Do not light a lamp and hide it under a bushel

Permit me to continue, as promised, with a look at who is who in the upcoming presidential election.

Do you remember Baptist minister Mutava Musyimi? Holy Writ says you do not light a lamp and then hide it under a bushel. He did just that.

He announced and launched his presidential run last June and then quietly slipped out of sight and quickly out of mind. This run may have ended before it began.

Ms Martha Karua, the Narc Kenya leader, has kept her campaign pot boiling since she quit the Cabinet and launched it.

Her headache remains a power base for Central Kenya is denied her by the king makers.

Also hoping to make a difference without the traditional power base is Mr Raphael Tuju.

Mr Tuju is styling himself as a less polarising candidate than Prime Minister Raila Odinga and others. It’s a drifting strategy.

A greenhorn

Eloquent Eugene Wamalwa has nailed his colours to the mast of the troika. A greenhorn, he is anchoring his pitch in the clamour for generational change in Kenya’s leadership.

He sees himself as playing the Biblical David to Mr Odinga’s Goliath. The stone from his catapult may be aimed at the wrong target.

Next door is Mr Moses Wetang’ula, the soft-spoken and calculating minister for Foreign Affairs and chairman of Ford Kenya.

Fondly called Weta by those close to him, he has not yet started campaigning in earnest because his job takes him overseas most of the time. All politics is local – pun fully intended.

Can Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi stop Mr Odinga’s nomination by the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) to run for the presidency?

I say categorically yes. It is why Government whip Jakoyo Midiwo is proposing PM and DPM agree on who between them should be ODM’s presidential flag-bearer.

National polls

Expect a delay in ODM national polls, but a win for the DPM would change the politics of the land dramatically and emphatically.

Mr Peter Kenneth, he of the Gatanga development model, and organisational discipline, has a youth-fronted campaign headquarters up and running.

His mantra is creation of jobs to combat poverty and lead Kenya to prosperity.

Rattled Central Kenya’s kingmakers have branded him muthungu (white man).

Prof James ole Kiyiapi believes in the power of thinking and, as one trained to think, he hopes for a presidential campaign that will address the issues closest to the hearts of Kenyans.

He has told me he hopes to get Kenyans to think seriously about the Kenya they want and how to get it. Shall we listen?

We refused to listen to Mrs Charity Ngilu when, in 1997, she ran on a Social Democratic Party (SDP) ticket.

When the story broke that she was in the running, she was, as was the Rev Musyimi before her, dismissed as a spoiler for the VP.

Alleged corruption at Water and very public spats with the VP spoilt Mrs Ngilu’s reputation.

If there is a man who knows a lot about listening, then it is Dr Wajacoya Luchiri. Remember he fled the country in the aftermath of the murder of Dr Robert Ouko?

An officer of the then Special Branch (political police), he said he listened in on instructions about Ouko from his listening post. We will give him an earful.

Will Mr Najib Balala come good this time round? In 2007, he declared an interest in the presidency and then stood down for “his brother” Mr Odinga.

They have since fallen out and the Coast region is searching for a credible and formidable candidate.

Nina jibu (I have a solution) used to be Mr Balala’s campaign slogan. Does he still?

It’s no joke

Remember Mr Wakoli Bifwoli running around Parliament screaming at the top of his voice as if he was being chased by bees and declaring then VP Moody Awori was a tictator!

Mr Bifwoli jumped into the race, then out of it, and then back again. The race could do with Mr Bifwoli’s jokes, but it is no joke.

Good people, I have run out of space, but not out of presidential hopefuls.

Allow me to conclude this matter next week, with a look at the remainder of the field and wrap up with my take on the rapidly unravelling political arena.

Kwendo Opanga is a media consultant [email protected]