By Ng’ang’a Gicumbi

Now that Miguna Miguna’s much awaited book Peeling Back the Mask is in public domain, one is bound to ask: What is he really trying to sell and to whom? To the more perceptive, Miguna is desperately keen on selling something more than a book. His reformist credentials? Maybe. His book talks about his reform credentials. His desire to see Kenya change? Probably. He positions himself as a ‘true’ mzalendo (patriot). His need for money? Likely. He has been out of job for some time now. His desire that Raila does not become president? I don’t know.

I will hasten to say Miguna’s interests would be taken care of better under a Raila presidency because they share a lot in common. I also hypothesise that the ultimate import of Miguna’s book will not be about destroying Raila’s career per se; rather it will serve to demythologise and crack open the Raila myth that has tended to ascribe to him some superhuman qualities and probably create a human Raila that people can relate to. This is the unexploited potential of Miguna’s book that Raila will need to capitalise on.

I suggest too that Raila and his handlers could benefit from the negatives about their man as captured in this book since they resonate with the general weakness of our body politic, which is linked to the various moral distortions from our collective national psyche. This way, Raila and company could as well steal the thunder away from Miguna and make his book an impotent cloud, with no thunder or rain. But let’s pause a moment and reflect on a ‘fearful’ possibility. What if this book achieves its alleged political objective, that of destroying Raila’s political career? One quick response is that Kenya’s political landscape will miss Raila’s political gravitas. But would this not be expecting too much from mortal man whom the Bible says is just like grass, finite? Again, the next president could roast Raila alive.

That Raila has come to exemplify the alternative ‘better’ option for Kenyans is something that is taken for granted in many quarters. He is reputed to have a sizeable national constituency that is willing to die with him, maybe literally. I guess the major worry for Raila and his handlers may have begun the moment Miguna made public his intention to write a book after falling out of favour with the ODM’s jakom (power man). I suppose the real head cracker for them right now is how to hold intact this ‘Raila constituency’, a fertile launching pad for the PM’s presidential quest.

But what if Miguna’s book fails in its alleged objective? I guess Miguna will join the ranks of Kenya’s whistleblowers many of who have faded into obscurity and earned the pitiable title – ‘the forgotten heroes of Kenya’. The only decisive way that can make Miguna’s book irrelevant and his accusations against Raila seem politically sacrilegious is for Raila to win the presidency. Anything less will be damning for him. In the short and more immediate term, Raila and company will need to urgently convene a damage control team that will methodically manage the disappointment and fury Miguna’s book has elicited.

It is my free suggestion that a legalistic approach may not help the Raila cause. He will need to establish credible spin machinery, which will be tasked with the job of thinking through convincing counter-points. So far the various pro-Raila campaign outfits are clearly short of properly delineated and articulated political agenda for their man and seem to be everywhere and nowhere. This deficiency only serves to make his presidential quest seem imprisoned by a mob.

It will also be interesting to reflect on how Miguna’s book will bolster the chances for the “Ocampo Four”. But this is a topic for another day. Now, if Miguna’s book carries the day and Raila is maligned irredeemably and his stab at the presidency emasculated, it will be because Raila and company did not adequately take advantage of the contrast effect theory first noted by the 17th century philosopher John Locke, who observed that lukewarm water can feel hot or cold depending on whether the hand touching it was previously in hot or cold water.

In psychology, contrast effect basically means that some perception (say weight, brightness or sweetness) will appear greater or lesser depending on a perception that came immediately before it because they contrast so strongly and the memory of one affects your perception of the other.

The question to ask here is basic: will the public memory of Raila as a ‘reform icon’ be damaged by Miguna’s revelations to the contrary? Will Miguna’s lesser stature as a hardheaded reformist and moralist eclipse Raila’s public stature and hence change public perception of Raila?

The writer is a behavior scientist

The Standard

By Okech Kendo

“Clueless” is a word Miguna Miguna uses often in Peeling Back the Mask. Everyone he worked with in ODM and the Coalition Government was ‘clueless’. Nyando MP Fred Outa who defeated him in the 2007 ODM parliamentary nomination is ‘clueless’. Voters who rejected him are ‘clueless’. During the night George Saitoti’s brother was being accused of helping the late minister to manipulate the tally, Miguna called me at 1am. He was shouting that we journalists were ‘clueless’. Miguna could not understand how a senior editor could be sleeping when votes were being ‘stolen’ in Kajiado North.

The man was then trying to endear himself to Raila Odinga. He did not want Moses ole Sakuda’s votes to be ‘stolen’ the way PNU had ‘stolen’ Raila’s victory. That was the second time I was speaking to him. I met Miguna in October 2007, with Akong’o Oyugi, a former political detainee. Now he insinuates Prof Oyugi had lost the ‘fire’, and is probably ‘clueless’. The person who knows Miguna as a student in 1987 is Wafula Buke, chairman at the Students’ Organisation of Nairobi University, when Miguna was finance secretary.

Buke fled the country, returned home, and then went to jail, but remained an active reformer. Miguna fled at the first burst of teargas canisters to a safe haven. Miguna landed in Toronto, Canada, where he stayed in economic exile for 20 years. Miguna knows Buke knows the tall man betrayed his comrades. While Miguna enjoyed summer Sunday-outs in Ontario, Buke and other victims of comrade power were in Kenya ‘living’ the revolution. When Miguna returned in September 2007, he believed a Raila presidency was assured.

