Day I helped Wamalwa get CS job
Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi (left), Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa (centre) and Ford Kenya leader Moses Wetang’ula speak during former Vice President Michael Kijana Wamalwa's memorial service in Kitale, Trans Nzoia County, on August 23, 2018. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
Mr Mudavadi quotes Mr Wamalwa as saying during the meeting with the President: “You know Wycliffe … we have been in the cold for long, and now it is actually taking a toll on me.”
He writes that in the “ensuing embarrassing hiatus”, he turned to Mr Kenyatta: “Hey, Mr President, if you have a position, could you kindly grant it to my brother Eugene?”
ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi says he helped Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa secure a ministerial job after showing “increased distress in the cold”.
Mr Mudavadi claims in his memoirs, published this week, that he held a one-on-one meeting with President Kenyatta to plead Mr Wamalwa’s case.
EXCEEDING PRESSURE
He says after the 2013 election, most of the politicians who had worked with him, and even won seats, still trooped to the government side for favours and not for the structured cooperation he had sought by agreeing to support President Kenyatta after the polls.
“The differences culminated into situations where I could no longer work with some of the officials. Kanu had hitherto found greener pastures and I was now getting exceeding pressure from New Ford Kenya that they too wanted jobs from the government,” he writes.
WONDERED LOUDLY
Mr Mudavadi quotes Mr Wamalwa as saying during the meeting with the President: “You know Wycliffe … we have been in the cold for long, and now it is actually taking a toll on me.”
He writes that in the “ensuing embarrassing hiatus”, he turned to Mr Kenyatta: “Hey, Mr President, if you have a position, could you kindly grant it to my brother Eugene?”
He says both the President and Mr Wamalwa were dumbstruck. “They wondered loudly why I was not asking for a job myself. But I said no. I wanted to remain independent. I wanted to reserve the right to criticise and be the voice of reason and the conscience of the nation.”
NEW PORTFOLIO
He writes that President Kenyatta shortly afterwards carved out a new portfolio in the Agriculture and Irrigation ministry and appointed Mr Wamalwa the CS for Water and irrigation.
Mr Wamalwa is a former MP for Saboti constituency.
