RAILA ODINGA’s initial rejection of the outcome of presidential election result in Kenya, last week, is no different from the guaranteed reaction of Nelson Chamisa and CCC to his expected defeat in the forthcoming 2023 presidential polls.
While William Ruto won with 50,5 percent of the vote, Odinga came close with 48,8 percent.
Odinga seems to have grudgingly accepted the Supreme Court ruling of Monday, September 5, confirming Ruto’s victory.
At least, he recognises the supremacy of the rule of law.
On the other hand, in Zimbabwe’s 2018 presidential polls, President Emmerson Mnangagwa got 50,8 percent of the vote to Chamisa’s 44,3 percent.
Chamisa rejected outright the Constitutional Court ruling which dismissed his party’s argument for lack of evidence.
The youthful politician seems to have no respect whatsoever for the rule of law.
While there are similarities between Odinga’s Azimola Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party and Chamisa’s CCC, there is an important fundamental difference between these two opposition outfits.
Odinga’s political movement is homegrown with a traceable history.
It’s brand of the socialist philosophy dates back to the days of his father, Jaramogi Odinga Odinga.
Chamisa’s MDC, which has morphed into CCC, is a product of the West.
It is financed and directed by regime change gurus infuriated by the transfer of land from whites to blacks.
That is why, to this very day, it has no Constitution, no ideology or structure.
It is probably waiting for further instructions from advisers, like Professor Stephen Chan, for a way forward.
In short, there is not even a iota within its DNA which is indigenous.
The West hates ZANU PF.
That is why they imposed unilateral illegal sanctions through the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recocery Act (ZDERA)
These sanctions were intended to see the Zimbabwe economy ‘scream’, so that people might revolt against the ZANU PF Government.
This way, the revolutionary party was then expected to lose at general elections. To the West’s dismay, the electorate has steadfastly stood by ZANU PF, as successive general election results have shown.
This has been too bitter a pill for the West to swallow.
That is why they have always stood with their surrogate, the CCC, whenever it has rejected election results , regardless of a court ruling.
To the West, the expected ensuing chaos that might lead to the overthrow of a victorious ZANU PF is preferred to accepting to the genuine victory of a political party they detest.
So, whenever CCC loses in an election, it will be the height of naivety to expect the West to instruct their surrogate to throw in the towel.
And yet the corollary to this must also be accepted.
Thus, in the unlikely event that CCC wins a presidential election, ZANU PF is justified to reject the result.
For definitely the elections would not have been ‘free and fair’ with the illegal sanctions taking their toll.
After all, big shots like the late Morgan Tsvangirai, Chamisa, Tendai Biti and Welshman Ncube, among others, are on record calling for the tightening of sanctions against their own people.
If illegal sanctions are used as a tool to canvass for elections, when the very voters are the victims, the culprits must surely be punished in one way or the other.
As long as the West has its own surrogate party, and illegal sanctions have not been lifted, there will never be be ‘free and fair’ elections in Zimbabwe, or anywhere else in the world for that matter.