World over,roads are named-and renamed-after National icons,heroes,freedom fighters,statesmen,former leaders and trendsetters. But not in Mombasa,not in the melting pot of Kenya’s very cataclysmic politics,and the home of the biggest political duels.
Fresh from the very ugly public spat involving himself and troublesome Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko,Coast Governor Hassan Joho,who epically refused to shake the hand of the aforementioned Senator,rallied his masses to some street along Mombasa and have it renamed after the son of his political father – Raila Odinga.
After Fidel Odinga’s sudden death,Governor Joho made a rash,popular promise that he’d name a road after the fallen youthful scion of the Odingas and truly,he lived up to the declaration.
Prior to the pompous launch of the street,Joho had had a very bloggable week at the Coast ; He was hosting the President,co-presiding over some huge County events and also having to deal with a very hostile City senator. All of which was dramatically captured on camera and endlessly shared on Social Media.
And after the calm,the Hon. Governor deemed it fit to fly down his Nairobi-based political machine for a day of boisterous festivities culminating in the naming of a street after one of the most-undeserving people ever.
Nothing Fidel Odinga did merited him to have a street named after himself. Although he was the first born son of Kenya’s foremost politician and national figure,even though he was the grandson of the historical Oginga Odinga,a hugely-revered political figure and a man many credit with the accidental Presidency of the first Kenyatta,Fidel was not quite the achiever himself.
He had lived a fairly gaudy life himself… Like any other young man would. He’d become a permanent fixture in all showbiz circles,befriended many showbiz superstars,warmed his way into the hearts of soccer lovers,made it to the headlines regularly,gathered infamy for his brassy lifestyle,developed a huge appetite for booze,managed to stay humble and accumulative and had even tried as much as he could to avoid politics and polarizing the youth through his association to Raila Odinga,the political powerhouse.
Other than that,there’s very little the late Fidel had done or stood for that made him a qualified candidate of having a whole Street,a busy one at that,named after him. Either in Mombasa or anywhere in Kenya for that matter.
Ignoring the facts,Governor Joho,an avid Raila adherent,still went ahead and inaugurated a road named after the fallen young Odinga.
Images from the Road Naming ceremony.
It was a move that immediately courted a huge revulsion and a bitter protest from many Kenyans,especially Coasterians who felt like the man after when the street had been named had not achieved much,done much,invented much for them or influenced much for him to have such a glaring honor.
The event itself was like a freak show… Raila Odinga himself and his pompous gang of CORD stalwarts thunderously poured into the breezy Coastal city disrupting traffic,hampering the smooth flow of business and jarring the residents from their notorious daytime slumber to watch his late son get immortalized.
And for a City that’s as bored as Mombasa,a City littered with so many layabouts,the event was certainly going to pull a mammoth crowd. And pull it did.
By naming the street after Fidel,the CORD party reminded Kenyans what matters most to them. And really,what sort of party and people they were.
Over and over,the CORD party has always seemed to be obsessed by their cultic leader and will do anything to,like an ancient god,appease him with offerings,glorious tributes,abominous adoration and unquestionable allegiance. And Raila,ever the megalomaniac,has never shied from absorbing the love,the blind adoration,the ludicrous affection from his star-struck subjects and lieutenants.
Instead of naming a street after more deserving personalities,could be Wangari Maathai or even the fallen KDF soldiers,Joho and his fellow obsequious CORD alter boys decided to water down the efforts and achievements of great Kenyans by flouting all rules and conferring a majestic honor on a man who had done close to nothing to warrant it.
Raila himself wouldn’t object to the naming of a street after his own son,a son he named after the historic Cuban legend Fidel Castro,and a son he wished and hoped would acquire the majesty and grandeur of the aging Latin American Revolutionary.
By naming a street after the younger Odinga,the CORD party proved that it is a party that exists on nothing but pettiness. A party that can’t wait to get to power so that it can be able to ingratiate itself,confer national tributes on her undeserving members,misuse executive powers,flout rules and garner as much personal glory as possible while it’s still in power.
Led by Raila Odinga,the King of narcissism,the actions of the CORD party portray a movement that will be blind to all of its glaring shortcomings but very critical and vigilant of any other Government excesses,irregularities and transgressions.
Had a street,or God-forbid,a panya route,been named in Gatundu,or Meru or Thika after Muhoho Kenyatta,Uhuru Kenyatta’s son,the CORD party would hurriedly convene a packed press briefing to furiously protest the move,condemn the abuse of power,rebuke the action and remind Kenyans that Muhoho is an undeserving young man who had sacrificed very little for the sake of the Nation.
CORD only seems to respond when it’s the other party on the wrong. And,curiously,chooses to remain tight-lipped when cornered or exposed for irregularities too.
By naming a street after Fidel,even when it’s clear as day that he didn’t deserve no street named after him,the CORD superintendents have opened us up to a world of a Cord Government – A Government of self-glorification,abuse of power,rash decisions,selfishness,absurdities,pettiness and absolute ludicrity.
May Fidel continue to Rest In Power. And may his genuine memory,even when exploited and goaded upon by politicians,never die. For those he purely loved and cared for. As a human. And not an icon,certainly.
