There is a popular saying that goes, 'if you cannot beat them, join them'. But have you ever paused a second to ask yourself why it is important to join a worthwhile opponent who has always outwitted you in the game?
By Ndung'u Wa Gathua
Well, if you have ever given it a serious thought, you will agree that you don't join the opponent to exchange niceties even if that is what you may want the opponent and the spectators outside the ring to believe.
Rather, the two main reasons for doing it is to, first, learn their tactical strategies that keeps giving them the upper hand over you. Secondly and more importantly, is to learn their soft spots or weaknesses which you can employ against them when they are ripe for the sickle. Period!
In the Kenyan context of political wrestling, it goes without saying that no other politician seems to have perfected this art than the ODM leader Raila Odinga.
Raila's embrace of this tactical battle strategy goes way back to shortly after the 1997 General Election when he first vied for the presidency unsuccessfully. Polling distant third after Mwai Kibaki who came close second to the then incumbent President Daniel Moi, Raila would join hands with the latter to form the subsequent government.
When his aim to succeed Moi appeared it wasn't going to materialize, he would invest all his political capital in his other 1997 presidential rival, Mwai Kibaki, after a frivolous memorandum of understanding that was to be thrown to the dustbin as soon as Kibaki took the oath of office on December 27, 2002.
Raila's memorandum with Kibaki was a compromise deal that assured him of getting at least half of what he never got from Moi. It never happened during Kibaki's first term.
But following the controversial 2007 General Election that brought Kenya close to the brink, Raila would somehow get what he was denied by Kibaki during his first term.
However, it is worth noting that the main reason Raila agreed to the forced marriage, was because he apparently became conscious of the reality that; one, Kibaki was not going to let off go the power that easily.
And, two, he saw this as a ripe warm-up session to finally score without missing come 2013 considering he was this time going to be inside government with both feet.
But as it turned out later for Raila, this was another decoy strengthened by the so-called 'two-principals' flattery that misled him into believing that he was a Kibaki equal while in the practical reality it remained a fallacy.
Flashforward to 2020, Raila is again for the third time back to the same old strategy that didn't yield him much during the previous two attempts. This, therefore, leaves one wondering, is it the strategy that is simply impractical or is it Raila who executes it without giving it much thought? Methinks it is the latter as I expound below.
1. Explicit Intentions
A woman who perpetually and publicly reveals too much of her flesh, however beautiful, ceases to be an object of desire before the eyes of potential suitors. Yes! What hidden treasure is there to discover from such a damsel to keep any man hanging around?
Similarly, Raila's inability to play the Trojan horse by guising his intentions of 'joining them', might have costed him in his two previous attempts of employing the strategy. It will probably cost him the third time.
Reason? Once your opponent get to know that you did not join them for their own good, the only reward you can expect fire and fury, blackmail and doom and gloom to teach you a lesson never to attempt such with them again.
2. Cognitive Dissonance
This is simply saying one thing while doing the exact opposite; preaching water while indulging in hard liquor. Raila is a perfectionist in playing the Machiavellian tactics that portrays him as a 'man of the people' while in the Opposition public gallery. But once he 'joins them' all the ideals that he projected so enthusiastically while on the other side of the fence, dissipate to obscurity.
Consequently, he ends up dancing to his opponents' tune which advances their cause further instead of his. This beats one's logic as to why he even joins them in the first place.
3. Unnecessary Drama
In destroying an enemy from inside out, you must resist the urge and the lure of wanting to be seen to be winning small useless battles as opposed to the war. Dancing yourself lame and relishing in it before the main event.
The direct outcome of this, is that you end up being derailed and deviated from the main cause such that when the time to execute your hidden plan finally comes, you will already be worked up and without any energy left to even defend yourself.
This is typical of Raila, he of 'nusu mkeka' and 'nobody can stop reggae' fames. When not grumbling for being shortchanged in this way or another, he is relishing in small useless victories. Such pettiness while in the opponent's camp cannot yield anything to anyone keen on winning a fierce battle on a rugged terrain.
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