru Kenyatta gave when he unionized a political marriage between him and Ruto is to ensure the two warring communities ( Kalenjin and GEMA) live in harmony with one other but from the factual point of view , history has documented why the GEMA nation has been constantly been targeted in the north Rift. That Handshake between Uhuru and Ruto was to seal a peace deal between their two communities first and the what followed is the duo coming together to form an Alliance which aided them to clinch power after their communities rallied behind their presidential bid. Fact!!!.

A LOOMING HANDSHAKE

After the March 13 , 2018 Handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his political nemesis Raila Odinga that brought peace in a Country that was becoming politically polarized after NASA called for demonstrations to demand the disbandment of the IEBC for bangling the 2017 presidential elections. Demos were happening in Nairobi's CBD and it wasn't that healthy. In shanties where majority are ODM supporters, residents there were sniffing teargas everyday. The lives of innocent children was also registered especially from the stray bullets of anti-riot police officers who were on duty to stiffle the demos.  It is in this backdrop that President Uhuru Kenyatta saw the need of making peace with his political arch rival Raila Odinga on March 13 , 2018. This act alone irked Ruto because he interpreted it as a plan to scuttle his presidential bid. From day one , he had made it mandatory that his boss will support him for the top sit come August 9th. It is from that point that he started a rebellion in the government he was serving. Those who are witty and have been following this County's history , Ruto wanted to continue riding on the strained political relationship between Luo and Kikuyu communities. Fact!!! That's why he started demonizing the Handshake and he started it in Mt Kenya region not in his political bastion of Rift Valley. I hope you know why??

From where am seated , I don't think Raila Odinga can be thinking of such a thing in an event he clinches Power come August 9th. If there is such a plan he is mooting back in his mind , he better strangle it to death because it can act as the genesis of his political downfall. I always hobnob with the ordinary wanjiku in my village and from the knowledge and expertise I have gathered in my field of study , I can easily decipher the worries and assurances that this ordinary have in as far the Kenya Kwanza Alliance and Azimio la Umoja politics is concerned. Many are developing a cold feet that , in an event Ruto and Raila have a handshake post 2022 , GEMA nation political goose will be cooked. That's why they aren't seeing any need of braving the long queues , hot/ cold weather during the voting day only for the two political nemesis who back in 2007 general elections were together in a close knighted political relationship. Why should that old granny wake up and vote to individuals who will be televised live in his television brokering a handshake? That fear is brewing in Mt Kenya region ordinary wanjikus.

Yesterday , Ruto riked out a possibility of a handshake between him and Raila Odinga in the event the former wins the presidential seat and forms the next Government. Fine!!! But what he forgot to tell Kenyans is , in an event he doesn't clinch that seat since an election is a political contest , will he root for a handshake between him and Raila Odinga? Definitely he will. Ruto cannot fathom being out of power. His appetite and greed for it cannot allow him but the question is , will Azimio la Umoja one Kenya Coalition party allow it bearing it is a multi- faceted Coalition party? That all political decisions will be made by the Coalition party council which will be chaired by Uhuru Kenyatta? With this , I don't see any chance for Ruto and if Raila Odinga and his ODM can moot such a plan to rope in Ruto for security purposes in an event the Coalition crumbles like NARC , that divorce can be noisy , nasty and messy and am hoping aganaist hope that such a thing would not happen but in politics, anything eventuality is possible.

The Handshake between Raila Odinga and William Ruto post 2022 can unite the whole GEMA nation fraternity. Fact!!! They can set aside their political differences and confront the opponent as one. That's the time the likes of Rigathi Gachagua, Ndindi Nyoro, Alice, Ichung'wa etc can be the heroes of the community. GEMA nation unites when they are threatened both political, socially and Economically. Methinks , with the many promises Azimio la Umoja presidential candidate Raila Odinga is giving to Kenyans and especially Mt Kenya region residents , he cannot risk such a thing. He is telling us that his presidency will be a Mandela moment one. The question am asking me is , will he be able to actualize all the promises he is making to us in 5 years bearing that Kenya is a highly Political State? Politics will start immediately after the August 9th general elections. If you think social media space in Kenya will be idle because the general elections have been done and dusted , then , you are damn wrong.

In my analysis , I may be right or wrong but because I reside in this region of Mt Kenya region and I have been interacting with the locals , am reporting and analysing what I have been able to gather after spending just 5 minutes chatting a political discourse with an ordinary voter in this region. Mt Kenya region is torn between Ruto and Raila Odinga. This aren't residents of this region but what they are trying hard is to assure the locals that , they will protect their interests. GEMA nation feels that , they are hatred by other ethnic communities because of their large population , business acumen and their appetite to travel and settled in various places in Kenya for economic reasons. That phobia of electing a president who will I turn turn against them is very rife. Fact!! But by looking at the two leading presidential contestants , the only person who is showing a soft spot for the is Azimio la Umoja. Others feel it is Ruto but all I want to tell the GEMA nation is , both Raila Odinga and William Ruto are in one point nursing serious political injuries inflicted by this very community they are relying on to elevate them to State House. Period!!!