THE
ruling Jubilee Coalition plans to employ a three-pronged approach to gain a political foothold in Ukambani, after months of a high-level political charm offensive pegged on the 2017 election.
Maendeleo Chap Chap leader and Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua, Health CS
Cleopa Mailu and URP secretary general Fred Muteti will drive the Jubilee vote hunt in Ukambani in a bid to garner the targeted 300,000 votes.
CS Mailu has been tagged to engage the professionals from the three counties of Ukambani, including his medical colleagues and willing private sector stalwarts operating in the background.
Mutua
will lead rebel and disgruntled Kamba MPs, their former colleagues and former Cabinet ministers, with
Muteti coordinating the Sky Team, which comprises youthful businessmen from Ukambani.
The move has the raised political temperatures in Ukambani as it is now apparent that any hope of Kalonzo joining Jubilee in whatever capacity is out of the question.
During the Tuesday visit to State House by 10,000 Kamba professionals, MPs and grassroots leaders,
Jubilee’s plan to engage the region’s voters directly was overwhelmingly endorsed, effectively ending any lingering hopes that Kalonzo was about to cross over.
The decision to leave Kalonzo out was arrived at due to “demands” placed by the top Wiper leadership, as a precondition to abandoning Cord, which were described by one Jubilee source as “politically unrealistic and outright untenable, based on prevailing political circumstances”.
The demands were not made public, but a sitting MP opposed to Kalonzo claimed they were “both political and monetary”.
However, MPs allied to Kalonzo immediately denied the allegations and said there were never any talks in the first place.
“These are all machinations of Governor Alfred Mutua and his sycophants. They are doomed politically and will face the wrath of the people next year,” Kitui Rural MP Charles Nyamai said.
“We know the shadows that are chasing Mutua. We emphathise with him, but at one point he will have to carry his own cross”, Nyamai said.
He said Kalonzo’s political style was well known and is devoid of arm-twisting, racketeering and thuggery.
“Probably those who are making the claims are the ones who were trying to extort Kalonzo politically,” Nyamai said.
During the State House meeting, Mutua
is reported to have said he was prepared to lose his gubernatorial seat if by doing so development will trickle down to Ukambani. He did not elaborate.
The political strategy adopted on Tuesday, according to its authors, will afford Jubilee political mileage in its latest political forays into Ukambani.
In 2013, President Kenyatta garnered slightly more than 100,000 votes in Ukambani, a figure he seeks to better, to avoid any prospects of a Presidential runoff.
Former Lands minister Charity Ngilu was the Jubilee point person in Ukambani in 2013. She has since been sacked and faces graft charges in the anti- corruption courts.
The meeting was preceded by a visit by Deputy President William Ruto to Mutomo, Kitui County, last weekend. The DP pledged the government’s commitment to the development of Ukambani and announced that the State will cascade development to all the areas of the region.
Ruto appeared to have been laying the ground for President Kenyatta’s three-day working tour of Ukambani, announced at the State House gathering. This will be the first development tour of Ukambani by the President since his election.
Logistics for the Tuesday meeting were coordinated by county administrators, partly because it was a national government function. The
12 rebel MPs in attendance were invited by Joe Mutambu (Mwingi Central), Dr Victor Munyaka (Machakos Town) and Kisoi Munyao (Mbooni).
Muteti coordinated the youth and the recently launched Sky Team.
“Kalonzo
has done nothing for Ukambani. President Uhuru wants to partner with Kamba professionals. We will meet him running and embrace development for the sake of our people,” Munyaka said.
His sentiments were echoed by Muteti, who said that Kalonzo’s leadership had only benefited the man, never the community.
“He negotiated the vice-presidency for himself during the Grand Coalition. He went alone. We will leave him alone in Cord: We can’t remain static forever,” Muteti said.
Three weeks ago, Wiper chairman David Musila led a delegation of Kitui Wiper MPs to State House to petition implementation of infrastructure projects in the county. Speculation was then rife that the leaders were preparing the ground for Kalonzo to join Jubilee.
Senator Musila has since dismissed the
allegations and said Kalonzo was in Cord to stay. His conviction has been echoed by Kitui Central MP Makali Mulu and Matungulu MP Stephen Mule.
“We know political rent seekers are out to tarnish Kalonzo politically. They are however wasting their time and energy. They will be our political guests come next year,” Mule said on the phone.
Preparation for the Kambas’ date with the President commenced three months ago. As the Kitui MPs led by Musila met President Kenyatta,
Mutambu, Munyaka and Munyao were holed up in another room waiting to be ushered in.
After the Musila team left, Mutambu and his were granted audience, during which they pitched for yesterday’s meeting.
The three were given the go-ahead to plan and execute aspects of the Tuesday meeting. This excluded logistics such as hiring of vehicles to ferry delegates from the grassroots, a task given to the trusty county commissioners.
The scramble for the Kamba vote has been on since the community turned its back on its “cousin” Uhuru Kenyatta during the 2013 elections.
Ukambani, for the first time ever, voted for Raila Odinga in a move that baffled both political friend and foe. It is this trend that Jubilee seeks to arrest.
Among the political tools to be applied is the botched MoU between Kalonzo and Raila, in which the latter was to support the former for State House.
The MoU, signed in 2013, is now a major political issue in Ukambani, with many Wiper leaders demanding that Raila step aside for Kalonzo, just as he did for Mwai Kibaki in 2002 with the “Si Mzee Kibaki Tosha” declaration.
Those espousing this school of thought argue that like Kibaki, Kalonzo is a political gentleman capable of winning the Presidential poll if pitted against Uhuru at the ballot box.
For unexplained reasons, the Kalonzo supporters think that their man is better suited to heal the country, following the political animosity between President Kibaki and Raila and later Raila and Kenyatta.
Kalonzo detractors however view him as a political wimp who lacks the spine for the rough and tumble of high stakes political contests.
They say that Raila, Uhuru and Ruto have all been severely tried and tested politically and in other ways: Raila by former President Moi through many years of detention without trial during Kanu’s rule. Uhuru and Ruto through the six-year-long initiation of the International Criminal Court ordeal that made them “real Kenyan warriors”, according to their most ardent supporters.
Ironically, it is the ICC issue that appears to have been the source of very bad political blood between Kalonzo and President Kenyatta.
When he was Kenya’s 10th and last Vice President (2008-early 2013), Kalonzo was made to believe that he was to be backed by Central Kenya in what he imagined was his straight battle with Raila for the big seat.
After all, Uhuru, then a Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, had already been indicted by the ICC and was widely expected not to run.
Some quarters interpreted a shuttle diplomacy campaign that Kalonzo was assigned, including before the UN General Assembly, but which was vigorously opposed by some Western nations, to mean that Kalonzo wanted Uhuru incarcerated to avoid political competition.
During the campaign period, it was clear that there was no political love lost between the two.
It so happened that the Wiper leader rebelled against Uhuru’s presidential candidacy as long ago ass 2002, opting to join the anti-Kanu rebel LDP fronted by Raila and later Kibaki.
In 2002, Kalonzo, like Raila, Musalia Mudavadi, the late George Saitoti and Fred Gumo referred to Uhuru as a political neophyte not fit to lead Kenya.
It is this rebellion that forced the Independence party out of power for the first time in 39 years.
Sadly for Kalonzo, most of the Kamba professionals now backing Uhuru for 2017 stood by the President in 2002.