Raila rivals toy with single candidate plan

Eldoret North MP William Ruto has floated a proposal for joint presidential primaries with Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and Deputy Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta.

Mr Ruto announced that he and the other two would run against each other to pick a joint candidate, presumably to run against Prime Minister Raila Odinga in a presidential election which is still nearly two years away.

“We will compete. If I beat you (Kalonzo and Uhuru), you back me. If you win, I will back you,” Mr Ruto said on Sunday in the strongest hint yet by the group of leaders, who have been associated with the so-called “KKK” alliance, that they will rally to have one of them succeed President Kibaki in 2012 when his term comes to an end.

He was speaking at the installation of Dr Robert Kipkemoi Lang’at as the new head of the African Gospel Church of Kenya at the Highlands Bible College in Kericho.

Retired President Daniel arap Moi, who was also in attendance, dismissed talk of a tribal alliance and warned those talking of a generational change that the Constitution allows both the old and the young to vie for president.

It was a meeting that demonstrated the peculiar ups and downs of Kenyan politics and the fact that parties and alliances change, but the faces don’t.

Present was Mr Gideon Moi, Kanu vice-chairman and the former president’s son, an erstwhile ally of Mr Kenyatta who has now turned against him and has been trying to topple him as party chairman.

Mr Ruto, with the Orange party, famously took on Mr Moi and prevailed in the Rift Valley at the last election. Mr Moi picked Mr Kenyatta as his successor in 2002, and lost, but the two fell out during the referendum last year.

Mr Musyoka is Mr Moi’s political protégé though Mr Moi backed Mr Kenyatta, rather than him, as his successor. But even as Mr Ruto was suggesting a new alliance, it is far from certain that he and Mr Kenyatta will be available to contest the next election.

They are among six top Kenyans named for possible prosecution by Hague prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo for alleged crimes against humanity.

On Sunday, Mr Musyoka urged Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto to forget about the obstacle and work out new political strategies for the years ahead.

“You (Ruto and Uhuru) should not lose hope because of being named in the ICC list. The government will do the best to assist you because we want to ensure that every Kenyan feels part and parcel of the next dispensation,” he said.

Conceded defeat

Mr Kenyatta denied being one of the planners or financiers of the 2007 post-election violence. He pointed out that when he lost the presidency in the 2002 elections, he conceded defeat instead of going to the streets.

“If I did not plan for chaos when I lost the presidency to Mr Kibaki in 2002, how come that I am being implicated with the violence yet I was not vying for the top seat this time round? Weren’t the stakes higher for me then?” he asked.

He said those who vied for the presidency in 2007 should tell Kenya and the world who the masterminds of the chaos were.

The meeting in Kericho comes a day after Mr Ruto, Saboti MP Eugene Wamalwa and five other MPs met in Mombasa to lay strategies to pick a joint candidate in the next election.

This comes amid tension in ODM which has seen suspicions that influential Rift Valley leaders Henry Kosgey and Agriculture minister Sally Kosgei might leave the party.

Mr Odinga, the party leader, has remained confident, inviting those unhappy in the party to leave. He has also said that he will win the presidency if he will is nominated to run by his party. And yesterday he said ODM would remain strong even if some members left.

Speaking separately on Sunday, Mr Wamalwa said they were still working on the modalities of the alliance:

“We are still in the process of agreeing on a number of issues. Once this is done and dusted, we shall come up with a formidable alliance which will for sure take over the country’s leadership.”

Reported by Benedict Tirop, Geoffrey Rono, Paul Ogemba