Here, there, everywhere: Mudavadi’s game plan

The Amani National Congress (ANC) party now claims that Deputy President William Ruto has indicated his willingness to support Musalia Mudavadi’s 2022 presidential bid.

In a statement, ANC secretary-general Barrack Muluka declared the 2022 presidential contest will be between Mr Mudavadi and Mr Raila Odinga, adding that Dr Ruto’s support for either candidate is critical.

“The DP has indicated his willingness to support Mr Mudavadi, both with his own personal vote and by helping him get more votes. We are happy that he is willing to give it to Mr Mudavadi and not Mr Odinga,” Mr Muluka said Saturday.

He was reacting to a story in the Saturday Nation about a possible political union between Dr Ruto, Mr Mudavadi and Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula.

On Friday, two separate meetings, one convened by the DP and another by Mr Mudavadi, with some of his trusted lieutenants, left little doubt about the coordination that went into the planning.

After the meeting, a technical committee was formed to spearhead an alliance of the three.

Vihiga Woman Rep Beatrice Adagala and Matungu MP Justus Murunga – both elected on ANC tickets – attended both the “Mulembe” meeting and that convened by the DP in the morning.

The committee comprises MPs Sakwa Bunyasi (Nambale), Alfred Agoi (Sabatia), Janet Nangabo (Trans Nzoia), Benjamin Washiali (Mumias East), Chris Wamalwa (Kiminini) and Ferdinand Wanyonyi (Kwanza). The committee will work out a cooperation plan and  appoint members of a secretariat.

“The meeting brought Jubilee (those from Western allied to the DP), ANC and Ford-Kenya together. We have agreed to join forces to address the challenges facing our people. We have been treated badly and it is time this changed,” said Mr Washiali, who was recently dropped as majority whip.

Mr Muluka did not deny the claims about the technical committee, but Mr Wanyonyi, of Ford-Kenya, said the meeting had nothing to do with the DP or politics.

“I was in that meeting and I can assure you we never discussed anything in regards to backing Dr Ruto. We only discussed development issues,” he told the Sunday Nation.

He said everyone has had their bad experience with Mr Odinga and that in the coming days, the ANC leader will be seeking support from other leaders.

 “There’s only one person we are going to be very cautious about. He has previously told us that he had only one last bullet left and that we should allow him to fire it,” he said.

Mr Mudavadi told the Sunday Nation he was a “clean and reliable” politician ready to team up with like-minded individuals.

“I neither harbour political animosity and revenge towards anyone, nor spend every moment scheming against another Kenyan,” he said, conceding, though, that he could be out of favour with most political suitors, “because I have refused to play ball this time round”.

Mr Mudavadi maintains he will not be supporting “anyone, anymore” for the presidency.

Political analyst Prof Amukowa Anangwe argues the notion of reaching out to every political player is in tandem with the ANC leader’s strategy of relating with all major rivals, to the extent that he can craft a coalition arrangement for his presidential bid.

However, University of Nairobi lecturer Richard Bosire considers Mr Mudavadi’s apparent trial and error approach or embrace of all key political players as a sign of indecisiveness and sheer confusion.

“Mr Uhuru Kenyatta, Mr Odinga and Dr Ruto, particularly the last two, are very strong-willed and opinionated leaders, and one cannot team up with them, all at the same time. Mr Mudavadi is simply sunk in a valley of confusion,” opines Dr Bosire.

“A good and calculative leader is one who makes up his mind on a given direction and deals with the consequences and not one who studies situations to the last minute.”

Lugari MP Ayub Savula explains the ex-Vice President’s strategy as “winning support on the ground in Western Kenya first and building the Mudavadi political brand” ahead of the 2022 General Elections.

It is the so-called Tangatanga team that is coming to join him and not the other way round, Mr Savula says.

However, the overtures towards the Ruto-allied MPs remain tricky as the move is likely to attract political hostility from the President, who has demonstrated his disapproval of his principal assistant’s presidential bid.

“It is like poking a beehive with a finger and Mudavadi ought to be cautious enough, as he needs to keep Mr Kenyatta in his orbit. This is because Mr Kenyatta has asserted himself as no longer a lame-duck President but the trump card holder of the 2022 poll,” says Prof Anangwe.

Contacted for comment, most politicians allied to the DP could not confirm or deny the existence of a pre-2022 Ruto-Mudavadi deal.

However, Kericho Senator Aaron Cheruyiot observed that “such a move is one in the right direction”, explaining that time was ripe for “like-minded persons” to team up for the good of Kenyans.