The One Kenya Alliance principals have slowed their campaigns as it has emerged President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM boss Raila Odinga are forging a juggernaut.
The Star has established the Oka chiefs could have made a strategic decision to push pause as they wait and see the shape of the Uhuru-Raila grouping and the shape of things to come.
Also understood to be delaying Oka campaigns are fierce behind-the-scenes negotiations for a presidential flag bearer and sharing of other key positions among the ambitious partners.
Sources close the President and Raila, the handshake partners, have suggested a 'super' political vehicle could be announced as early as next month.
“There is a discussion of a party of national unity that will come out soon. It will bring on board all those people including Raila and all [Oka] principals,” a senior official of an Oka party told the Star.
Uhuru is reportedly keen to form a titanic vehicle that would bring on board all the bigwigs and some regional parties to face Deputy President William Ruto.
Uhuru and Ruto have bitterly fallen out and the President is going all out to vanquish his own deputy at the polls.
Already, the President has convened a mega meeting of his Jubilee party’s top decision-making organ that could approve the formation of a fresh outfit.
The National Delegates Conference on November 30 is expected to okay Jubilee’s coalition with ODM and other outfits.
The new outfit is expected to bring together Raila’s ODM, some Oka affiliates, if not all, and other parties, to face the DP at the polls.
Jubilee joint parliamentary group secretary Adan Keynan hinted at the accommodation of OKA in the Jubilee-ODM collation, saying that the ruling party’s priority was to realise the President’s national unity quest.
“Our doors are indeed open,” Eldas MP Keynan said.
“They (doors) are also open to the Oka team and all other like-minded political players with a genuine commitment to the realisation of a more united and more prosperous country after the 2022 polls,” he added.
Oka bosses have not been on the campaign trail since October 31, when they camped in Uhuru’s hometown of Thika and later addressed a crowd in Githurai.
The rally came just a day after they held road shows in Kakamega town as the official launch of the alliance’s campaigns after a long lull.
Besides Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper, Musalia Mudavadi’s ANC, Moses Wetang'ula’s Ford Kenya and Gideon Moi's Kanu, Uhuru and Raila are also courting other parties.
They include Governor Alfred Mutua Maendeleo Chap Chap Party and Governor Charity Ngilu’s Narc Kenya, which together with Wiper, would lock Ukambani region.
The yet-to-be-formed Upya Party, which is being spearheaded by National Treasury CS Ukur Yatani, Keynan and Governor John Lonyangapuo’s Kenya United Party, is expected seal the Northern Kenya votes.
Former Kiambu Governor William Kabogo’s Wakenya Tujibebe Party, Mwangi Kiunjuri’s TSP, Martha Karua’s Narc Kenya, Moses Kuria’s Chama Cha Kazi and PNU, together with Jubilee, will seal Mt.Kenya.
The United Progressive Alliance together with ODM will take the Kisii region.
Kilifi Governor Amason Kingi’s Pamoja African Alliance (PAA) is among the Coast parties being sought to reinforce ODM's dominance in the region.
However, the biggest headache is whether the Oka bosses will drop their presidential bids in favour of Raila, with whom they fell out in the former Nasa coalition.
Some allies of the Oka leaders, though pointing to a huge alliance, vehemently ruled out backing Raila for President.
“A coalition is good, but it must be a coalition of the willing. They (principals) have themselves said they will not support Raila. I don’t think they can be forced to do that,” Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja, a Mudavadi confidant, said.
Makueni MP Dan Maanzo said Raila and the Oka bosses have no option but to unite to face the DP.
“They should urgently engage as equals. If they don’t want to engage, then they are giving the presidency to Ruto. They should come up with a mega alliance, but one of equals,” he said.
Senators Cleophas Malala (Kakamega) and Enoch Wambua (Kitui) said a mega coalition bringing onboard Raila and Oka will work if Raila agrees to support one of the chiefs for president.
“Anybody expecting that we will support Raila for president is expecting too much from us,” Wambua said.
The Kitui senator said that the Oka leaders are currently engaging on a presidential flagbearer before they start aggressive campaigns.
“We have a more serious issues to deal with than Raila and Uhuru. We have the issue of settling on a single presidential candidate. For us, that is most important and we don’t want it conflated with other things.
“Once in a while ,we will do mega rallies just to reassure our constituency that we are okay and we are in the race,
“The moment we identify our candidate, we would do a lot more than these other people have done all this time,” he said.
Wiper party national vice chairman and Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jnr said the principals were still putting their house in order before they hit the road.
“People don’t want to start campaigns, then in the middle of the campaigns things get stuck. Part of the reluctance of the team is doing things that don’t make sense. We would rather bite the bullet now and then campaign full blast,” he said.
On Tuesday, Mudavadi reiterated that he will go all the way to the ballot in the 2022 presidential election.
“In this election, there are no two ways about it; I just want to reassure you, my people, that I am ready for the presidential contest. We shall fight with my competitors up to the end. I will be there, God willing. I'll be in the field in 2022,” Mudavadi said.
ANC deputy leader and Lugari MP Ayub Savula the principals have devised a strategy of campaigning separately to galvanise their bases as they continue to negotiate on a flagbearer.
“We will pick our candidate through consensus. So we are waiting for the national delegate conference of all these parties to endorse their leader and then we can pick a candidate,” he said.
(Edited by V. Graham)
