Murathe to Raila: We will not dispute a loss; it is our culture to concede defeat

Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition party vice-chairman David Murathe on Wednesday said its aspirants will not help Raila Odinga dispute the outcome of the August 9 General Election if he loses to Kenya Kwanza’s William Ruto.

The Jubilee Party, led by President Uhuru Kenyatta, is the chief partner with Mr Odinga’s ODM in managing 24 political parties that form Azimio One Kenya and collectively picked Narc-Kenya’s Martha Karua as running mate.

“I can guarantee you, because I am in Azimio: If we lose this election, we will not go shouting that it was rigged. We will not, unless there are glaring issues of manipulation by the IEBC,” said Mr Murathe on NTV on Wednesday morning.

He said Azimio will invest in strong party and candidate agents at polling centres.

“If what we will be getting from them as results does not tally with what IEBC will be pronouncing, there will be an issue,” he said. 

“But if our results and those of IEBC tally, Raila Odinga will be gracious to concede defeat. Remember 2002 when Uhuru Kenyatta (Kanu) conceded defeat to Narc … Today he is in Azimio and it is our culture to concede defeat.”

Mr Murathe declared that Azimio will respect the declaration of the IEBC, unless there is proof of glaring errors.

“I don’t know whether it is a condition for Raila Odinga to win so that we can have peace. He has felt disfranchised over time … and we were on the other side of the competition,” he said. 

“Like in 2017 … we all know the numbers and Kenyatta had 54 and then (Odinga) had 44. And they know it, since they had their tallying centres … and it is not a must for Odinga to win so that we can have peace.”

He said “we are the President’s men. President’s men go home with the President. The people around the President, who have been working with the President, who have taken the flak and the credit … on achievements and failures, when it is the time to go … they leave together”.

He said Mr Kenyatta “cannot wait to leave. He cannot wait to finish and that is why he is in a hurry to finish some of his pledges and promises … This is a President who will walk into his sunset with his cowboys”.

Mr Murathe’s remarks raise questions about who will become Mt Kenya’s point men if Mr Odinga becomes President, given that the outgoing President’s critical pillars like Interior PS Karanja Kibicho, Agriculture CS Peter Munya, ICT’s Joe Mucheru and Transport CS James Macharia are in the category of the “President’s men who will have to leave”.

DP Ruto, perceived as Mr Odinga’s main challenger, has also said he would accept the results of the presidential election and submit to the winner, appreciating that he was lucky to have risen to the rank of Deputy President.

Mr Odinga has not pronounced himself on this matter, but Ms Karua, speaking in Murang’a County on June 17, said “we are treating the issue from a wholesome angle”.

Accepting the results, she said, depended on several actors’ behaviour “where IEBC officials and party agents must ensure … credibility and transparency, candidates carry themselves with decorum and security agents help us with playing hardball with all those who will attempt to disturb the peace”.

Mr Murathe disclosed that Dr Ruto was not the first choice for running mate for the President’s men in 2013, and that they preferred Eugene Wamalwa from the Western voting bloc. He said Dr Ruto was picked to exorcise the demons of the 2007/08 post-election violence.

But some political pundits have insisted that Mr Kenyatta and Dr Ruto were brought together by the threat of their being charged with crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

Another factor in Dr Ruto’s selection was that Mr Odinga was unbeatable in Western Kenya, and Musalia Mudavadi was also insisting on gunning for the presidency, making a bet on Mr Wamalwa, who was considered a political minnow, risky.

Revisiting the Odinga ceremony where he was sworn in as the ‘people’s president’ after he disputed the 2017 presidential vote results, Mr Murathe said “the President ordered that all police officers be withdrawn from Uhuru Park so that the activity could go on”.

He said the President’s reasoning was, “What is the big deal? After all, we have a properly constituted and sworn-in government … Let him be sworn in and walk home to his wife. He was not going to march into State House”.

He gave credit to Mr Odinga, saying the swearing-in “was cleverly worded to avoid the treason bit”.
About the March 2018 handshake between the President and Mr Odinga – with Mr Kenyatta insisting that Dr Ruto was in the know about every detail all along – Mr Murathe said “he must have been informed or involved at the very end of the discussions after the two had already agreed … it was a heavily guarded engagement that involved very few people”.

He said the handshake did not come with express support for Mr Odinga’s bid for the presidency in 2022 “but we adopted a stance that we will let the best man win … we will not be a hindrance”.

He said the excitement around ‘ganja president’ Prof George Wajackoyah is not a threat to Azimio.
“Wajackoyah … who is he hurting? He is definitely not hurting our corner. If he were to change any dynamic, it is the Dr Ruto corner that should be worried,” he said.

But he admitted that talk about legalising marijuana “makes sense and we are urging our candidate (Odinga), if he wins the elections, to consider adopting the Wajackoyah proposal”.

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