New political narrative needed post-Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic has handed Kenya’s political scene an unplanned but very welcome hiatus from the frenzy of endless noise-making in the name of campaigning for leadership.

I hope political party strategists are using the time to reframe their parties’ positions because the post-pandemic era will be a very different ball game.

The pandemic could not have drawn a worse hand for President Uhuru Kenyatta and rival-turned-ally Raila Odinga, as they shuffled the deck and played the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) as their trump card.

That game, which was to culminate in a referendum to change the Constitution and alter the make-up of the executive leadership, has been check-mated effectively by, in the short-term, restrictive convening orders to keep people safe from the virus.

If you cannot meet to keep the myth of an unstoppable train alive, the political logic so dependent on the illusion of a momentum is disoriented.

The BBI game plan will be difficult to reassemble even after the pandemic ebbs away – there will really be no funds to underwrite the costs of a referendum.

And for President Kenyatta, there will be very little time left to play kingmaker in his succession race.

I could advise that he uses the balance of his time in power to demonstrate the leadership required to pull the country through the inevitable recession that Covid-19 will leave in its wake.

A recession marked by an economy flat on its back. Mr Odinga and his team must be gnashing their teeth too.

This game was in the bag – whether to set him up to run for president or secure a warm and generous pad for him to wind down his sunset years.

With BBI ripped off their hands, they have time to complete the remake of ODM and try to control their game, which might be go it alone against the rest or find another partner to replace the Kenyatta faction of Jubilee.

I imagine that Deputy President William Ruto’s team must be quietly happy with the state of politics. They did not like the BBI incarnation that Mr Odinga was animating.

In fact, the pressure was getting to a point where the DP was accusing “the system” of wanting him out of the way by trying to implicate him in unsavoury political plots like suspected corrupt weaponry deals.

Now he can regroup and craft a revival of his ambition to take the leadership from Uhuru Kenyatta. Curiously, he has not grabbed the opportunity Covid-19 offers.

Like a good deputy, he has supported the government strategy and is happy to let others shine.

But the race to subdue the virus and clean up the mess in its wake is marathon, and the effort to lift the country out of the dip will be greater than the one of trying to prevent the free-fall.

Politicians that understand this will see the opportunity to finally breathe fresh life into the challenge of making Kenya truly great.

It is an opportunity for Mr Musalia Mudavadi and Mr Moses Wetangula to reflect, as it is for Mr Gideon Moi and Mr Kalonzo Musyoka too.

What novel ideas should we expect from these or other emerging leaders that can persuade people from the conviction that the end of their misery and deprivation is not necessarily “bringing the presidency home”?

The Covid-19 pandemic is the merciless leveller. It is dramatically bringing home the reality that liberties can suddenly be taken away for everyone; that money is not the differentiator between life for some and death for others.

That your tribe will not mark you as special. Covid-19 will be an opportunity to change the unhappy narrative that so far has defined our political pedigree.

The writer is a former Group Editor-in-Chief of the Nation Media Group and is now consulting;; @tmshindi