By OSCAR OBONYO
By choosing a leopard as the symbol for his rebranded New Ford-Kenya party, presidential hopeful Eugene Wamalwa appears ready to charge at opponents. But he is hesitant and slow. ???
Although the Justice minister has repeatedly hinted to The Standard On Sunday that he was about to make public an “earth-shaking revelation”, this has not come to pass. Or if Wamalwa has made such a statement, then it has not been “earth shaking” as envisaged.
A case in point is last weekend when he promised to make a “major political statement” during a rally in Busia County, in what his handlers coined as ‘The Busia Declaration’. Except for the usual reiteration he was in the race to State House, Wamalwa made no declaration.
Instead it is Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo, who had accompanied him, who made sensational revelations linking State House to presidential bids of Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi and Eldoret North MP William Ruto. The duo has since refuted the claims. ?
According to our sources, the “major political statement” had to do with him pulling out of the G7 grouping that revolves around Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Ruto and Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka. This was meant to achieve two goals – protest at Uhuru and Ruto’s perceived dalliance with Mudavadi, and to independently chart own political path.????
The big question then is – what is holding the Saboti MP from executing this plot? Is it that he is indecisive or feels politically indebted to Uhuru and Ruto? Even if he is determined to forge ahead, is he a general with numbers but lacking resources? Alternatively, is the minister merely a prisoner of his core supporters in Western who want him to disengage from political partners?
Juma Mukhwana, a key member of Wamalwa’s think tank, best demonstrates Wamalwa’s dilemma: “The political situation is so fluid and even within the party (New Ford-Kenya), the dynamics are complex. Some forces favour separation from G7 while others insist Wamalwa should chart his future from within. It is an absolutely dicey affair.”
Mukhwana says, though, the minister is unlikely to discard old friends or shut doors to new ones in the political scene.
This, he explains, is because the journey ahead is slippery and must be approached with caution and tact. This is particularly the case, considering that the presidential poll under the new political dispensation is complex and may come through in two phases – the main poll and the runoff. ????
Curious revelations
