Nasa's ship is in a shambles long after Ruto’s MV 2022 set sail in earnest

National Super Alliance (Nasa) principals are fighting the wrong war at the wrong time and for the wrong reasons.

If they want to know what to do and change course, they should look at Jubilee and they will realise that Deputy President William Ruto’s MV 2022 actually set sail in 2013.

If they look at themselves they will realise that I was right when I wrote last week that the private deal between President Uhuru Kenyatta and hitherto opposition kingpin Raila Odinga has wreaked colossal damage on Kenya’s politics.

If they look at government, they will realise they are supposed to lead in expressing outrage at its deportation of Dr Miguna Miguna for his illegal investiture of Mr Odinga as the "people’s president" on January 30 or, opening backchannel diplomacy over the matter.

CAMPAIGN
If they replay the pictures of a forlorn Odinga making a call to the President; trying to hold onto Dr Miguna’s luggage; exiting the airport beaten as Dr Miguna was frogmarched to a plane; they should think again.

Yes, if you are going to sup with the devil, you need a long spoon.

If they look at the politics since last August’s General Election and the long tumultuous cycle it wrought, they may wake up to the realisation that they are blindsided by the carnage of defeat to the hopelessness of their long-suffering, yet resilient supporters.

Then, crucially, they may just see that since the run-up to the General Election, swearing-in of President Kenyatta for his final term and the continuing construction of the Cabinet, the DP’s ship has been picking up steam for its phased voyage to the final port of call – State House.

VOTES
Put another way, Mr Ruto long positioned himself and his vessel for a marathon presidential run, which invests stock in having a head start on rivals.

The DP continues to line up his point people and testing the ground, especially in Central and Mt Kenya regions, the Coast and Luhyaland.

While the DP comes across as focused, Nasa is shambolic with Mr Kalonzo Musyoka wanting the coalition to turn itself into one political party while co-principals Moses Wetang’ula and Musalia Mudavadi seek a vehicle to spearhead a Luhya-centric 2022 presidential run.

And Mr Odinga last month abruptly jumped ship as his four-month-old civil disobedience campaign was pressuring government for electoral reform, and cut a deal with the President.

Mr Ruto cautiously welcomed the pact, but allies made clear that the DP is heir apparent is a done deal.
NATIONAL DEBT
Thanks to his own deal, Mr Odinga finds himself in a no-man’s land; pilloried by his Nasa co-principals; unwanted by the Jubilee allies of Mr Ruto; regarded with suspicion by President Kenyatta’s Mt Kenya backyard; and still waiting for his MV March 9 to set sail.

With all the four Nasa principals harbouring 2022 presidential ambitions; given how difficult it was for them to agree on their presidential candidate in 2017; and remembering that the opposition has only once won power since 1992, overconfidence may be the DP’s main enemy.

Yet Kenya’s colossal national debt should be made an albatross across his neck; he should be pinned down by persistent exposure of government’s profligate spending and wanton wastage; should be reeling from the failed and unfulfilled pledges of Jubilee’s 2013 campaign; and should be checkmated by his past.

ACTING PRESIDENT
But that happens when the opposition wakes up and smells the coffee and, more importantly, reports to work.

Will the fact that Mr Ruto is a special kind of Number Two jolt them into work?

Unlike Mr Mwai Kibaki who was confined to Othaya, the DP freely travels the width and breadth of Kenya for fundraisers.

Unlike Prof George Saitoti who was dismissed by President Moi as unfit to lead and Dr Josephat Karanja, who was told he would never be acting president, Mr Ruto has once been made acting President by his boss in a massive show of confidence.

POWER
Unlike Mr Musyoka who was eclipsed by Mr Odinga and the two bogged down in unseemly rivalry, and Mr Moi who was subjected to untold backstabbing and skulduggery by President Kenyatta’s men, Mr Ruto suffers no such distractions.

Unlike Joseph Murumbi who quit rather than fight, Mr Ruto is ready with the kitchen sink, which is how he stopped Mr Mudavadi’s march in 2013.

Critically, as Kenya’s first substantive Number Two, Mr Ruto exploits his position in the Executive for his political advantage without fear of scrutiny from the opposition.

Opanga is a commentator with a bias for politics [email protected]