Why Musalia Mudavadi is an ideal candidate for the Nairobi Governor

Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi addresses members of the public during a fundraiser in aid of Africa Inland Church Kapchesewes in Kapsowar, Elgeyo-Marakwet County, on November 13, 2016. Mr Mudavadi is a former minister for Local Government. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Mr Mudavadi already understands the dynamics involved in managing Nairobi County.
  • By going for the Governor of Nairobi County, Mr Mudavadi would be able to grow and nurture a multi-ethnic constituency.

Musalia Mudavadi is an ideal candidate for governor of Nairobi County.

He is the best answer the envisioned super alliance has to Peter Kenneth.

I personally do not know Mr Kenneth.

I have heard good things said about him with respect to his leadership in Gatanga Constituency.

But I do not belong to Gatanga and have never seen or enjoyed the benefits of his development record.

His retreat back into Jubilee exposed his hidden preference and allows those who believed his 2013 rhetoric to judge him harshly.

What Mr Kenneth promises for Nairobi remains simply a promise. I don’t know he has the capacity to meet it.

Though Mr Mudavadi holds presidential ambitions, his performance in the last elections was miserable at best.

It showed he needs to invest in convincing more Kenyans that he merits that position.

He also needs to develop alliances across ethnicities even as he works to expand and entrench his appeal in western Kenya where, some wrongly think, he already holds a big sway.

Where else, if not in Nairobi County, can he invest and demonstrate that he is indeed fit and ready to lead Kenya?

Fortunately, Mr Mudavadi has already been making all the correct pronouncements on this.

EXPERIENCE

He has said that his investment right now is in an alliance that will unseat Jubilee Party from power.

Though I am sure he thinks the best position to advance this goal is going for the presidency, he also is aware that it takes much more than a mere pronouncement or a committed aspiration to get the presidency.

As such, he needs to deliberately take a full electoral cycle to put in place the framework for a real presidential bid.

There are many reasons why Mr Mudavadi is best poised to be Governor of Nairobi preparatory to a presidential bid.

First, the incumbent Governor has been a spectacular failure and it would be easy to show the difference.

There are too many people who are surprised by the failures of Dr Evans Kidero.

I am not. I know something about Mumias Sugar Company and the long trajectory it travelled from a profit making company to the shell it is.

Much of the explanation is in decisions made long before.

Second, Mr Mudavadi is a former minister for Local Government.

In the old constitutional framework, this was the mother ministry of the City Council.

Mr Mudavadi already understands the dynamics involved in managing Nairobi County.

Indeed, for a short while, Mr Mudavadi also presided over the process that prepared the regulatory framework for the transition from the old centralised dispensation to the new devolved one.

LAUNCHING PAD
Further, most voters from Mt Kenya region who do not like former PM Raila Odinga have repeatedly claimed their preference for Mr Mudavadi.

No one has tested their sincerity on a Mudavadi presidency.

It is unclear if this preference is mere decoy or it is steeped in some quality they actually see in Mudavadi.

It remains funny that when accorded the opportunity to vote him in 2013, most abdicated into an ethnic preference.

Nairobi County is cosmopolitan.

It is the right space for one to test the appeal they have across the breadth of this country.

Few have dared stick it out in Nairobi.

Though Mr Mudavadi is urbanite by every standard, including in his education, he opted for a rural constituency most of his political career.

The same must be said of others like Uhuru Kenyatta and Mwai Kibaki.

By going for the Governor of Nairobi County, Mr Mudavadi would be able to grow and nurture a multi-ethnic constituency and make the much needed departure from the ethnic logic that inspires many of our politicians.

He also would have the developmental resources of a county that would help us judge his capacity to handle a complex national terrain.

Godwin R. Murunga is a senior research fellow in the Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi