Campaign based on ethnicity

The Raila Odinga campaign was heavily dependant on portraying President Mwai Kibaki as a kikuyu president and rallying other tribes to “rebel” against the Kikuyu president. It took 5 years of carefully planning and executing the plan to the letter.

In Nov. 2007, I came across a document that was said to be an ODM Strategy Paper that was circulating on the internet. At first is looked like propaganda until I started analyzing the content in respect to current affairs. Raila Odinga and his team followed the script to the letter. It is impossible that their game coincided with the paper by mere chance.

Excerpts

RECOMMENDED ACTION PLAN

II Kikuyu Alienation

Owing to this strategy’s success during the 2005 referendum, it is the party’s position it should be utilized once more for the General Election. There is an overwhelming feeling among non-Gema communities that the Kikuyu are selfish bigots dedicated to tribal hegemony who will never share the spoils of government with other communities. Underpinning this strategy is the blessing that the ODM campaign has able regional pointmen in Mudavadi, Ruto, Balala and Ntimama who can efficiently galvanize their respective communities around the anti-kikuyu initiative. Concurrently, every effort must be made to undermine Kalonzo in order to prevent him from emerging as an alternative for anti-Kikuyu sentiment. In regard, particular caution should be placed in regions such as RVP where Kalonzo has the potential of attracting some of our votes. Anti-Kikuyuism must be reinforced with promises of jobs and economic gain to key players from every community supporting this initiative.

Download: The ODM Strategy Paper (PDF)
Schedule of events

Strategy	Rationale	How to activate	When activate	Action by:
The anti-Kikuyu crusade	1. This is an important wedge issue. It will help galvanize the rest of the country against a common enemy and set the overall tone of our campaign.	Mass media (allusion to predominance of Kikuyus in public service and business). Public rallies Leafletes Vital e-mail and SMS	Throughout the campaign period, heightened activities three weeks before the elections	All members R.O to lead the execution of this strategy.
Uhuru Kenyatta as Kibaki’s choice in 2012	Accentuate the anti Kikuyu sentiments Cause unease within PNU ranks. Attract the Luhya vote by eliminating the belief that there will be a Luhya successor. Communicate the intention to retain power within a select group of prominent political families (Kenyatta, Moi, Kibaki)	Speculative newspaper articles/op-eds Public pronouncements at campaign rallies Blogs/web forums Leaflets, with special focus on Western Kenya and RVP	Immediately, with heightened media activities end of November	Kipkoech Tanui & Okech Kendo R.O
Majimbo	Majimbo presents the promise to the electorate that they will retain their resources at the exclusion of foreigners particularly the Kikuyu, Akamba and the Indians. It is particularly important for galvanizing the Coastal vote.	Public rallies in RVP, Western and Coast OP-Ed columns in the mainstream media TV/FM radio call-in shows Public workshops with high profile personalities such as Ghai.	Immediate, heightened activities in Decemeber.	Ruto to lead the campaign.
Rigging	Prepare the ground for rejection of unfavorable results. Increase interests in monitoring activities to ensure no rigging happens. Deflect attention from ourselves should opportunities be available to manipulate voter turnout in our green areas.	Press conferences Op-Ed columns TV/FM radio call-in shows Petitions to embassies and ODM-friendly NGOs Public Rallies	Oct/Nov/Dec	All
Ethnic Tension/Violence as a Last Resort	To discourage voter participation in hostile areas.	Continue pro-Majimbo utterances Use ODM agents on the ground to engineer ethnic tension in target areas Support Kapondi’s forces in Mt. Elgon Leaflets targeting Kikuyu, Kisii etc	Mid-Dec	Brig Alexanda Sitienei

The seeds of genocide were planted during the campaigns. What we see today are the fruits of hate.

How the Media executed the plans above:


The General Election will be fought on altar of tribalism

By Barrack Muluka
September 30, 2006

...You must be wondering what will determine our voting in next year’s elections? It is only one thing, ethnicity — or if you want, you can say tribe and tribalism.

Land title deeds, free primary school education, economic growth, the fight against corruption, and all those other things we read about in newspapers and got on radio will not matter. Only what the Government has made us feel about tribes and tribalism will count.

Federalism could bridge current development gaps
By Barrack Muluka
The Standard, Saturday July 29, 2006

But the story of Central Province is the real enigma in Kenya’s political economy.

When it comes to taxation, Central Province is – as I indicated in last week’s column – third from the bottom, just managing to stay ahead of Eastern and North Eastern Provinces.
She contributes just about a third of what Nyanza contributes to KRA. Setting Nairobi apart, more taxes are collected from Nyanza, Rift Valley, Western and Coast Provinces in that order. Yet economic, social and demographic indices tell a different story altogether.

Eventually only about three per cent of Government revenue trickles down to development of any sort. Now if this paltry three per cent must go to the already privileged parts of the country, then the rest are condemned to eternal poverty.


Devolution can cure skewed distribution of nation’s wealth
By Barrack Muluka
The Standard, Saturday July 22, 2006

Why would Nyandarua District get Shillings 956 million for road construction, while the bulk of Luo Nyanza districts get less than ten million shillings each?

Why should Nyeri get Sh785 million, while Moyale, Kisii Central, Nakuru, Trans Nzoia and Bomet get much less.

ODM claims Kibaki, Uhuru signed pact on succession
By Sunday Standard Team

Sunday December 2, 2007

ODM Presidential candidate, Mr Raila Odinga and his running mate, Mr Musalia Mudavadi, have alleged that President Kibaki signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with former President Moi, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta and Mr Kamlesh Pattni for the 2012 succession.

Kibaki speaks to the head, Raila to the nation’s heart
Published on October 12, 2007
By Kipkoech Tanui

"In his speech at an ODM congress at Kasarani stadium last month, Odinga spoke, to loud applause, about the danger of ‘economic apartheid’ as bad as that in the old South Africa, only this time with one black group dominating the others. This is code for Kikuyu domination of commerce, farming and the professions."