- Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi plots a clean sweep for President William Ruto as he moved to lock his Western bastion ahead of the 2027 general election.
- Musalia, Ruto’s key ally alongside National Assembly speaker Moses Wetangula in the vote-rich region, has escalated ‘unity talks’ – meeting leaders across the political aisle – in a bid to ringfence his backyard.
Image: PCS
Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi plots a clean sweep for President William Ruto as he moves to lock his Western bastion ahead of the 2027 general election.
Musalia, Ruto’s key ally alongside National Assembly speaker Moses Wetangula in the vote-rich region, has escalated ‘unity talks’ – meeting leaders across the political aisle – in a bid to ringfence his backyard.
On Friday, the former ANC boss held talks with the Luhya council of elders and politicians in Busia where he appealed to the region to rally together and guarantee them a walkover in 2027.
“Have we agreed that we will stick together and will you help us have that walkover? Are you ready?” Musalia said during the meeting.
The meeting was attended by among others Busia governor Paul Otuoma, several elected leaders and the elders.
Busia, and the entire Western region, have been political strongholds of opposition chief Raila Odinga, who Mudavadi broke ranks with year and joined Ruto in the run-up to the August 9, general election.
Mudavadi, arguably the third most powerful person in the Ruto administration after the President and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua sought to know if the residents have been ‘liberated’.
“As an elder, you are seeing very far. The biggest strength any society can have, any nation can have, is the liberation of the mind.”
“Do you feel mentally liberated? That is the question you must go home with. And if you are mentally liberated, how do you walk? How do you shake somebody’s hand?” he posed.
Apparently, Mudavadi was referring to political freedom after the region, for the first time in many years, has its top leaders in government.
“This time we must have a unity of purpose and we must be strategic,” Musalia said.
He the region and its leaders who are still living in denial of Ruto’s presidency to accept and adjust to the reality.
“The other day we were in Siaya with the president and they have accepted (that Ruto is the president). My friend, don’t pretend to be more of Azimio that the owners of Azimio. They have also recognized him and they are adjusting.
“If you go to Mt. Kenya, all of them ….(those who were in Azimio) have turned around and they were the owners of Azimio. And you, you are still waiting for another government,” he said.
The Busia meeting, where Musalia was crowned the chairman of the Western council of elders comes against the backdrop of similar activities by the PCS seen as attempts to lock out Raila from the region and ringfence it for Ruto.
The region has been loyal to Raila with the locals voting overwhelmingly for him for decades.
Previously, Musalia has met governors from all five counties in the western region.
Only one governor from the region, Bungoma’s Ken Lusaka was elected to a party allied to the ruling Kenya Kwanza Coalition.
All the others; Otuoma, Fernandes Barasa (Kakamega), Wilber Ottichilo (Vihiga) and George Natembeya (Trans Nzoia) were elected on opposition party tickets.
Musalia has also met MPs from the expansive region and sought their unity.
In December last year, Musalia and Wetangula led the region’s leaders to a meeting with the President at the state lodge in Kakamega.