ROBERT ALAI : A Man On His Deathbed ; The Opposition Has Given Up On Him And The Jubilee Crowd Won’t Embrace Him

One of Nairobi’s most virulent political bloggers and swashbuckling opinion makers is probably on his deathbed. And he doesn’t even know it yet.

For years now, Mr. Robert Alai, a fearless tackler of truths and slayer of social rot, has been a darling of the people – at least, a niche type of people whose thoughts he communicated and political stands he took.

Alais biggest chunk of online supporters have been the Opposition supporters – the ODM crowd,the CORD constituency.

These are the most vivacious political crowds on the Kenyan soil as their scarlet love and adoration of Raila Odinga has been unmistakable.

Alai is and has always been a avowed Raila Odinga fanatic. (He refers to Raila as his father)

And for you to unabashedly support Raila and put up with the immense amount of crap tat can be hurled at you by the Kenyatta stans, you’ve got to have some soul. Some grit. Some chutzpah. Some teeth.

And Alai has a lot of that. Actually, more than the average guy’s.

But lately, the tempestuous trouble-making Internet bad boy seems to be losing his sheen.

He seems to have bid adios to the Odinga tent. And camped,very comfortably,in the tent of the Ruling Party – Jubilee.

Lately, day after day after day, Alais online timelines are a humdrum collection of Anti-CORD choruses and many,unfiltered attacks on the CORD Alliance – And on all of the Odinga busybodies.

There’s even talk he’s considering vying for the Embakasi West seat on a Jubilee ticket.

After years of ‘thanklessly’ fighting for and standing by Raila and his free-loading acolytes,it seems Alai has finally thrown in the towel,decamped,seen the light and embraced the other side.

Raila Odinga flanked by the CORD top brass                                                   Photo/Daily Nation

Trouble is, the other side doesn’t seem too interested in him.

Alai hardly has friends. Or keeps any.

If you’ve had the misfortune of interacting with Alai, on a personal level, you’re realize what a emotionless, distant and isolated soul he is.

He’s cold and unwelcoming. Curt and brief. Complex and frosty.

He’s entirely impossible to engage. And has an air around him that shuts you off, blocks your warmth and blots out your light.

Like a misanthropic stoner, Alai’s life is a little dark den of bitterness and urges to lash out and vent. Antagonize and confront.

It’s that form of cynical attitude and general lack of interest in forming lasting human relations that makes it so easy for him to dump his friends and associates,e xpose his closest members and trash his icons so easily.

Alai will praise you today and trash-talk you tomorrow. He’ll idolize you today and lampoon you tomorrow. He’ll be enamored by you today and call you some piece of dump tomorrow.

His alliances don’t last. He’s an easy dispenser – and seems to not want to stand by you just for the sake of it.

You’ve got to work extra hard to keep him singing your praises.

That’s the same kind of nature that makes the Jubilee camp not very sure on what to do with Alai.

They don’t mind embracing him and bringing his online expediency on board – but also, he’s hard to trust, hard to keep and hard to rein in.

What if he all of a sudden does an about turn? And starts exposing their dirty deals?

What if he’s in a room where some Government corruption deal, worth billions, is being concocted? And then he blasts it all out on Twitter?

His tendency to be too straightforward,too forthright,too clean and too concerned with transparency and accountability makes him a liability – not an asset – to the gluttonous Jubilee honchos.

Two, the most rabid Jubilee supporters don’t seem to eager to welcome this man in their camp.

This is a man who has spent years deriding the President and castigating him at all probable opportunities.

This is a man who has been in and out of the cells for uttering the most atrocious things against Kenyatta and his cohorts.

A man who has never hidden his disdain for Mr. Kenyatta and his regime.

What makes him a Kenyatta supporter now? All of a sudden?

And wasn’t he the most rabid Raila adherent? And now he’s just dumping Raila like he never knew him?

That sort of man is a man few can trust. A man few can bank on and a man few can bet their money on.

He’s far too unpredictable and notoriously unhinged to trust.

Jubilee supporters have already made up their mind on this man. And are unlikely to ever view him in a different light.

He’s always going to be the man who called President Kenyatta an adolescent,the man who kept equating Kenyatta’s regime to Kalongolongo.

No tweet or appearance in State House can ever erase that. Ever.

He’s lost his CORD crowd. And can’t seem to be able to win his new Jubilee audience.

He’s probably digging his own grave and that is evident by the kind of comments his Facebook posts are attracting lately.

Like,for instance,this morning,Alai made a Facebook post about him being at the State House. He then asked his Followers to point out things they would love to be addressed in the #AccountabilityKe summit.

But the comments weren’t anything he had expected. 98% of all the comments were insults and nasty words and taunts. He was dismissed, brushed off, jeered at, leered at,trashed and mocked by pretty much anyone who bothered comment.

 

kombi Ombi Go take the brown envelope WUOD mama!!!! Uko kaziiii!!!

As his Facebook crowd starts shifting,and finding another online Messiah,to save them from the Jubilee attacks and help propel their man to State House,Alai is left without an army and without a cause.

It will be hard for him to marshal the JAP crowd as easily as he did the CORD gang -which he now has lost.

Despite his apparent warning up to Kenyatta,and his shocking severance of allegiance to Raila’s presidential ambitions, the Kenyatta online clan doesn’t seem to need his services – they seem to believe that, even without his endorsement, Uhuru will still sail to State House.

Maybe he can make a splendid social campaigner and human rights agitator.

But politically,this man is on his death bed.

And no one seems interested in resuscitating him.

It’s a death we didn’t see coming. And a death we don’t mind happening.