Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi is quietly but aggressively rolling out his 2022 presidential plan, branding himself as the only dependable leader.
The former Vice President has been holding meetings with influential leaders from Rift Valley, Nyanza, Central, Eastern and Coast as he plans a countrywide tour.
The aim is to consolidate his support and reach out to areas considered to be President Uhuru Kenyatta’s strongholds.
Crafting a winning formula and reaching out to significant political players within regions is said to be driving the Mudavadi re-make.
Mudavadi, a former Finance minister, has held discussions with Kanu chairman Gideon Moi, Mombasa governor Hassan Joho, his Kilifi counterpart Amason Kingi and former Kiambu governor William Kabogo, among others.
The strategy, according to people close to him, is to propel Mudavadi to the position of overall opposition leader in the coming months and cultivate a dependable support base among supporters of Uhuru, Deputy President William Ruto and ODM boss Raila Odinga
According to long-time spokesman Kibisu Kabatesi, "Avoiding the limelight is deliberate. We don’t want to rattle our competitors or draw Mudavadi into the current fisticuffs. He is building his own bridges away from the fray. And it is informed by the belief that all politics is local, hence, the efforts to consolidate a Western voting bloc."
Mudavadi was, and technically still is a co-principal of the National Super Alliance, Nasa, whose presidential flag bearer Raila Odinga lost to Jubilee’s Uhuru Kenyatta in the last election.
Read:
Nasa’s founding agreement precluded Raila from running again as its presidential candidate and stated that the coalition will be dissolved in February 2022, unless its principals agree to renew it.
Mudavadi’s preferred place to receive visitors is his private office along Riverside Drive where foreign envoys, MPs, governors and business people are able to discreetly consult with him in confidentiality.
According to his handlers, the Mudavadi rebrand is gaining traction because of various factors: ANC supporters demanding that his name be on the ballot in 2022 as the only reliable candidate; deteriorating trust in other political leaders and cynicism about the March 9 Raila-Uhuru handshake among Nasa supporters; and disillusionment with the Raila-Ruto divide.
“His selling point in the meetings that he has held with various leaders has been the fact that both leaders and voters increasingly view him as a dependable ally,” Sabatia MP Alfred Agoi told the Star. A safe pair of hands.
Mudavadi has ruled out joining President Kenyatta’s administration and has been busy working with other Western Kenya leaders — Ford Kenya’s Moses Wetang’ula and Cabinet secretary Eugene Wamalwa — to try and consolidate the region’s vote.
Although the three have not discussed who will be the best person to run for President, Cotu secretary general Francis Atwoli, a respected Luhya elder, previously declared that Mudavadi is the best candidate from the region.
Read:
“Our interest is to unite the region. When the time comes we will support the best candidate,” Eugene said.
Although the former Finance Minister is still holding to the troubled Nasa coalition, which was thrown into disarray after Raila shook hands with Kenyatta, Mudavadi is also busy making plans to revamp his ANC Party.
With Barrack Muluka having settled in as secretary general after initial months of turbulence, Mudavadi is now planning to fill vacant position by February next year.
“We want to bring the face of Kenya into our party. We have many good and high-profile people from Central, Eastern and Coast who are interested in joining us at the right time,” Mudavadi told the Star yesterday.
Kingi and Kabogo are reportedly considering taking up two top positions as deputy party leaders. While Kabogo could join he party by the end of the year, Kingi is reported to have indicated that he would consider joining hands with Mudavadi just before the next election.
Mudavadi has not yet officially declared his interest in contesting the presidency but he is considered to be a formidable candidate — if Raila does not contest and endorses him.
DP Ruto, who was said to be a shoo-in, is already travelling around the country on development-campaign tours.
While Raila has not said if he’s in the race, Siaya Senator James Orengo has indicated that the ODM leader will be on the ballot for the fifth time.
Wiper Leader Kalonzo Musyoka is also expected to contest, while Governors Joho, Wycliffe Oparanya and Alfred Mutua have also declared that they will be on the ballot.
With Central Kenya not having a clear and formidable candidate as Kenyatta serves his last term, Mudavadi believes that he can get a slice of he vote from that populous region.
Two weeks a go Mudavadi met more than 100 former TNA branch officials drawn from Central and Rift Valley who endorsed his candidature. Among them was former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga.
Read:
It is his soft-skills diplomacy, often executed through back-channels, that is slowly positioning Mudavadi as a strong candidate.
In what is defining the new Mudavadi, the former Sabatia MP has effortlessly managed to get all the usually stubbornly divisive Western leaders to buy into his pet demand that President Kenyatta should establish a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to unravel the forces behind the collapse of cane factories and contraband imports.
This success seems to have so rattled Ruto that the DP, who is usually dismissive of Mudavadi, was forced to gate-crash the Lurambi MP’s homecoming fete where the ANC leader was guest of honour two weeks ago, and plead for support.
“We should not create ‘political Zacchaeus’ who want to collect political debts. (Remember) debt collectors are vicious, they come with auctioneers. If at all there is going to be a debt, it is the leaders who were elected to live up to what they promised the electorate,” Mudavadi said as he told off Ruto.
Also Read: