10-Point Agenda is ODM’s platform to implement its party values, ideals

Indeed the 10 points agenda captures the ODM values and ideals and through their implementation the party has found a solid ground to implement their objectives.

This explains why the issue of the 10 points was an issue so dear to the former Party Leader Raila and clearly give. As an important commitment to working with President Ruto.

Now that it is well implemented perhaps the UDA and ODM coalition building is at the most critical stage. In this critical juncture of the formation of this coalition the final endorsement shall also follow in this month ODM National Delegates Conference on the 27th March.

After the 13 the March joint parliamentary meeting between UDA and ODM that brought more than 250 parliamentarians. Coalition building is usually a messy and discreet process in Kenya. However we have observed enough patterns , trends and history to understand when one is born.

The latest coalition was the one between ODM and Jubilee, we saw the long route through the BBI but eventually the former President Uhuru Kenyatta formed the Azimio coalition with the late Raila as the candidate and Uhuru as the patron. Therefore for those who have been waiting with bated breath on the 2027 coalitions they can be sure that their will be a UDA and ODM coalition.

This is important because it appears that there were generally two views on the ODM future, that is whether to join the opposition or the government coalition.

There have been one sided who have argued that the ODM ideals and values can not work with the UDA. This moralist have argued based on one line in the late Raila speech that he had said for those saying two terms , who have told you!"

However, there are the majority of ODM who insisted that the pragmatic thing to do is for ODM to remain in the broad based government and form a political coalition with the UDA party.

They have pointed to the need of the ODM to be practical and realise that they can easily influence the government strategic direction and priorities by joining UDA for the prosperity of all Kenyans.

 They have successfully argued that this is consistent with the ODM values of seeking opportunities and human, social development for the people in concrete terms.

It now appears that within this month the final step towards the coalition building with UDA will take place in the ODM NDC. It is also reported that the Sifuna Team have dismissed the report and rejected that there is any thing meaningful implemented under the 10 points agenda.

They have argued that it is a sham and the disappointing implementation should lay the basis for ODM divorce with the UDA.

Clearly from the arguments the 10 points agenda has become the signal of whether their is mutual understanding between the two parties.

That is why the Narrative of its failure even against clear implementation including 2 billion to compensate the victims of protest must be denied and a counter Narrative formed.

Narrative is an important means of structuring and giving meaning to experience. Just like stereotype with narrative people generally look only for that information that strengthens the position they already hold.

This position is well articulated by the former ODM Secretary General Senator Sifuna that the 10 Points agenda has failed and the President was not serious in the first place. If critical information is left out then the conclusion on the implementation of the memorandum agreement will be faulty.

As a result this narrative has been repeated with leaders who are generally unhappy with the close working relationship between the President and the late Raila Odinga and the current ODM leadership.

This feeling entrench perceptions that their is no value in the ODM working under broad based and therefore constrain the relationship between them and the government.

This is meant to justify their political behaviour and fall out with the larger ODM as they work with a few leaders in silos. It provides answers to the reason the former Secretary General Sifuna dismissed the 10 Points agenda a few months after their signing. For him they were not meant to work otherwise how will one justify delinking with UDA.

But one cannot entirely blame Sifuna and his team for being pessimistic with political agreements. Kenya is known for numerous political agreements that are broken.

 In fact some equates the country to a valley of broken political agreements and therefore that explains the suspicion and synicism that marked the signing of the 10 points agenda between the President and hon Raila Odinga. The innovation of this agreement in my opinion has been the clear communication and engagement of the stakeholders that is attributable to the buy in of both UDA and ODM members generally.

That is why receiving the annual report on implementation of the 10 points agenda and NADCO yesterday set the strategic direction of the prioritised solutions and the future of the partnership. implementation and validation on results achieved on the 10 Points agenda.

The data presented by the joint Team on outcome of the 10 points enabled the more than 200 parliamentarians to obtain buy in and show the great measurable outcomes.

I believe that March 10 is a critical juncture where the UDA and ODM came up with clear sustainable priorities of moving towards an o political party coalition for those who avoid celebrating coalitions too soon.

There are different views on whether March 10 is the is the end of the 10 points agenda or a rebirth of the agenda. The central issue with this debate is whether the ODM will move to the deeper connection with the UDA or move towards the opposition alliance.

