Raila to launch bid for State House in August

Opposition chief Raila Odinga could launch his 2017 presidential bid in the next three months, further raising the stakes for the Cord ticket.

The August launch date is being worked on by his ODM party, and is likely to cause jitters in Cord as Mr Odinga’s co-principals Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper) and Moses Wetang’ula (Ford Kenya) have each been reaching out to get his endorsement to be the coalition’s torchbearer.

His lieutenants believe their boss has a realistic chance of making President Uhuru Kenyatta a one-term president, and this will be a clear sign that Mr Odinga is not about to hang his political boots anytime soon.

Mr Odinga’s confidante and Siaya Senator James Orengo said: “There are things we want in place before then. While most of it is logistical, we are also keen to ensure that the Cord family is intact,” he said.

Before the event, Mr Odinga is keen to revive the political networks that catapulted his presidential ambition in 2007, a fiercely fought election that his supporters believe he won but was rigged out by PNU candidate Mwai Kibaki. Mr Odinga is reorganising his secretariat for his presidential campaigns.

A professor from the University of Nairobi with roots from Western Kenya is tipped to join Mr Odinga’s team to spearhead the reorganisation that could see some of the current handlers re-assigned or relieved of their duties.

Mr Odinga has been meeting delegations from interest groups, academia and other key support bases to prop up his chances of clinching the seat. Last Tuesday, he hosted one such meeting at his Karen home.

An ODM insider told the Sunday Nation that no expense will be spared to demonstrate that their man is the panacea to what he calls “endemic failures of the Jubilee administration”.

According to insiders, the launch is tentatively expected to be held at Nairobi’s Uhuru Park and is intended to make an unequivocal statement that Mr Odinga is the man to beat within and without Cord.

While addressing a rally in Budalang’i recently, Mr Wetang’ula urged the ODM leader to shelve his ambition and support the Ford Kenya leader.

“I want to lead, followed by my brother Kalonzo (Mr Musyoka) and Raila (Mr Odinga) as a father-figure, saying ‘I have done my part, I have reached the end, now mine is to guide you youths so that we move forward’, ” he said. Mr Odinga’s supporters were not amused.

SCARE COLLEAGUES

But while the launch of the presidential bid is in itself not unusual, there is the danger that the event could make Mr Odinga appear to be the presumptive nominee for the ticket — a perception his allies fear may scare his two colleagues. This, we learnt, is the reason there has not been any hype about the launch plan.

“As we speak, they (the principals) are on the same pedestal and we want our supporters to know it that way. Guided by political intelligence, we leave it to them to interrogate all the factors and agree on who among them will fly the flag,” nominated Senator and Mr Odinga’s close associate Elizabeth Ongoro said.

All the three politicians have given an undertaking to remain in Cord regardless of who among them is picked as “the first among equals”.

To guard against a fallout after the nomination, Cord is even considering creating an expanded leadership structure that could bring back a powerful position below the Deputy President, with some suggesting a prime minister like happened in the grand coalition government formed in 2008.

The thinking, according to Cord insiders, is to ensure that each of the three politicians, and by extension their voting blocs, end up with a “substantive seat”.
However, for this to happen, there would have to be a change in the Constitution.

ODM secretary-general and Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba says his boss has only “one bullet in his gun to shoot the bull’s eye and it must be expended with greater precision”.

We are, however, privy to regular behind-the-scenes meetings of top-ranking party officials and well-wishers who will be seeking to convince Mr Musyoka and Mr Wetang’ula to support Mr Odinga.

Mr Musyoka and Mr Wetang’ula are both under intense pressure from their parties to settle for nothing less than the presidential ticket in the coalition yet only one of them can bag it.

Save for Mr Odinga with a solid backing in his backyard, his two colleagues need the nomination to help quell growing disaffection in their primary bases with Mr Musyoka being the most affected. A group of MPs such as Machakos Town MP Victor Munyaka, Mwingi Central MP Joe Mutambu and Mbooni MP Kisoi Munyao have said that Ukambani voters will not support Cord if Mr Musyoka is not the presidential candidate.

President Kenyatta, who will be visiting the region next month, is making concerted efforts to get a share of Mr Musyoka’s votes.
As such, he needs the ticket to create a euphoria in the region without so much of a fight and overrun the dissenting voices.

On the other hand, Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale says that giving Mr Wetang’ula the ticket will bring on board the six million voters from Western.

Mr Musyoka was the first to get the nod of his Wiper party to run in January before his Ford-Kenya associate Senator Wetang’ula launched his bid at Muliro Gardens, Kakamega, in April.

Although he attended the Wiper leader’s event in Machakos, Mr Odinga skipped Mr Wetang’ula’s launch, drawing backlash from supporters of the Senate Minority Leader.

Ford Kenya Secretary-General Eseli Simiyu said that although they have yet to get over it, they will likely shrug off the Kakamega incident and attend the ODM leader’s event.

“We are yet to receive the invitation but the party organs will make a decision on this at an appropriate time because you realise Raila never showed up at Wetang’ula’s big day. That said, sometimes it is never wise to pay with the same coin,” Dr Simiyu said.

Wiper spokesman Hassan Omar, also the Mombasa Senator, said it was upon the individual principals to popularise Cord in their respective bases.

“People should not be scared when they see these launches for they are healthy in so far as strengthening the coalition goes,” he said.