As the dust settles following last month's marathon offensive orchestrated by President Uhuru Kenyatta as he sought to wrestle control of Jubilee Party and Parliament from his deputy William Ruto, two things have conspicuously stood out from the unforgiving purge that is now in the homestretch stages.
By Ndung'u Wa Gathua
First, bitter lessons have been learnt especially by the pro-Ruto camp which was essentially the target as Uhuru sought to formalize his political vows to his longtime arch-rival, ODM leader Raila Odinga.
Secondly, the victims of the purge who include 16 Ruto-allied MPs who were recently axed from the leadership of key House committees, going forward towards 2022 will be sure to utilize every available opportunity to return the favour to Uhuru for his outright betrayal of his number two as well as to Raila whom they have come to brand as a 'homebreaker'.
On the other hand, it is a whole new different story for Uhuru and Raila in their newfound 'bromance' as 2022 edges closer.
As it stands, Uhuru is almost assured of undivided support from his loyalists within the Jubilee's Kitaeleweka faction as well as Raila's ODM spiced with other smaller opposition parties that have signed post-election working pacts with Jubilee Party.
Looking into the next two years, Uhuru must be blissfully relishing in the assurance that he will now be able to implement his programmes with much ease and leave a solid legacy behind him.
This arrangement also almost assures him of a promising political future in post-2022 especially if the much taunted Building Bridges Initiative eventually materializes.
As of Raila, this is a win-win situation as the dying embers of his pre-2018 presidential ambitions have since been reignited and one can perharps say they have never been this blighter.
With Uhuru literary standing at the exit door and having fallen out with Ruto, the ODM leader must have already began to dream big maybe even seeing himself inspecting a guard of honour mounted for him by the Kenya Defence Forces during a national holiday celebrations.
The Fowler and the Snake
But wait... All these plans might after all end up being a hot pursuit of vanity or if you like, a wild goose chase if I may allude to the 'Fowler and the Snake' fable.
The fable story tells of how a fowler so intent on preparing his bird-snares, treads on a snake and dies from its bite.
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A similar sentiment is shared in the alternative story of the 'Crow and the Snake' which concerns a crow in search of food bumps on a snake that is sound asleep in the sun. But when the crow seizes her, the snake kills it with her sting.
The story's moral, just like the first one, is that 'the biter shall be bit' as understood by the English phrase 'poetic justice'. In other words, a good fortune may not be all that it seems.
It also goes on to warn against the dangers of being ruled by brute appetite and meddling with the unfamiliar as Uhuru and Raila in their respective positions are doing by venturing in uncharted waters.
In fact, Gabriele Faerno, a 16th century Latin poet, in his collection of a hundred fables warns that at times our gains may turn into occasions for regret.
It is, however, Andrea Alciato, a 15th century Italian jurist and writer, who coalesces the themes of the two fables above by noting: 'Those who contemplate the heights will fall' and that 'the man dies, who looks to the stars with drawn-back bow’.
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