By Nyanza Wire 
Long before the protests were hijacked by civil society minions, it was the ODM Party that had rejected the Finance Bill 2024 in its formative stages before the third reading. By March 2024, ODM Party was already dismissing the 2024 Finance Bill as “heavy burden” on taxpayers.
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A year earlier in 2023, the ODM Party had also rejected the 2023 Finance Bill.
Inside the National Assembly on the protest day, ODM was leading a ‘Reject All’ opposition to all the clauses of the bill — a decision to reject having been made a day earlier.
The party had deployed the “three line whip rule”; meaning all clauses — good or bad — had to be rejected.
ODM initially was not for full rejection of the bill. The party had called for amendments to remove the offensive clauses touching on the cost of living. The majority party (UDA/KK alliance) had rejected the amendments which then forced the ODM party to call for protests.
With ODM threatening street action, the UDA/kk party went on overdrive to moderate much of the bill, but by then the situation had evolved into a mass political issue with a section of ODM demanding total rejection.
In much of the conversation post-June protests that breached parliament; the contribution of the ODM Party in creating the conditions for mass rejection of the bill has always been DOWNPLAYED as the civil society and commercial activists took full credit for the protests — backed by a Githeri Media narrative which blacked out the contribution of ODM Party in presetting the conditions for the D-Day.
It doesn’t surprise whenever post-June 2024 protests flop. They will always flop. The critical mass for the June 2024 protest was the ODM Party base and as long as the party keeps off the streets; the protests will always FLOP — like happened yesterday.
A protests must have the “critical mass” and a political protest that invites govt response needs a proper organization.
It was the ODM youth, from as far back as 2023, who had been on the streets. It was the ODM Party base, in June 2024, that made the now wrongly labeled “Gen Z protests”, succeed.
Anyone else who joined — especially the so called tribeless, leaderless, and partyless Gen Zs — came to the streets when the critical party mass had laid the groundwork.
For weeks, the grievance had been crystallized.
For weeks, the boots had been on the ground.
The D-Day was the Third Reading of the Bill.
In the chaotic aftermath, President Ruto correctly diagnosed the situation and dealt with the correct formation.
By co-opting ODM in government, President Ruto solved a political problem using the political tools available to him — formation of a unity government. This is what all his predecessors had done. Jomo Kenyatta did it after 1966, appointing Moi as VP in ‘67. Moi did it over and over. Kibaki did it in post-2005 referendum defeat, removing LDP elements and bringing in KANU, Ford People, Ford Kenya etc into govt. Kibaki again did it in 2007, quickly bringing in Kalonzo and several other fringe parties to help him hang onto power.
President Uhuru did it in 2018.
The broad-based government arrangement is therefore not unprecedented in the history of our country.
Be that as it may, as long as there’s no political party coming out to provide the ‘base’; or the ‘substructure’; on which a serious protest can lay on, the protests will always FLOP.
The DCP Party or the Wiper Party or any of the over 100 registered political parties in Kenya must come out and do the HEAVY LIFTING. For the last 20 years it was ODM Party doing the heavy lifting. Now ODM is off the streets. The attempts by Orengo and groupies to return to the party to the streets is sponsored by those who’ve realized without ODM or sections of ODM giving a helping hand, kamare ni ngumu…