Mudavadi team plans to play ‘run-off card’ against Raila

• Campaign strategists hope to sell deputy PM as the man with the ammunition to pull off a straight win for ODM and beat the G7 Alliance’s trap set up for party leader

The ODM party is bracing itself for what is likely to be anxious moments ahead of the General Election with the party’s deputy leader, Mr Musalia Mudavadi, set to challenge Prime Minister Raila Odinga for the presidential ticket.

Mr Mudavadi’s handlers have already hit the ground running, reaching out to party members across the country to sell his agenda and vision for the party. (READ: ODM ready for general polls, Mudavadi)

Last week, the Deputy Prime Minister was in the Coast region where he met the party’s grassroots leaders from Kwale, Kilifi and Taita-Taveta counties. On Monday, Mr Mudavadi’s entourage will be headed to Kajiado county for a series of meetings with the local leaders.

The Mudavadi camp is fashioning him as the candidate who will ensure a straight win in the first round in the presidential election, thus avoiding the necessity of a run-off.

Political strongholds

The strategy is based on reports that presidential aspirants identified with the G7 Alliance of Kalonzo Musyoka, Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto, George Saitoti and Eugene Wamalwa are all likely to run for the presidency in order to lock the PM out of their political strongholds thereby denying him the requisite 50 per cent plus one majority and 25 per cent vote in 24 counties.

This will force a run-off between the PM, presuming he emerges first in the first round, and the runners-up, at which point they will all rally behind Mr Odinga’s opponent.

In an interview with the Sunday Nation, Mr Mudavadi said his bid to challenge Mr Odinga should not be misconstrued as aimed at undermining the party or self seeking.

“I am one leader who has accepted that if I want to lead others, I must at all times accept to be led. I have given all my political life to this democratic principle. I believe good leadership must embrace the spirit of competition; see competition as an asset rather than as detraction,” he said.

His candidature

Addressing the party’s delegates in Karen in the presence of the PM, Mr Mudavadi announced that he would tour the counties to popularise his candidature and stated that this should not be seen as a move to undermine Mr Odinga.

“I intend to make visits to counties. The PM is aware. He too shall make visits to various counties. I am aware. There are no secrets between us. We are doing this in the spirit of mutual respect to enhance internal democracy in our party,” he said.

“You shall not hear one negative word I shall utter about Raila. I shall go to popularise the party. It is a must. We must work to make the party vibrant. If we work like that, we shall see people running back to ODM in droves, those people who have said they have left the party.”

But, even as Mr Mudavadi’s camp burns the midnight oil popularising his candidature, it has had to fight off claims that he is a project of the G7 Alliance to defeat Mr Odinga from within. Mr Mudavadi was forced to come clean on his candidature during the Karen meeting following media reports depicting him as a G7 project.

“We must not fall prey to insinuations by our opponents who continue to undermine unity in the party. I will not want you to be misguided by the headline that G7 is behind Musalia Mudavadi. G7 is already dead,” he said.

“In any case, why would they want to support Musalia who will hand them a resounding defeat? So let us look at it contemptuously because some of us want to remain principled,” he added.

Mr Mudavadi’s backers are pitching for an American-style presidential primaries where delegates will pick their preferred candidate at the county level rather than at the National Delegates Conference.

But, unlike the American system, where the presidential primaries are spread over a period of time, the ODM primaries ought to be held on the same day to comply with the Elections Act and Political Parties Act as well as to save the party unnecessary expenses in transporting and accommodating delegates in Nairobi.