The James Orengo prophesy that is haunting Jubilee politicians

On January 5, 2017, Siaya County Senator James Orengo stood on the floor of the Senate during a debate on Election Laws (Amendment) Act 2016 and made a statement that has now returned to haunt Jubilee leaders two years down the line.

The indefatigable Senior Counsel, while gesturing towards the opposite side of the House composed mainly of Senators from the ruling party, said:

“Sometimes revolutions eat their own children… governments eat their own people. This government is going to punish you more than they will punish me, I am telling you. In another one year you’ll be crying in my office to come and represent you.”

The Senate Majority leader, in uttering those words, was seemingly warning leaders from the ruling party to be careful with the power they wield because the very government they belonged to would one day turn against them.

Fast forward to 2019 and a “post handshake” era and the tough-talking Orengo and his words, nay, prophecy, have been vindicated.

Jubilee is still largely intact, on paper, but in reality, there is Kieleweke and Tanga Tanga, the two camps pitting President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto.

Tanga Tanga team is vouching for a Ruto presidency while Kieleweke is largely opposed to it and increasingly, these two are locking horns a lot.

The latest casualty is Kiharu Member of Parliament (MP) Ndindi Nyoro who is on record supporting Kenyan police officers during the electioneering period.

Following his recent run-ins with the law enforcers, during one of which he almost spent the night in Citizen TV offices as they were waiting for him outside the gates, he has now seemingly changed tune and is now castigating them; the angels have now become villains in his eyes.

His comments, sound more of an ODM politician post-2017 election cycle and the ODM politicians are now the ones laughing and telling them to stop politicking and work.

The shoe is firmly on the other foot and boy is it painful.

Mr. Nyoro is just one among many Jubilee politicians whose outright support for a DP Ruto presidency in 2022, despite orders from President Uhuru Kenyatta to cease politicking, has landed in tough situations with the law.

There was the previous case where Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichung’wa, among many others, had his security detail withdrawn under mysterious circumstances and his Kimilili counterpart Didmus Barasa had his gun license revoked.

County chiefs such as Ferdinand Waititu (Kiambu) and Moses Lenolkulal (Samburu) have also come out to blame their arrests and charges over graft allegations on their inclination towards DP Ruto’s camp.

Former State House Director of Digital Communications was also recently arrested for allegedly taking to a Tanga Tanga WhatsApp group to post a fake DP Ruto assassination plot letter. The case is in court.

If these scenarios are anything to go by then these Jubilee leaders now being tormented by the very government they belong to and supported just two years ago wish they had listened to Orengo’s words that sunny afternoon.