The anticipation and anxiety, including the identities of their preferred picks, had been up and out for days, so any more delays became untenable. The surprise of the day may only be that Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka had a running mate and a launch too, perhaps selected before Azimio leader Raila Odinga’s.
Speaking of Kalonzo, I have to say that the Kenyan political scene indulges the man way too much. Ahead of every election since 2002, Kalonzo has been in the middle of prolonged negotiations seeking to be made some coalition’s sole presidential candidate, or where he climbed down to support someone else, he ensures there is a one-term clause inserted in a secret agreement that gives him the right to take over at the very next election.
In 2002, when the Rainbow rebels were leaving Kanu, Kalonzo is said to have been the last to leave because he wanted guarantees that he would be the presidential pick for the departing group. Both former Mwingi South MP David Musila and former Vice President Moody Awori have documented in their memoirs the delicate task of getting the then Mwingi North MP to join his colleagues in the rebellion.
Come 2007, he fled with the ODM-K registration instruments, leaving the Raila faction without a party, when the latter wouldn’t commit to backing him as the party’s flagbearer in the 2007 polls. He went on to run, but in the heat of the 2008 post-election violence, coupled with the juicy prospect of President Mwai Kibaki doing his second and final term, the Wiper chief saw an unmissable opportunity to join Kibaki, hoping to be tapped for the 2013 elections.
As 2013 approached, the former Foreign Minister felt slighted to discover he was not in Kibaki’s plans, neither was the UhuRuto duo really heading for jail at the Hague. So, he joined his erstwhile foe Raila in CORD. He insisted on an agreement with the usual one-term clause, a move repeated in 2017 when he grudgingly supported Raila one more time.
There is a strange level of self-entitlement with Kalonzo, which presupposes that everyone who holds the Office of the President either holds it temporarily for him, or when he chooses to back someone else, that person must serve only one term and leave the seat for him.
As of 2017, he reportedly even had Raila commit to handing him the instruments of power midway through that first term!
With this sort of background, I have never understood why political players still bring him on board in plotting power formations. The Wiper leader is probably the only senior politician who enters a negotiation room with the “it’s either me or I leave” mantra.
To be honest, I don’t think Azimio leader Raila was overly enthusiastic about the inclusion of Kalonzo, obviously preferring to work with Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu. However, the dynamics around tribal arithmetic must have persuaded, especially President Uhuru Kenyatta that Kalonzo was necessary. Except that the way Kalonzo winds everyone down, the risk is never really worth it.
A part of me hopes this is the last election in which tribal considerations become the key to the choices of running mates. I am certain that if you remove the tribal votes perceived to be secured by the deputy choices, both candidates would most likely have picked someone else.
The UDA side showed this in a much more dramatic fashion. For the better part of 24 hours last weekend, it appeared that Tharaka Nithi Senator Kithuri Kindiki had bagged it. But when Mathira residents chanted “No Rigathi No Ruto” all day, the DP, who had long fashioned himself as the Mt Kenya political kingpin, must have been jolted back to reality. He went with the said grassroots mobiliser whose politics, words and actions almost mirror his.
However, no pick excited the country like Azimio’s Martha Karua. The country has truly come of age. Many analysts, including yours truly, had predicted that the leading presidential candidates would avoid picking strong characters as running mates, for fear that such individuals could become new versions of William Ruto in office.
But both candidates obviously figured that winning the election with the backing of untamed political deputies was way better than settling for weak ones and losing. The more telling thing was that each candidate went for people who reflect who they themselves are, such that the reformist Second Liberation hero Raila went for another comrade.
It's admirable how the choice of running mate is now as anticipated as those of the presidential candidates. Perhaps even more, given that those who eye the presidential ticket are usually well-known in advance, quite unlike their running mate picks. It speaks to the importance attached to the Office of the Deputy President, a far cry from the old Vice President who served on the whims of the President.
To add colour to the whole thing, one coalition even conducted interviews for their choice, and had a brilliant cast appearing. It must have been a truly challenging task for the Azimio leader having to pick one of the 11 who were interviewed. The running joke in town was Azimio supporters wishing they could choose four at once!
Ultimately, the fact that one candidate chose a woman, and not just an ordinary woman, but one whose public life has inspired millions of others across the country, must have been the highlight of the process.
Raila’s words ring true: History is calling upon us to bridge this gender gap once and for all, so that we stop giving lip service to it.
I have read Phoebe Asiyo’s book, giving an anecdote of an incident when they visited Mzee Jomo Kenyatta in detention and demanded that his upcoming government must include women on a 50-50 basis. A female deputy president would be a shot in the arm for this 60-year dream.
The more intriguing prospect, however, is just how the running mate choices will determine the upcoming elections. In my view, the historical angle represented by Karua’s prospective ascension to the Office of Deputy President gives the Azimio ticket the edge and the necessary wave as the electoral cycle enters the crucial 60-day blitz.
While both coalitions will be keeping an eye on Kalonzo and what he does with Ukambani, the contest now moves to the Mt Kenya region. It is set up like a football derby, where form or history count for nothing, and there can be only one winner. We finally have ourselves a real match!
