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Eurobond: Hitler’s Propaganda strategy at work!

By Dannish Odongo

In the book Propaganda and Persuasion by Dr. Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell, they discuss how Hitler used propaganda to run the Nazi machinery. The steps were very simple: Avoid abstract ideas – appeal to the emotions. Constantly repeat just a few ideas. Use stereotyped phrases. Give only one side of the argument. Continuously criticize your opponents. Pick out one special “enemy” for special vilification.

EuroBond

One of the new year resolutions that I had made was to stay away from senseless debates that are starved of the truth. I said that I will give a black out to any story that smirks of intentional propaganda that is meant to mislead Kenyans. I said that I will focus on highlighting the positive extraordinary things that ordinary Kenyans do on a daily basis. I had promised myself that I will focus my energies on ensuring that the Kano irrigation scheme gets their rice to be branded for better market value(can anybody lend me a hand in making that happen?)

Too many good things are happening in Kenya for us to focus on sideshows and road side circus that are meant to unnecessarily prolong the political lives of those waho belong to the archives. While I was folding my arms and trying to focus on the new year, I heard that a press conference had been called at the Serena Hotel in Nairobi to unveil a said list that contained alleged persons of interest in the euro bond saga. I expected water tight evidence to accompany the list but I was wrong. What transpired before the world was unearthing of the hatchet of witch-hunt and convenient ‘truths’ which were buried in the sea of forgetfulness in 2015.

I should have kept my optimism at a manageable level. It seems like our opposition dons have mastered the art of capitalizing on the susceptibility of the electorate.

Like I’ve mentioned here before, some politicians in Kenya have been out witted. Even though they used to be mighty in their hey days where they would baffle the government of the day by unearthing mega corruption scandals, it seems like the old strategy has run out of oil on a steep mountain.

The opposition has lost it. They are like a tick that is used to sucking blood from the host even if it’s taken to the slaughter house. The most annoying thing about this whole issue is the fact that the opposition knows how to target strong men in a government. Their target is simple, cut off the head of every influential person in the current government to ensure that it is weakened as much as possible. The end game result is to weaken the government of the day so that it becomes easy for it to be toppled in the next elections. Even though that’s the goal of every politician; to win an election, pulling such stunts at the expense of our nation is quite unpatriotic.

While the forest has somehow changed, the monkeys haven’t. We can still see the determination in their eyes to run this nation down. If it’s not telling the masses to have no respect for the institutions, it is ensuring that those who perform in this government are unfairly targeted to derail the wheels of the economic locomotive that already left the port of Mombasa destined to vision 2030.

This euro bond ‘saga’ is nothing short of a well calculated move to nullify the great work president Uhuru Kenyatta did in the coast. That’s why it had to be delayed 3 days after the president toured the Coast region. While he was there, he resolved many issues that the opposition has been using to control the region. The opposition is experienced at fanning historical wounds so that instead of healing, it festers more for it to be a constant source of votes. The strong conviction of their fans combined with extreme narrowness of mind gives the opposition lee way to manipulate them at will.

Resolving the long standing waitiki land issue, revoking title deeds in Lamu, issuing title deeds in Taita Taveta, opening a road that will ease traffic in Mombasa among other great works are some of the things the opposition wanted to neutralize. But simply because some of our leaders love our people in a constant place of negativity, bitterness, defeated and poor, we must do all that in our powers to ensure that they don’t escape our tentacles that keep them there.

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If at all we are willing to fight corruption, why do we forget the cardinal rule of charity begins at home? Your lieutenants are being mentioned in massive corruption scandals, some are fighting voter bribery charges, your party is known to ‘sell’ nomination tickets and your party is known more for its hooliganism and bungled nomination than it is known for democracy. It reminds me of the Pharisees who were like white washed tombs, shining on the outside but rotting corpses on the inside.
You cannot lay claim to be a saint when your garments reek of double standards and inconsistencies. The truth is the truth, we shouldn’t try to skew it so that it can fit us when we want.

You came for Waiguru and we were silent; you came for William Ruto and he managed to defend himself; but now will wait for you to walk right into every civil service and hound them in your unquenchable thirst to grind the Jubilee government to a halt?

Some of these politicians need to pass over the baton to young promising leaders who can change the way politics of opposition is done in this nation.

The truth should never be the first casualty in the opposition’s attempt to keep the government in check.

It seems that the opposition in Kenya has been consulting the script of the greatest dictator who ever lived; Adolf Hitler. “The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan.”

Paint Jubilee as corrupt over and over again until that becomes the only picture people have of it. With those few remarks, ladies and gentlemen, class propaganda 101 comes to a close. Till next time, inshallah!

Dannish Odongo works for Capital FM as a digital media strategist. He runs a blog on leadership and faith dannish.co.ke.
Follow him on twitter @dannishodongo

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