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Past thinkers have conceived of scarcity in a wide variety of ways. One of the concepts is that scarcity changes the value and leads to new market conditions.

ODM party leader Raila Odinga is undoubtedly a fervent politician who understands the political application of the scarcity principle. He is back from his sojourn in the United States. He went there for reasons best articulated in the various speeches he has delivered since his return. He is hoping that the US trip that made him scarce on the Kenyan political marketplace, has injected some fresh impetus in his otherwise withering political influence and nose-diving political career.

As he travelled back, Kenyans chose to engage him with a largely humorous tweeter hash tag, which accidentally hyped up his homecoming. CORD politicians burned the midnight oil to buttress his "homecoming value" by ferrying supporters from their strongholds to Nairobi to make big his rally.

In their address, Raila and Co-principal Kalonzo Musyoka folded their shirts ready for a political tussle. They announced their demand for a national dialogue, which out of their ambiguity, was understood by all and sundry that they were proposing a government of national unity. Raila released two statements the following day clarifying their vagueness.

The 60 day ultimatum and a call for action on the famous Saba Saba day if the president would not have convened preparatory talks between the Jubilee Coalition and the CORD coalition to agree on the agenda and timetable for the national dialogue was a shrewd gambit to sustain the Raila comeback momentum. By accepting to dialogue on day one, President Uhuru instantly deflated that momentum. More interesting was seeing both Kalonzo Musyoka and Senator Moses Wetangula, refer to Saba Saba approvingly. At the time Saba Saba was Kenyans most popular platform to push for democratic and governance reforms, Raila's co-principals were former President Moi's fiercest defenders even justifying politically motivated detentions. Times real change!

The vagueness in the demand for national dialogue reflects both the political intentions of those calling for it and the motivation for doing so. CORD since losing the March 4th 2013 presidential race has fought hard often applying unorthodox means to stay afloat. Raila referred to the judiciary "Mahakama Bandia" in attempt to keep alive his claims of stolen victory following the Supreme Court dismissal of his presidential poll petition. He was aptly reprimanded by Chief Justice Dr. Willy Mutunga.

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