This archive report was first published on 17 November 2019.
On November 7, 2019, the Kibra by-election took place, a contest that boiled over with the hype of the Handshake, Building Bridges Initiative, and the 2022 General Election.
However, the issues that dominated the lives of the dirt poor in the slum-dominated constituency were far removed from these national concerns.
Notable figures from far and wide attended the by-election, reflecting the reinvention and realignments shaping up ahead of 2022.
Among them was Raila Odinga, who brought the VIPs to campaign for Imran Okoth, the candidate of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) which he leads.
President Kenyatta and the Handshake were also present, a stark contrast to Odinga's past as a treason suspect, who was being packed off into a retirement home or to prison just 21 months prior.
Ann Waiguru, once vilified as the goddess of graft by Odinga, was also in attendance. She had been hounded into quitting her powerful post as Devolution Cabinet Secretary in 2015, but was elected Governor of Kirinyaga in 2017 and is now touted as a possible Number Two in an Odinga administration.
Waiguru had struck a deal with Odinga, withdrawing her defamation suit against him and now leads a lobby that promotes the detente between Odinga and Kenyatta. Little wonder she branded Okoth as the Handshake candidate.
Other notable figures included Governors Wycliffe Oparanya, James Ongwae, Kivutha Kibwana, and Alfred Mutua, who represent the crop serving their final terms and looking for new opportunities.
They sent messages to their tribespeople to vote for Okoth, aligning their communities with the Handshake and the next dispensation.
Charity Ngilu's presence alongside Mutua and Kibwana forced absent Kalonzo Musyoka, her foe today, ally tomorrow, into the frame.
He had previously ingratiated himself to the Handshake table, but obviously did not get into its inner sanctums.
When Ngilu was in trouble over graft as Water minister, Odinga defended her. But she switched to Jubilee, ran for the Kitui senatorial seat in 2013 and lost.
Appointed Lands Minister in 2013, she was sacked over graft in 2015. Kitui elected her governor in 2017. Odinga has since renewed acquaintances.
President Kenyatta's close ally, Maina Kamanda, remained adamant that the President's and Jubilee's candidate in Kibra was Okoth and not flag bearer McDonald Mariga.
This exposed the chasm between President and Deputy and cast the former as hapless, having earlier welcomed Mariga as party candidate.
William Ruto was increasingly viewed as the face of thievery, and Mariga was fingered as his apprentice. Confirmed: If he runs for president or premier, he will be typified as a thief.
Punitive administrative and legal actions have seen his high-profile allies take to the hills.
Odinga & Co campaigned to bury the DP more than they complained on behalf of Kibra's dirt poor.
Dr Ruto's political stock has dwindled as the fire of attrition trained on him has spread.
Nick Salat, Kanu's Secretary-General, represented party chairman Gideon Moi in Kibra. An alliance between Moi and Odinga threatens Dr Ruto at home.
But Kanu is a pale shadow of its former self. Mr Kenyatta quit to found his own party in 2012. Kanu underwent electoral meltdown in 2017.
With Jubilee divided, Kanu diminished and ODM hamstrung, party politics is at a nadir.
A void has opened up for the emergent Handshake alliance to fill.
Moses Wetang'ula, Musalia Mudavadi, and Kalonzo Musyoka were outfoxed by Odinga yet again.
He betrayed them for the Handshake, denied them a share in political parties' funds, and whitewashed them in Kibra by-election.
Now ODM says it's quitting National Super Alliance because the troika betrayed their poll pact by competing in Kibra. False. Odinga has new allies and is, as usual, discarding used ones.
Significantly, in his trademark football analogy, he named Ngilu and Waiguru in Team Handshake Combined and lumped Ruto, Wetang'ula, and Mudavadi in Team Tangatanga Combined.
Prognosis: Odinga is ascendant ahead of the BBI report, hence the return of vitendawili and football-isque commentary.
Cunning attempts were made to foist the unpublished report on Kenyans via the Kibra laboratory. Beware!
