How Mudavadi will lead Nasa to sure win in August

Opposition chief Musalia Mudavadi has outlined how the National Super Alliance (Nasa) intends to hit the 10-million vote mark to achieve victory on August 8.

In an interview with the Nation on Saturday, Mr Mudavadi said the Nasa had crafted a strategy that will see each of the pentagon members in charge of five key regions to not only raid Jubilee’s perceived strongholds but also optimise voter turnout in opposition areas.

“We’ll have our teams in a round-robin move-around manoeuvre to cover the whole country. You’ll be surprised how our in-tray is overflowing with creative ideas from Kenyans of all levels and status. They’re volunteering ideas and their time. Ours is a people driven campaign,” he said.

Mr Mudavadi, who is the national chairman of the Nasa campaign committee, said their greatest strength is the leeway they are giving to experts to achieve victory.

OVERFLOWING TRAY

“It is from this overflowing tray that we are putting together a team of high-level and skilled experts. Most are distinguished Kenyans. We will unveil the team pretty soon.”

Nasa’s top decision making organ, the pentagon, has Mr Raila Odinga, the presidential candidate, his running mate Kalonzo Musyoka, Mr Mudavadi, Ford-Kenya leader Moses Wetang’ula and his Chama Cha Mashinani counterpart Isaac Ruto.

While the general agreement is that the principals will be making joint appearances as a show of unity, Mr Odinga will have Nairobi, Luo Nyanza, parts of Western and Coast under his direct supervision. 

Mr Musyoka, on the other hand, will oversee Eastern and parts of Coast while Mr Ruto takes charge of Rift Valley as Senator Wetang’ula handles Western as well. Most regions will be shared responsibility.

GRASSROOTS SUPPORT

He said they had recruited enough grassroots support in the last few weeks to propel them to victory.

“We are taking no chances with protecting the vote, we have the Adopt-a-Polling-Station strategy in place. We are setting up the logistical support systems for this strategy. It includes ability to tally at the polling station and transmit it instantly. A well-resourced directorate will oversee this task alone,” he said.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery has already taken issue with Nasa’s rallying call of “10million strong” arguing it was a recipe for chaos.

READ: DP Ruto scoffs at Nasa’s 10-million vote claim

Just like the head of National Cohesion team Francis ole Kaparo, he says supporters of the opposition alliance will likely reject the election outcome in the event their candidate attains less than the 10 million votes owing to such factors as voter apathy.

EXUDED CONFIDENCE

Jubilee has also exuded confidence that they are stronger than they were in the 2013 polls and that they will win with a wider margin.
Deputy President William Ruto says while courting Kenyans in the last polls, they were doing so on the strength of what they were going to do but now they have a scorecard to show Kenyans.

“The difference between us and our opponents is like day and night. We have something to show for the brief time we have been in government, it can only get better with another term,” he recently said in Bungoma.

The president’s party has set its eyes on 12 million out of the total of 19 million registered by the IEBC.

Jubilee says they have made significant inroads in areas that voted for the opposition last time.

DEFEND SEATS

They are putting Western, Kisii and Coast in this category but Nasa disputes this.

In the interview, Mr Mudavadi addressed the decision by Governor Ruto and Senator Wetang’ula, to defend their seats, moves largely seen as Plan B in case Nasa does not win.

This has been interpreted as a psychological drawback by some observers but the former Deputy prime minister said this not a new phenomenon.

“We used to have the President contest as an MP at the same time and nobody claimed they were greedy or prophesied losing. In this country, people apply for multiple jobs too. It’s just the system. In fact the more time they spend in their areas the more the turnout will be for Nasa.”

He admits that independent candidates pose a serious challenge to Nasa’s dream of achieving a majority in parliament.

DROP BID

“I want to appeal to those aspirants on Nasa parties who emotively went independent to drop the bid. They should ape our example where we have dropped our ambitions in favour of one of us because rescuing the country from Jubilee scavenging comes first,” he said.

At the same time, Nasa has assembled a presidential campaign secretariat one week before Mr Odinga presents his nomination papers to the polls team.

Mr Mudavadi, also the ANC leader, is being assisted by Machakos Senator Johnson Muthama at the national level. We established that the 10-member committee of experts from various fields has already got down to work and is putting final touches on the coalition’s manifesto.

Prof Willis Otieno, a lawyer, will head of the team at the technical level, a role last played by Mr Eliud Owalo in the 2013 elections.

RIGGED OUT
Mr Owalo has since fallen out with Mr Odinga accusing the former prime minister of rigging him out of the Kibra parliamentary primaries.

Economist David Ndii and civil society activists and scholars Zein Abubakar, Adams Oloo and Oduor Ong’wen are the other technocrats who will be driving the campaign engine.

Executive director of Cord Norman Magaya will serve in the same capacity in the secretariat.

The coalition appears keen to continue tapping into the expertise of the individuals who successfully guided it into arriving on the candidate.

They did it in the face of a groundswell of bickering in the coalition with lieutenants of each party leader drumming up support for their man.

Reports of embezzlement of funds and demotivated polling agents emerged soon after Mr Odinga lost to President Kenyatta in 2013 and the committee is said to be keen to avoid such between now and Election Day.

AUXILIARY POSITION

Politicians Gladys Wanga (Homa Bay Woman representative) and Junet Mohammed (Suna East MP) are also part of the team.

A source familiar with the organisation said other auxiliary positions are being filled progressively.

On Saturday, Mr Mudavadi issued a two-week campaign schedule starting Wednesday in Isiolo Town and ending on June 10 in Kibwezi, Makueni County.

The choice of Isiolo as the starting point demonstrates the push by Nasa to try and undo any progress made by their Jubilee opponents.

President Kenyatta took his campaigns to the region on Saturday and is betting big on it to shore up his numbers in the August 8 contest.

LAUNCH CAMPAIGNS
The rallies are also earmarked for Baringo, West Pokot, and Mumias.

After presenting his nomination to the officials of the Independent electoral and Boundaries Commission at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, the Nasa brigade will have a rally at the Jacaranda Ground.

In the programme, the coalition intends to officially launch its campaigns in Kakamega on June 3, two days after addressing supporters in Nyeri on Madaraka Day.

Vote-hunting will continue in Kapsabet, Machakos, Garsen, Lamu, Mombasa and Taita Taveta.