Musalia Mudavadi doesn’t have the backbone to become president

NAIROBI: Musalia Mudavadi, who has spent significant moments of his career serving as number two to Kenya’s political kingpins, is at it again. Although the quiet, soft-spoken politician is often, not without basis, accused of being spineless, he has recently come out with guns blazing presenting himself as the ‘third force’, supposedly the voice of reason. In the realm of cognitive featherweights, this “Katikati Yao” philosophy has been tried before with dismal results. Mudavadi is taking no prisoners this time. He has gone as far as asking President Uhuru Kenyatta to step aside and call for elections to pave way for capable leaders to stabilise the country. For avoidance of doubt, the capable leaders he is talking about include him. He says the economy is now driven through “habitual management by default” and there is widespread graft driven by unaccountable officers. I agree. He should know a thing or two about grand corruption.

He claims he steered the country through the tumultuous 1990s when it had been made a pariah as a result of Goldenberg looting. “You have two choices to make come 2017: You can choose my team to restore sanity and give Kenyans a decent life because I know what to do or choose an incompetent Jubilee or a decaying CORD,” he said.
Mudavadi, an operative who has neither built nor invested in any significant political party or movement, seems to have a larger than life air of self-entitlement common in hereditary kingdoms.