Suspicions mar G7 unity bid

Technocrats within the G7 alliance are drafting terms for a pre-election agreement that would see them present a common front against Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement at the next General Election.

The deal would be modelled along similar lines to a power-sharing deal in the ruling National Front Coalition in Malaysia, a loose alliance of 13 parties that contest elections together but retain their own identities even when they form government.

But that effort to craft a united team ahead of 2012 comes against the backdrop of rising tensions between the camps of Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and Deputy Prime minister Uhuru Kenyatta that raise doubts about the capacity of the coalition to hold together.

Mr Kenyatta’s camp accuses Mr Musyoka of being reluctant to take part in an open primary to determine the candidate of the G7 alliance because he fears defeat.

Mr Musyoka, on the other hand, has publicly stated that the next election will be between him and Mr Odinga while he has been accused of saying that as the most senior official in the G7 he should be their natural candidate.

In interviews, allies of Mr Kenyatta were unusually pointed in casting doubt on the commitment of Mr Musyoka to stick to the alliance in the event that he loses in the primaries.

“The vice-president needs to drop his false sense of entitlement,” one of Mr Kenyatta’s campaigners, Mr Moses Kuria, said. “One of the principles around which the G7 is based is democracy. Candidates have bound themselves to free and fair competition after which they will back whoever emerges the victor. Nobody should expect to be handed the ticket on a silver platter.”

Differences between the two camps came to the fore earlier in the week following the publication of an opinion piece in The Star by one of Mr Musyoka’s advisers, Mr Muthui Kariuki. Mr Kariuki urged influential members of the Kikuyu ethnic community to back a presidential candidate from outside Mt Kenya in 2012. Mr Kenyatta is an ethnic Kikuyu.

“…The Kikuyu elite’s Kibaki succession schemes smack of ethnic arrogance to other communities. It is simply not good for the national cohesion we are so desperate to cultivate particularly after what we went through after the 2007 elections. Their schemes augur ill for Kenya.

“The best thing that those behind this scheme can do for Kenya is to try and disabuse the communities of such popular negative notions like the Kikuyu are genetically incapable of voting for a non-Kikuyu because it is in their DNA by endorsing, and actively campaigning, for a candidate who is not a Kikuyu in the next elections.

“Certain politicians have been going around the country calling others KKK. I can assure you that those fellows are praying day and night that they do battle with a Kikuyu presidential candidate in a run-off. I’m informed by highly informed sources within their quarters that they will quickly come out of their manholes and in an incredible turn of events argue that the 3K’s did not mean Kikuyu, Kamba and Kalenjin!”

That argument is said to have stirred unhappiness in the Kenyatta camp.

“Mr Musyoka is advancing the view that if we do not support him Kikuyus are dyed-in-the-wool tribalists,” said Mr Kuria. “But this is a democracy. He says that he is the most senior member of the team but if that is true voters will back him. He should learn the biblical lesson that one must humble himself before he can be elevated to positions of leadership.”

An ally of Mr Musyoka played down the tensions between the candidates’ camps describing them as “teething problems” expected in an alliance that has yet to crystalise and develop a structural foundation. He said the VP was “both a democrat and a team player” who was willing to participate in a primary.

Relations between the VP and the Finance minister are expected to be further tested by several trips the Kenyatta camp plans to make in Mr Musyoka’s Ukambani backyard in the next few weeks.

Mr Kenyatta’s allies claim that the VP has been unhappy about those plans but they say they will go ahead with the visits because Mr Musyoka has been a frequent visitor in Mr Kenyatta’s Central Kenya base.

The G7 is an alliance that emerged after an initial coalition between Mr Kenyatta, Mr Musyoka and Eldoret North MP William Ruto assumed the tag Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Kamba (KKK) association after the ethnic extraction of the trio.

The G7, which first came to the limelight after Mr Kenyata and Mr Ruto’s first trip to The Hague in April, was seen as an attempt to expand the geographical reach of the organisation to battle charges that the movement was dividing the country along ethnic lines.

This saw the inclusion of new figures such as Mr Eugene Wamalwa from Western Province, Mr Aden Duale from North Eastern Province, Mr Omingo Magara from Nyanza Province and new entrant Chirau Ali Mwakwere from the Coast.

Some critics argue that the alliance is unlikely to hold until the next elections because of the internal rivalry between key players.

But University of Nairobi political scientist Joshua Kivuva says the desire to block ODM from the presidency may serve as a unifying factor.

“You might have a situation similar to that in 2002. The dislike for President Moi became more important than anything else and the various players had to stick together behind Kibaki. Now the question the G7 members will have to confront is whether they hate Raila more than they suspect each other. Mr Ruto doesn’t trust Mr Kenyatta and vice-versa. They seem incompatible but you can’t rule out the possibility they can work together.”

The public disputes between the politicians have overshadowed the work of technocrats behind the scenes who are seeking to formulate a workable plan to unite the presidential candidates.

Some of the options floated are the transformation of the G7 into a broad-based political movement with collegiate membership of parties or the formation of one party.

Mr Musyoka’s spokesman, Mr John Kaplich Barsito, said one of the alternatives given consideration is a model similar to the Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition.

The long-serving governing coalition consists of the dominant United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) which is allied to two other ethnic-based parties, Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) and Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC).

Eleven other political parties, all with varying levels of strength in Malaysia’s regions, are allied to the National Front.

During elections, all candidates stand under the National Front symbol but there is intra-coalition competition for seats prior to nomination day.

Mr Barsito played down fears that the alliance would collapse, saying it was too early to make such predictions. “The alliance is about intentions ... When people talk of splitting G7, it’s more rhetoric than fact,” he said.