Miguna’s controversial book likely to jolt PM’s campaign

By Oscar Obonyo

Prime Minister Raila Odinga is experiencing political heat from several fires lit under his seat by a former trusted aide and friend. For now, he endures it in silence with his allies and rapid response teams also held in check.

Some of the fires are being fanned by several of his rivals, including three presidential hopefuls who usually shy away from a confrontational approach. The discomfort arises from a sensational book by Miguna Miguna, the PM’s former advisor on coalition affairs.

Launched on Saturday, Peeling Back The Mask: A Quest for Justice in Kenya, purports to be a tell-all book on the inner workings of the Prime Minister’s office and the Grand Coalition within which it was created. The publication of excerpts ahead of the launch has, however, attracted claims from several people mentioned that Miguna’s recollections are faulty.

Miguna alleges instances of abuse of office, corruption, political trickery and public deception orchestrated or covered up in Raila’s office. He accuses several ODM Cabinet members and key Raila aides of having gone to bed with “merchants of corruption”. He also claims to have raised these issues with the PM during his time as an advisor to no avail.

This, he says, is proof of “deception, duplicity and hypocrisy” in the Raila camp and should spark reasoned debate about his leadership qualities.

“If Raila’s presidential bid is scuttled by the truth, so be it,” Miguna told the The Standard. “Should we fail to question corruption in Government and in the Office of the PM merely because Raila wants to be president?”

Coming just eight months to the next General Election, the book could hurt Raila’s quest for the presidency. Campaigning on a reform agenda, the 67-year-old PM is well ahead of a pack of younger leaders pushing a message of generational change and an end to high-level corruption.

Opinion polls show he has held onto a comfortable lead for the last four years with his strongest rivals hampered by various setbacks, including a case at the International Criminal Court for his strongest foe in a head-to-head matchup.

Miguna’s book provides rivals with ammunition to use against Raila’s campaign. Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka has dismissed Raila’s reform credentials as “fake” and called for donors to withdraw support to the PM’s office. He told voters not to trust “selfish billionaires” seeking office to grow their empires. Deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta called for investigations into some of the allegations of corruption in the PM’s office. Eldoret North MP William Ruto said Raila was a pretender whose secrets had been laid bare.

As more revelations pour out of the book, this trend is likely to continue. On Saturday, even former MP Paul Muite, a Raila ally, said there were issues in Raila’s past that needed to be clarified.

Justice minister Eugene Wamalwa, however, is not impressed by what he has seen so far. He says the challenge is that Kenyans already know Raila quite well.

“We are waiting to see if (Miguna) will simply scratch the surface, which so far appears to be the case, or whether he will get to the bone marrow,” Wamalwa says. The Saboti MP will be looking for details on the claims of corruption in the ‘Kazi Kwa Vijana’ and maize subsidy programmes. He adds there are no guarantees about how this will play out politically.

“We all know him for easily working his way out of such tough situations, including declaring he is mweupe kama pamba (as clean as wool),” he says.

An MP from Central Kenya, who declined to be named, says ODM is having a taste of what President Kibaki went through in 2006 at the hands of his former Ethics and Governance Permanent Secretary, John Githongo.

The PS leaked a dossier on his futile efforts to warn the president about the Anglo Leasing scandal shortly after resigning and fleeing into exile.

Remained silent

“As we tried to comprehend the matter, our friends were busy crying out for the hanging of President Kibaki’s Government of National Unity,” he said. “Now it is our time to hang them.”

Raila and ODM have remained silent over the book. This is uncharacteristic of the PM, who created structures in his party and campaign to deal with precisely such issues. Reached for comment, Joint Government Chief Whip, Jakoyo Midiwo, a relative of Raila, curtly replied that he did not wish to dignify Miguna’s “work of fiction” with a comment.

The Gem MP, who has been mentioned in the text as an influential member of Raila’s ‘Kitchen Cabinet’, said Miguna’s book will not feature in party level discussions.

“Even as an individual, I have nothing to comment or protest about,” he said. “We are going on, as usual, with our party and campaigns programmes.”But Youth and Sports minister, Dr Paul Otuoma, is angered not by the content of Miguna’s book but the fact that he actually wrote one.

“If someone opens up his private space out of respect or work proximity, then you must in turn respect that,” he says. “Anything to the contrary is childish and a breach of personal trust.”

Former Chief of Protocol in the PM’s office, Tony Gachoka, said it was wrong for former public officers to use privileged information to settle personal scores: “But given that Raila’s style of operation has been that of crushing enemies and ridiculing them publicly, I can only say that Miguna is a very good student of his boss. He (Raila) is getting a taste of his own medicine.”