Mudavadi: How Raila's 2007 win was stolen

Radicals within the Orange Democratic Movement party had insisted that their leader Raila Odinga be sworn in after the disputed 2007 presidential elections.

In his new autobiography, Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi reveals that there was immense pressure from their supporters for a parallel swearing in.

“We were told that a judge of the High Court and a section of the military were willing and ready to come to Uhuru Park to swear in Raila Odinga as president. I never got to know the name of this judge or who in the military had been contacted,” Mudavadi reveals in Soaring Above the Storms of Passion.

Mudavadi, who was Raila's running mate during the elections, further divulges that he was among those opposed to the swearing in because Kenya would have erupted in civil war.

“I brought in some prominent lawyers to persuade the radicals in ODM that this would be the wrong way to go. We were perched on a precipice. We were now on the verge of sinking the country into a civil bloodbath,” Mudavadi reveals.

Amidst demonstrations and violence across the country, then President Mwai Kibaki had been sworn in for a second term  by Chief Justice Evans Gicheru at State House Nairobi  in a hurriedly prepared ceremony at night.

This escalated the post-poll violence that eventually culminated in deaths of more than 1,300 people while hundreds of thousands others were internally displaced. 

The 417-page autobiography also lays bare tussles that characterised the transmission of election results at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre.

Mudavadi further discloses that he and Raila were shocked at the turn of events at KICC as suspicious results began trickling in especially from the Mt Kenya region.

“Our candidate and I watched everything from Pentagon House. William Ruto, Andrew Ligale, Henry Kosgey and Caroli Omondi were our main people at the KICC. We watched them engage Kivuitu as things degenerated very steadily,” the ANC supremo recounts.

As Mudavadi and Raila arrived at KICC, they encountered heavy police presence as then ruling Party of National Unity (PNU) representatives piled pressure on Electoral Commission of Kenya chairperson Samuel Kivuitu to announce the results.

“On the third day, we went up to the ECK offices at the KICC and found the commissioners ready to make the announcement in favour of Mwai Kibaki. There was high tension. Martha Karua of PNU was almost belligerently urging them to announce,” Mudavadi says.

As ODM, Mudavadi points out that the turn of events was not surprising considering the intrigues that had surrounded the pre-election period.

“There had been signs all along, especially in the last few days to the election. There had been talk of security people who were masquerading as PNU agents in many parts of the country,” Mudavadi writes.

After parting ways with Raila and ODM in 2012 to form ANC, Mudavadi would later rally behind Raila's candidature in the 2017 presidential election.

He was one of the leading lights of the National Super Alliance (NASA), which included other political heavyweights such as Moses Wetangula, Isaac Ruto and Kalonzo Musyoka.

However, it was a case of deja vu as chaos erupted in certain parts of the country following disputed presidential elections.

NASA had claimed that the elections had been rigged in favour of President Uhuru Kenyatta, the Jubilee Party candidate.

Unlike 2007 when ODM was reluctant to file an election petition, NASA filed a petition at the Supreme Court after the controversial August 8 presidential elections.

Subsequently, the six-judge bench led by Chief Justice David Maraga nullified the results of the presidential elections noting that they were fraught with irregularities.

Afterwards, Raila withdrew from a repeat presidential election slated for October 26, 2017 noting that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) was ill-prepared to oversee the elections.

In a repeat of 2007,  NASA luminaries were split on whether to conduct a parallel swearing in of Raila after President Kenyatta had been sworn in for a second term on November 14, 2017.

In Treason: The Case Against Tyrants and Renegades, fiery lawyer Miguna Miguna accuses Mudavadi of refusing to support NASA's planned swearing in of Raila in 2017.

Miguna reveals that a meeting convened to convince the ANC leader to support the parallel swearing in was unsuccessful as Mudavadi insisted he was a conservative in favour of the status quo.

Contrary to 2007, Mudavadi's wish did not prevail as Raila was sworn in as the people's president in on January 30, 2018 at Uhuru Park.

The mock swearing ceremony – during which Mudavadi, Musyoka and Wetangula were absent – marked the beginning of the end of NASA.