The reality of the day was that the joint parliamentary meeting . The meeting was critical in setting the true North This dates was important in determining whether the 10 points agenda have gone the ODM way within the time of one year or it is only to be evaluated within a wider time frame.

Diversity without unity cannot be the strength, diversity can only be strength if their is unity. Even values like courage as values critical to the history of the party must be defined in a way. Maxwell defines courage in leadership as ability to abandon what worked yesterday and to see things and do things differently. That indeed takes courage.

It is brave to coexist with people you don't agree with. The 10 points agenda and NADCO was bold because it gave a forum for both sides to have serious discussion on issues they don't agree with but also to fall back on what they agree on.

ODM can no longer linger be a custodian of the old world where they exist in silos and refuse to work with the government. The old way of assuming that their interest can only be protected through opposition politics and instead have framework of cooperating with the government.

This really resonated with me having worked as part of the NADCO negotiations Secretariat. I was able to see first hand how the issue of equality of opportunities became one of the key issues in the negotiations.

That the rest of the country no longer has the luxury to ignore economic issues and development equity between various regions in the country. For long the focus of ODM has been equality before the law.

Equality before the law has not guaranteed equality of opportunity for all except only to provide personal liberty. Great leaders sometimes must abandon what worked yesterday and embrace new thinking and models.

 ODM are abandoning the old model that simply played the opposition politics. It was politics marked by much of opposition identity politics and attributing all that is bad to the government and all that. Is good to the opposition. Great leaders according to Maxwell must be able to abandon what worked yesterday and learn new ways of seeing and doing differently.

Orengo and Sifuna have been extremely useful in leading us through the fight for second liberation. They learnt to fight for democratic space at a great expense of their life that had blocked the greatest enemy of Kenya which was disease, poverty and ignorance.

One can be a very strong athlete but not necessarily a good swimmer and if you throw them in water they might not swim. That is why . Power does not lie in activism button being the executor. Instead of waiting for people to make noise so that one do the right thing one can rise beyond activism and be the one to do the right thing by implementing.

They are doing the best they know but real transformation is to gravitate back to solving the original cardinal problems of Kenya that is the disease, ignorance and poverty. Kenya owes a lot to Orengo and Nyongo for carrying the weight along with other fighters like Raila but it is now time to build on this foundation to enable those regions that have been historically left behind for fear of their politics to also develop.

I am convinced that the various ideals that the two have dearly articulated are not an end by themselves but offers a solid ground to build a prosperous country where there is more resources to all Kenyans regardless of their political affiliations. Indeed each generation has its generational mission to either honour or to betray and the current fight is a fight of equal economic opportunities and development as clearly articulated by the 2010 constitution.

The philosophy and values of ODM that the two leaders say they should not betray has been a dream like Martin Luther dream but today they have a chance to seat along side the Party Leader Oburu and influence the dream so that they can vote for the dream in 2027.

The end game of the ODM ideals and values have been a fight for people's rights by being in government including forming that government. That ideal has been well captured by the adage of Canaan which represents a place of plenty, equal opportunity, shared prosperity and advancement of Kenya.

So if today ODM works with the government to develop infrastructure, compensate victims, achieve universal health and other social economic rights then how can that be neutral of the ODM values? The issues that has preoccupied the ODM mind and capture their attention is to attain human, social and infrastructural development for all Kenyans.

 These ideals can easily be traced to the 10 points agenda that have potential to dismantle systematic and structural inequality embedded in the series of unfortunate legal and policy events that has relegated development to only those who are directly affiliated to the Presidency.

This ideals well captured in the 10 points agenda between the late Raila and President Ruto. The 10 points captured the historical Kenya problems and provide for a solid transformation for both social, infrastructural and human development. It is capable of transitioning the people from liberal rights alone to silver and economic rights.

Why go for protest when already there is already someone representing the ODM ideals and working alongside ODM to achieve the co-shared prosperity? Let us not romanticise ODM ideals because they have their share of struggles and disappointments like any other political party. Both ORENGO and Sifuna have been pragmatic in order to survive politically.

Their political journey have equally been pragmatic and made of compromises. A good example is when Orengo had to make a u turn and join the ODM Party after failing to get elective seats against the ODM.

 The writer is a former Dean of Law Faculty at Nazarene University and former law lecturer at the University of Nairobi