We Should Be Scared With The Current Wave Of Handshakes in Kenya

The recent wave of handshakes is sweeping across Kenya. It all started when Raila Odinga shook hands with President Uhuru Kenyatta. Then DP Ruto who felt ‘left out’ in the handshake, invited both the President and the former PM for ‘lunch” at his Karen home. More handshakes happened.

Early this month, another handshake happened. Raila Odinga shook hands with Anne Waiguru, whom he had earlier vehemently accused of masterminding the looting of billions of shillings during the first NYS scandal. He said, let the “bygones be bygones.”

The former Vice President, Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka complained that he was left out of the handshake when it happened. During the funeral of his father, he forced his own handshake with President Uhuru Kenyatta and offered himself to be a “mtu wa mkono” to the president. After the handshake, GSU officers, who had been recalled, were redeployed to guard his homes.

More handshakes are still happening. We have seen some flying and driving to Kabarak to shake hands with the former President Daniel Moi. In fact, Moi’s hand has been on demand such that at one point, his son, Gideon Moi, is said to have hid him from DP Ruto.

As the handshakes continue to shake the country, it is time Kenyans started getting worried about it. The handshake is not as beneficial to Kenyans as it is made to look. We are being told that the handshake brought ‘peace’ in Kenya and that the “economy” is blooming because now “leaders have time to sit and work together.”

You may or may not agree with my thinking but the handshake has “swallowed” the opposition. We do not have a formidable opposition in this country. In fact, the “opposition” is busy issuing statements daily through the media trying to prove to us that they are “still in the opposition.” With no formidable opposition, it means our leaders can unite and agree on anything that interests them including “looting in unity.”

Under the handshake, MPs have resolved to unite to increase the number of MPs both in the National Assembly and in the Senate through nominations. They have agreed among other things that the “food they eat at parliament” is of “low quality” and they want “5-star hotel treatment.” With no opposition, there is no oversight and as Kenyans, we are prone to feel the consequences.

The handshake has proved to be beneficial to those involved. They are getting jobs, have been given security with chase cars fitted with full-blown sirens, they travel around the world as VIPs and their families and friends are happy.

Every time you see someone who was chasing after the thief come out in the company of the thief and issue a statement that they have agreed to work together, you should be very careful and if possible, hide whatever you have.

As we celebrate the handshake, what happens to those who were killed during the election skirmishes? What happens to those whose property was destroyed? What happens to those who were injured? A time to think.