Simba Arati reportedly declined to attend William Ruto’s Kilgoris meeting, telling his ODM associates that he now understands the humiliation Rigathi Gachagua endured at the hands of Ruto’s inner circle, particularly Farouk Kibet.
Arati is said to have been deeply angered by what he perceived as unbridled arrogance and outright contempt from Ruto’s handlers. Farouk allegedly shoved him and other leaders away from the rostrum in a most undignified spectacle, while the President reportedly found the whole episode amusing rather than deserving of condemnation.
His message to his ODM colleagues was essentially this: Hii kiburi na madharau ya Wakalejin iko juu! Perhaps Gachagua was not being unreasonable after all. Perhaps what eventually appeared to be rebellion was simply the inevitable response of a man who had grown tired of being humiliated in an arrangement that offered him a title but denied him dignity.
If Ruto were to issue an honest circular to his non-Kalenjin political associates, it would probably read:
“Your presence is required for photographs, not decision-making. You are here to provide political numbers, not exercise political authority. You are here to be seen, not heard; tolerated, not respected. If you cannot behave like Mudavadi and accept your predetermined place in the pecking order, kindly find your way out.”
That, in essence, is the fundamental contradiction of the Kenya Kwanza arrangement. Some leaders are discovering, rather painfully, that joining a broad-based government does not necessarily mean sharing power, influence or responsibility. Sometimes, it merely means surrendering your political independence in exchange for a seat at the table where somebody else makes all the decisions.
ODM leaders were invited into government with grand promises of inclusion, only to discover that they may have been recruited as political ornaments to legitimise an arrangement whose real command centre lies elsewhere.
The merchants of political accommodation are slowly learning what Gachagua learnt the hard way: You can negotiate your way into government, but you cannot negotiate your way into respect where arrogance is institutionalised.
And perhaps they should start asking themselves why Kindiki is conspicuously absent from these political theatrics nowadays.