Former Sports CS Rashid Echesa has called on the people of Western Kenya to rally behind Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi.
According to Echesa, the recent Cabinet reshuffle by President William Ruto that handed Mudavadi the Foreign Affairs docket should be seen as a show of the head of state’s confidence in him.
Speaking in Vihiga during a marathon to champion for reforestation of Maragoli Hills Forest, Echesa asked the Luhya community to take note of how the President was dealing with Musalia Mudavadi.
"No other signal can be deep enough to clarify that the President is setting up our son Musalia for the top seat than the recent reshuffle. I think it's now open to all Luhyas that Ruto is determined to have Musalia take over from him," he said.
"It's only a lunatic among us who will fail to grasp what that means in relation to succession politics."
Echesa who is the current Kenya Water Towers Agency Board chairman said it is time for the Luhya community to reciprocate by backing the Kenya Kwanza administration and follow Mudavadi’s lead as the senior most politician from the region.
He insisted that Mudavadi having served as vice president among other top leadership positions in the country has all it takes to be the country's CEO in the future.
Echesa called on other leaders from the region who have presidential ambitions to support the Prime CS because he is much closer to the presidency than any of them.
"We appreciate we have other senior leaders in the community like Wycliffe Oparanya (ODM deputy party leader), Eugene Wamalwa (DAP-K leader) and the rest but we are now more than ever in agreement that Musalia is the senior most among them and cuts a national figure. We have to support him as our own or mess up the successive politics arithmetic," he said.
Echesa’s remarks come a few days after Ruto handed Mudavadi additional responsibilities in a cabinet reshuffle that caught many by surprise.
In the reshuffle, the Prime CS was handed the Foreign Affairs docket a move that has been interpreted as the President bringing Mudavadi into his circle of power.
