Kalonzo: ‘I have no hand in Ngilu ouster bid

 First, congratulations on being conferred the rank of Senior Counsel. What does this mean to you?

I think it is a recognition of my longevity in practice. This is my 41st year. I signed the roll of advocates on October 16, 1979. I should have done it in 1978 but I left the country after I had done my bar exams at the Kenya School of Law for Cyprus for my post-graduate management course.

I have always taken my annual practising certificate even when as a Cabinet minister I could not go to court, but I kept my law firm. One time I was operating from Church House as SK Musyoka & Company Advocates, another time I joined with other friends to found Musyoka Wambua Katiku. Now I have been practising as Musyoka Murambi & Associates.

According to the Nasa coalition agreement, Raila Odinga was expected to support your presidential bid in 2022. Will that happen? Do you smell betrayal by Raila and other Nasa principals?

I have been betrayed before and I don’t want to go into the politics of betrayal. I like to look more positively to the future because, just as they say in business, you don’t get what you deserve; you get what you negotiate.

There is no sense of entitlement here By the way, the coalition agreement does not say that ODM will support Wiper. What it says is that ODM in 2022 will not present a candidate for president. You cannot just assume that since I was the deputy to Raila, then ODM has to support me.

These things have to be done expressly, which is what we have done under a separate arrangement that I am not free to disclose at this stage. The arrangement is between Raila and I and not with the other parties in Nasa. I am not free to talk about it because it is a highly confidential matter.

At some point after the 2017 elections, it looked like you were gravitating towards Deputy President William Ruto’s corner and there were reports of the two of you working together towards the 2022 elections. Is this still the case?

That was completely untrue. It was purely speculative. You can take it as authoritative what I have just said. Wiper has stated that because of President Uhuru’s commitment in the fight against graft, uniting the country following on the post-election handshake with Raila, and looking at the way he is committed to leaving a lasting legacy in terms of Vision 2030 and therefore the Big Found Agenda, the Wiper NEC decided to support President Uhuru Kenyatta and his government.

Our mind was focused on President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta. There was no mention whatsoever of William Ruto because we assumed that William Ruto is under Uhuru Kenyatta. If there are other machinations in between, Kalonzo Musyoka is as open, as I have always been. That speculation must be belonging to the underworld politics. We are working with President Uhuru Kenyatta, and that is it.

Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu has accused you and County Assembly Speaker George Ndotto of being behind failed impeachment attempts against her. What do you have to say to this?

I think the starting point is that governors must accept to be oversighted. When MCAs, exercising their constitutional mandate of oversight, decide to hold governors accountable, people should not use people like me as the fall guys to cover for every sin they commit. I refuse completely to be drawn into that kind of agenda because it is mischievous and misconceived. I don’t engage in such kind of dirty politics. When the MCAs decided that they were going to take the impeachment move, they never consulted me. I actually saw the elaborate charges in the media. I have no role in running the affairs of the County Assembly of Kitui. As a matter of fact, I have never set foot in the County Assembly of Kitui or in the governor’s office even when (Julius) Malombe was the governor.

For a long time former Machakos Senator Johnstone Muthama was your close political associate, but then you seem to have fallen out in the run-up to the 2017 elections. What could have led to the falling out?

The party gave him a ticket in 2017 and he refused. He actually said he was going to campaign for Raila, not even for Wiper. Now I think he has chosen to campaign for Ruto. It is his constitutional right. There is nothing I can think of that made him take the decisions he has taken. There is nothing personal between me and Muthama. I think he just missed keeping his eyes on the ball because he used to say that he would not rest until I became president.

So what happened? There was this misconception that he used to fund the party. Far from it. If anything, there are people who have benefited from my being who I was as vice president and party leader. We don’t know who they were approaching and cutting deals with using my name. Others have been selling me to the highest bidders. This time I will negotiate for myself.