Mudavadi and Wetangula have overstayed in the nest, new roosters are here

There is a lot of chicken-based wisdom in Emanyulia, our village that claims to be the place where the sun rises before visiting other lands. The chick that will become the alpha cockerel is spotted the day it is hatched.

The distant rooster is restless, even as it scratches the ground. A borrowed cock has its owners. Mother hen scratches the ground to scatter the grains as she eats. The owner of the borrowed chicken will come for it.

And there are many others the village claims to have lent to other villages, far and wide. The most potent lessons speak to incubation and hatching. You see, there is a chicken in every homestead. Something is terribly wrong in a home without this favourite of birds in Emanyulia.

Every villager knows that incubation is 21 days, not a day more. Our mothers deftly remove mother hen from the incubation nest, if she has not already moved on her own. The broody hen is in a foul mood as her fledglings are placed on the ground, one by one. She is outright aggressive and warlike.

The hormones and chick protection instincts are fiercely at work. Yet, some of the eggs have not hatched. Mother hen is torn between staying with her chicks or returning to the incubation nest, to warm the slow eggs.

There are dead-in-the shell eggs. Here, mature embryos died in the shell just before hatching. In dead germs, embryos died in the early stages of incubation. Then there are clears, where eggs never had embryos in the first place.

Finally, exploders are eggs that rotted in incubation and exploded, producing foul smell. Nothing can save these dead eggs. Their time is simply up, and no amount of aggressive puffing in the nest can change things. Nature works that way. And the biblical wise man knew this, too. There is time for everything. Time for the broody hen to sit on her clutch of eggs, and time to quit the nest. Time to tally gains, and time to count loses.

Now this is village wisdom that Francis Atwoli, Musalia Mudavadi, Moses Wetang’ula and Kenneth Lusaka have forgotten. Or, perhaps, this wisdom bypassed their villages after it left Emanyulia? Or maybe they are just slow? For they have been gallivanting in the neighbourhood, dancing to an old tune. They are biding their time and bidding for future leadership in the wider Kenyan nation, away from Emanyulia.

Every so often, you will find them literally doing it to the gallery. They brought William Ruto to Emanyulia in 2022 and made extravagant promises that they have failed to fulfil. In good conscience, I must confess the misstep of aiding them significantly.

But a wise man recognises his ridiculous missteps, or even mistakes. He calls them by name. He corrects, as need dictates. The dull-witted remains in the same space, making the same mistakes, over and over.

You see, Kenya Kwanza’s leadership is easily the mother hen that unleashed putrid broody poop in the incubator. Right there in the brooding nest – watery, pungent, malodorous broody poop! But even here, the Emanyulia chicken is wiser. It does not return to the nest if it has plastered its eggs in pongy broody stuff. She goes away, and the unhatched eggs are cast away. 

Emanyulians are saying that Mudavadi and Wetang’ula have had their day in the nest. It does not matter which mother hen returns to this clutch of dead germs. They are bad eggs. Keeping them in the nest only accumulates more ammonia sulphide and other fermented gastric materials in Emanyulia’s political bowels.

Accumulation of these elements only produces the worst political pong you had the misfortune to encounter. Now Emanyulia is saying that each time these political dinosaurs dance before them, the place is awash with political ammonia sulphide. The people are reminded of rotten eggs.

It's that bad. Emanyulians are saying that Atwoli, Mudavadi, Wetang’ula, and Lusaka have had their time  in the brood. If they cannot re-engineer and repackage themselves as respected elders and advisers to the new generation of leaders, they will go the way that bad eggs must go. There are new roosters and cockerels in the village. The old must give way.

The chickens are coming home to roost. Emanyulians are asking the mothers of the village to protect their chicks and fledglings from the hawks and kites. The local hawks are angrily circling around the new brood. They are arriving in the rare company of visiting vultures, marabou stork, and sundry predators, carrion eaters and scavengers. Beware, your chicks could be eaten.

-Dr Muluka is a strategic communications adviser.