Deputy President William Ruto has revealed the intrigues involved during the merger between Kanu and NDP, then led by now opposition leader Raila Odinga.
"The Kanu bigwigs were uncomfortable with the merger because at that point, there was an axis called Kabisa Axis made up of Kamotho, Biwott and Saitoti. There were younger politicians such as myself and Sunkuli who could reach Moi," he said.
Ruto said the older Kanu members did not trust Raila and had reservations as to the benefit of bringing him in to the arrangement.
Fast forward to the runup to the 2002 General Election, Ruto said there was chatter about Uhuru being picked as a presidential candidate.
"I remember one evening going to (then President Daniel) Moi's Kabarnet residence and asking him whether he had settled on Uhuru or there was room for discussion. He said, 'I have decided'. We then went ahead to campaign and we had confidence in Moi and tried to convince him to let Uhuru run an independent campaign so that he would not have the 'project' tag which was hurting him," he said.
"There were many rumours that he (Uhuru) could not stand on his own and Moi was just trying to put someone in place he could control."
Ruto said the thinking was that Moi was not willing to let go of power, but it dawned on him and other Kanu members that it would happen when Moi went to visit the opposition presidential candidate Mwai Kibaki at a London hospital on December 8, 2002, following an accident he had.
"He made that statement at a point saying, he was ready to hand over to whoever won," he said.
The election was held on December 27 and Kibaki won.
