NASA principals. [Photo/ The Big Issue]
ODM leader Raila Odinga is finally standing up to NASA politicians who are out to finish his political career. Raila has now refused to be sworn in as the ‘leader of the country’, disappointing NASA principals Musalia Mudavadi, Kalonzo Musyoka, Moses Wetangula, coalition CEO Norman Magaya, Siaya Senator James Orengo among others. Orengo and Magaya had been in the frontline in misleading Raila to drop out of the October 26 presidential election, leaving President Uhuru Kenyatta with weak competitors. After the gamble backfired, the Siaya senator and NASA CEO have reportedly been pushed further down the line in the NASA pecking order. That, according to analysts, explains why the two have been missing from key opposition events and media appearances. If Raila had accepted to be sworn in, he would have committed treason, whose punishment under the Kenyan laws is death by hanging. There is no two ways around it. It appears the politicians in NASA were determined to eliminate Raila from the scene. Political scientist Mutahi Ngunyi has also said that James Orengo, Kalonzo Musyoka, Moses Wetangula and Musalia Mudavadi have set up Raila for failure, in a fierce fight to inherit his political backyard. “They told you to boycott the elections, it backfired,” says an analyst on Ngunyi’s The 5th Estate show. “They told you to boycott and sabotage the economy, it backfired. They told you to resist, it is backfiring,” the political scientist says, warning that the NASA leaders are keen to see their boss fail. He then address Odinga directly: “Your NASA friends are killing you. And they are doing so using a borrowed wife.”“And because your (Raila’s) political career is finished, Kalonzo, Mudavadi and Wetangula will do unto you before you do unto them. They will fix you.” Raila’s decision to back out of a plot to have him sworn in, on the same day that President Kenyatta takes the oath of office from Kasarani Stadium, has left many politicians in NASA disappointed.