Tough call for Kalonzo Musyoka as community leaders tell him to break ties with Raila Odinga and chart his own path

By OSCAR OBONYO

Kenya: Moments before chaos erupted at last weekend’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) national elections, former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka spoke passionately on the need for credible polls, warning that the outcome would have a direct bearing on his own party’s political fortunes. He knew better.

Since officially teaming up with former Prime Minister Raila Odinga in December 2013, the two have become more like conjoined political twins. And there is no denying that Raila’s political fortunes will significantly affect Kalonzo’s political standing, least of all in his own Ukambani stronghold.

While there have been sustained murmurs among a section of MPs from Kalonzo’s Ukambani backyard, to the effect that joining Raila was a career-threatening move for the former VP, the botched ODM polls have further intensified this resolve.   

“Joining Raila was not a particularly bad thing at that time, but having failed to clinch the presidency and now looking forward, I am afraid the community (Kamba) may not take anything less than him personally taking a shot at the top seat,” reacts said Machakos Town MP, Dr Victor Munyaka.

The MP claims Kalonzo was convinced to team up with Raila following a pre-election deal that the Orange leader would be a one-term President, and that even if the pair did not win the poll, Raila would still support Kalonzo’s presidential bid in 2017. Now Munyaka wants Kalonzo to immediately disengage from Raila and chart his own political path.

If indeed there was such a pre-poll pact, then it is understandable why latest developments in ODM are a source of concern to Kalonzo’s supporters. The divisions in ODM do not auger well for the former VP’s political future, because his backers anticipate him to inherit Raila’s giant and united political constituency.  

Need to revamp

Well aware of the interests and fears among Kalonzo supporters, the national chairman of Wiper Democratic Movement, Mr David Musila, has moved fast to reassure that all was well with “our Orange brothers and sisters”. “Yesterday (Thursday), we held our NEC (National Executive Council) meeting to deliberate on party matters and while at it sent a message of solidarity with ODM encouraging them to sort out their little mess. Indeed it was a setback (the failed ODM elections), but that doesn’t mean that ODM and the wider CORD family shall not overcome,” an optimistic Musila told The Standard on Sunday.

But Yatta MP, Francis Mwangangi, is among those who believe the former VP must now change tack: “(Machakos County Senator, Johnstone) Muthama simply mortgaged the community to Raila by taking advantage of Kalonzo’s indecisiveness to push him towards the former PM. There is now need for Kalonzo to disengage and revamp his own party.”

Responding to Mwangangi’s charge, Musila said the Wiper leadership had no regrets at all. According to the Kitui County Senator, “those shouting loudest on this matter” are not even members of his party.

He says the critics have never been loyal to Wiper party or the former VP, and some (like Munyaka) have a long standing political relationship with rivals in Jubilee, having teamed up with Deputy President William Ruto to oppose the new Constitution.

“How can such Jubilee-allied politicians purport to speak for Kalonzo, when it is clear to everybody they deliberately want to cause rifts among us for the benefit of their masters? And how can they even talk authoritatively of an agreement whose details they are not privy to?” counters Musila.

Kalonzo himself is enraged that some MPs are busy wrecking the coalition from within: “I am sending a stern warning to Munyaka, Mwangangi and Vincent (Musyoka, Mwala MP on CCU ticket) to respect Wiper and the CORD leadership or join the Jubilee alliance. We cannot entertain traitors from within anymore.” 

Speaking recently at Mama Malia Home and School in Tseikuru District, Kitui County, the former VP said it was ill-advised for any politician from his party or backyard to try to drive a wedge between him and the coalition’s 2013 presidential candidate.

It took wit and immense persuasion spearheaded by Muthama for Kalonzo to agree to join Raila in a political partnership. That was in December 4, 2012, smack on the IEBC deadline for the formation of pre-election coalitions. The move was seen by many as a boost to Raila’s chances of being elected the fourth president of the Republic. But this was not to be.

Former Kibwezi MP and leader of The Independent Party (TIP), Kalembe Ndile, explains that Kalonzo did not join Raila willingly but had run out of options after being sidelined in the so-called G7 grouping by then Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP, Ruto.

Better option

“Aliwachwa kwa mataa na sisi tukamwambia asinyemelee mahali hawamtaki (He was suddenly abandoned and we advised him against insisting being where he was not wanted),” recalls Kalembe, leader of one of the CORD member parties.

Kalembe, who alongside Muthama led the chorus calls on Kalonzo to team up with Raila, says he fought off suggestions by some, including former Yatta MP Charles Kilonzo, to have Kalonzo work instead with former DPM Musalia Mudavadi.

“But Charles, whose mother is from Luhyaland, was not honest in his push. Ni damu ya mamake  tu ilikuwa inamvuruta (he was persuaded towards Mudavadi only by blood kinship). Raila was the best option, considering his huge following including in Mudavadi’s own home turf,” says Kalembe.

A senior government official, who was a close aide of the former VP, points out that those who were pushing for Kalonzo to run were not honest with him: “One needed to have asked such politicians whether Kalonzo had a realistic chance of winning by going it solo. The Raila-Kalonzo pair had equal chances of winning the presidency.”