NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga will have difficult decisions to make in the next few days that will determine the destiny of the country’s Opposition and its diehard followers.
By the time of going to the Press, the 2017 General Election outcome appeared to be against Raila after President Uhuru Kenyatta of Jubilee opened a commanding lead against him.
President Kenyatta was leading Raila by over one million votes which effectively pushes the Opposition chief into a situation where he may have to make difficult decisions.
IEBC had said none of the candidates had contested the results as displayed on their website before Raila emerged to say NASA would reject the results as tallied claiming Form 34As were not provided.
One of the options Raila and his NASA team have is the courts where a petition must be determined within 14 days of filing.
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And if the presidential petition is disallowed, then Raila will have to find a strategy to manage his political constituency.
There is the issue of his running mate Kalonzo Musyoka, who had insisted he was NASA’s best bet after Raila lost three previous elections, one of which the former vice president backed him.
Remote chance
Similar sentiments had been raised by Ford Kenya leader Moses Wetang’ula who is also a principal in the NASA coalition.
There is a remote chance Raila will want to hang on beyond this stage given he has also signed, for the second time, an MoU with Kalonzo to back him in 2022.
Raila had promised Kalonzo he would back him in the 2017 election if the ODM leader had won the 2013 showpiece. He didn’t.
If he loses again, there’s a slim chance 63-year-old Kalonzo Musyoka, would not want to play second fiddle to him again. That’s why ‘this is Raila’s last chance’.
Kalonzo knows 2022 is his turn, so does Musalia Mudavadi, who sacrificed his ambitions to put NASA together. Musalia is playing the role of kingmaker. He knows if Raila wins now, he will have a clear path in 2022, because of the secret pact that says Raila will only go for one term and let Kalonzo take over. But this is politics. Coalitions change. Interests change. Promises get broken. Partners get better ones.
There are also the ambitious souls in NASA such as Wetang’ula and Isaac Ruto, who while their chance of being President are slimmer, they still can fancy their chances in 2022. All said and done, Raila will not have it easy.