The lawyer from Osgoode Law School of the York University was burning with ambition to be the Attorney General under ‘President’ Raila Amolo Odinga. If Miguna lost the way to AG Chambers, he would settle for solicitor-general. He often clashed with former AG Amos Wako, who he held was ‘clueless’. The AG had clung to the office Miguna desired. It was not that Miguna was living the revolution because he loved Raila; he was seeing his fancy jobs – AG or solicitor-general – slipping away. When he lost bid for PS and even advisor, he was devastated, and felt betrayed. He blames Raila for it. Miguna suggests a leader like Raila, who is a flexible “coward”, needed men of brawl like Miguna to understand symbols of power: Like sitting plan, red carpets, and protocol.

Miguna says he often ‘gave’ Raila a chance to take the bull by the horns, but the PM would soften. For that he describes Raila as a ‘flip-flopper’ who does not understand power concedes nothing – it is seized when the opportunity strikes. Miguna recalls 2008 post-election violence, when the country was burning. Blood of innocent citizens was flowing. Darkness had fallen on a country once described as an island of peace in a turbulent ocean. Then, he accuses Raila of failing to stick to the script.  The script was Raila should have stuck to a re-run of presidential race or declared himself president.

While Miguna credits the late John Michuki with causing a blackout to stop ODM from swearing-in ‘President’ Raila, he blames the PM for negotiating peace. Rather than see the bigger picture of Raila’s concessions, Miguna claims Raila was ‘clueless’ about power dynamics. Yet Miguna does not see himself as the one who was ‘clueless’ about what would have happened had Raila rejected the Coalition Government on February 28, 2008, two months into the mayhem. Perhaps Miguna was too preoccupied with his own ambition to succeed Wako.

Long knives
He did not understand the country was more important. Miguna claims he was a witness to PNU functionaries rigging votes at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre on December 28 and 29, 2008. On the first night, Miguna claims he found MPs-elect Henry Kosgey, Charity Ngilu, and James Orengo at the Media Centre. They were relaxing in a way that showed they were ‘clueless’. They were watching TV during the night of the long knives. The night before Miguna had forgone sleep because men like him who had ‘clues’ could not sleep during a ‘revolution’.

Peeling Back the Mask exposes the author as a ‘clueless’ ideologue, without a sense of context. The PM and President Kibaki take credit for tolerating the braggart for 30 months as ‘collision’ advisor. The question readers should ask is, if Miguna had gotten what he expected when he joined the Raila Campaign, or stayed on as advisor, would he have erupted?

Miguna did not become AG, Solicitor-General or PS. He was not among the first lot around Raila. ‘Ja-Nyando’ remained marooned in Pentagon House for months, as Mohamed Isahakia, Caroli Omondi, Idriss Mohammed, and Tony Gachoka boarded the first train to the Prime Minister’s office. He detested this. His bitterness with Omondi and Isahakia is palpable. True, these two have been cited in some indiscretions, but one would expect Miguna to give prosecutable evidence so a court of law would prove their guilt or otherwise.

Miguna’s warcry, “Come, baby come”, is now run, baby run, when he fled on Monday. Which was the right decision because somebody could easily take the man out and then blame Raila for it. He says he didn’t flee, and merely went to promote his book in Canada. But he left with his school-going children. He is probably ‘clueless’ this is the middle of a school term.

The writer is The Standard’s Managing Editor Quality and Production.

kendo@standardmedia.co.ke

By David Ohito

Love him or hate him, Miguna Miguna is a man known for his rubble rousing mien. The former adviser to Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Constitutional Affairs has made public some of the best kept secrets around his former master.

In some of the excerpts seen by The Standard Digital, Miguna who stirred fresh controversy last week when he publicly invited media to the launch of his new book Peeling Back the Mask: A quest for Justice in Kenya and named the Chief Justice Dr Willy Mutunga as the chief guest.

Moments later the CJ turned down the invite saying he could not preside the launch of a book he has neither seen nor read. In one of the excerpts, Miguna Miguna recounts a meeting between President Kibaki and Raila at the height of differences of the presidential election. The  500 page book has just released some of the excerpts ahead of next week’s launch. Here are the excerpts:

On Raila and Kibaki’s relationship:

“Eeeeh…eehhhh..eiiii…Please save me from Kibaki! Eeeeeh..eiiiii…Please don’t let mego back to that man…I don’t want to go back to Kibaki! Eeeeh…eiii…Please save mefrom Kibaki!” Raila broke down and cried, torrents of tears flowing freely down hischeeks.

He was shaking uncontrollably. It was about 3:30pm on April 6, 2008. Everyone in the room was stunned. They had never seen Raila cry before. We looked at each other, unable to move. No one was prepared for this heart-wrenching scene.  I guess we had assumed that Raila was‘superhuman’.

He had a larger-than-life image in the consciousness of Kenyans…But there he was, someone we all held in awe, wailing uncontrollably in front of everyone…Raila had just returned from a face-to-face meeting with Kibaki over the formation of the grand coalition government following the signing of the National Accord and reconciliation agreement on February 28 2008.

By then he had attended various meetings and most had ended in stalemate or Raila’s capitulation. Raila’s debriefs…had become a routine in itself, with Raila repeating, “Kibaki can’t accept this” or “Kibaki is insisting on that” Raila was not only crying he was sweating profusely.

The book is published by Gilgamesh Publishing Limited and is retailing at 24.95 pounds, (about Sh 3,300.)

The East African Standard