simplemind
JF-Expert Member
- Apr 10, 2009
- 16,418
- 9,209
Comment.
Odinga has blown hot and cold, initially refusing to be sworn in by his supporters and later changing his mind.
Among many Kenyans, there is genuine fatigue with the economic disruption and the everyday inconveniences caused by the long stand-off.
At the same time, there is also a perceptible hardening, militancy even, among Odinga’s supporters.
He may be the figurehead, but more and more it feels like the opposition leader is just a passenger carried along on a wave of pent-up anger after a half a century of electoral injustice and marginalization.
It is this simmering rage and disaffection, rather than the more visible political scheming, that poses the greatest risk to the country.
While unlikely to explode into the open ethnic violence of 2008, at least in the short term, the resentment will continue to poison the political atmosphere and slowly strangle the nation.
And it is this that Kenyatta has consistently failed to acknowledge.
By Patrick Gathara, dated December 1, 2017 on the Washington Post
Odinga has blown hot and cold, initially refusing to be sworn in by his supporters and later changing his mind.
Among many Kenyans, there is genuine fatigue with the economic disruption and the everyday inconveniences caused by the long stand-off.
At the same time, there is also a perceptible hardening, militancy even, among Odinga’s supporters.
He may be the figurehead, but more and more it feels like the opposition leader is just a passenger carried along on a wave of pent-up anger after a half a century of electoral injustice and marginalization.
It is this simmering rage and disaffection, rather than the more visible political scheming, that poses the greatest risk to the country.
While unlikely to explode into the open ethnic violence of 2008, at least in the short term, the resentment will continue to poison the political atmosphere and slowly strangle the nation.
And it is this that Kenyatta has consistently failed to acknowledge.
By Patrick Gathara, dated December 1, 2017 on the Washington Post
