Cord should put its act together and stop engaging in sideshows

A curious storyline being spun from opposition circles is of handing Musalia Mudavadi the Cord presidential nomination. The gentleman had all along kept quiet as the talk circulated, but last week he spoke out and said he is open to the idea, never mind that his party Amani is not part of Cord.

On the face of it, Mudavadi becoming Cord’s compromise candidate would look like a very attractive prospect. Yet it is potentially very destabilising to the coalition. More so if it backfired with Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetang’ula, both of who have been nagging Raila Odinga for endorsement to carry the Cord flag.

Their henchmen have been eerily silent even as Mudavadi’s cheerleaders and Raila’s usual fans blow hot media kisses at each other, from a distance.

Between Mudavadi, Kalonzo and Wetang’ula, Kalonzo counts seniority. Remember he first became an MP way back in 1985 at a time a shy Mudavadi was emerging from university and when Wetang’ula was a green lawyer whose name had only come out when he successfully represented a defendant convicted of treason by the post-1982 coup courts martial.

Kalonzo has also been a full-term vice-president. The two months or so Mudavadi occupied that office in 2002 – an appointment designed to prop up Uhuru Kenyatta’s Kanu presidential candidacy – is universally laughed off as a joke.

There is an extra reason Cord should be careful with Kalonzo: His Ukambani constituency is the weak link in the coalition in the sense that there is no knowing how it will react if he is passed over. The aversion toward Jubilee demonstrated by Raila’s followers is not felt with the same intensity in Kalonzo’s base.

Then there is Wetang’ula. As a presidential candidate and a Cord “principal,” people prefer to be polite rather than air their true feelings about his position in the pecking order.

A busybody like Ababu Namwamba is gathering more publicity than him daily. Wetang’ula’s charisma is only marginally better than Bifwoli Wakoli’s, the comical former Bumula MP and fellow Ford-Kenya member who Jubilee recently gave a parastatal job. The entry of Mudavadi into Cord would sink Wetang’ula in the deep blue sea.

I translate all this Mudavadi name-dropping as Cord’s fumbling response to the happenings in Jubilee. The question of who will be Cord’s presidential candidate is the single most vexing thing the coalition faces right now.

THROWING TRIAL BALLOONS

Jubilee settled this matter long before it agreed to merge as one party. Plus Jubilee has a year’s headstart while Cord is still throwing trial balloons and PR spin on whether their candidate will be Raila, or Kalonzo, or Wetang’ula – or whether to invite Mudavadi on board.

Meanwhile, Raila is busy running his one-man show, holding his ritual daily press conferences on everything under the sun, big or trivial.

Underlying the back and forth about a “fresh” candidate is the insinuation that the ODM leader has become expired goods.

Make no mistake, his fanatical core constituency is not buying that. For them, there is no question of him not being on the ballot. You can take that to any well-capitalised bank. And the supporters pose quite a reasonable question: Why must it always be Raila to anoint others Tosha? What have those seeking his endorsement been doing to popularise themselves with voters?

The contrarians who feel Cord stands a better chance if Raila dropped off as a candidate have a counter argument. They say Cord will be beaten again if it goes with the same line-up of 2013.

That is not implausible, going by the eagerness Jubilee honchos have been taunting Raila not to step down for anyone. Alternatively, the Cord contestants can all choose to stand separately and see if they can force a runoff – a big “if”. Thereafter the cards can fall whichever way they will as new pre-runoff alliances surely coalesce.

As things stand now, Jubilee has put its act together whereas Cord persists with sideshows that confirm its lack of electoral preparedness.

Speaking on television last week in his careful, deliberate way, Mudavadi dispelled the impressions being created that he had already struck a deal with Cord.

Was he intentionally putting up a smokescreen? He was categorical that he had not joined Cord, but admitted talking with them over “isolated policy issues.” Reading between the lines, what I thought he was saying was that any deal with Cord or anybody else would have to be on his terms.

As for him joining forces with Jubilee, there is no chance of that considering the way they judo-flipped him before the last elections.

[email protected]