Politician-cum businessman and the chairman of DP William Ruto’s party Johnson Muthama is no stranger to controversy. His fiery remarks, coalition building efforts and arrests are fodder for the media. He talks to the Saturday Nation on the unrealistic deal Kalonzo signed with Kibaki, their fallout, Raila Odinga’s win and his life.
Let’s start from the beginning, who is Johnson Muthama?
I come from Matungulu constituency, Machakos County. I am a family man. Married to one wife called Jemimah Muthama. I have three children, two sons and a daughter. I have five daughters from a marriage that failed. And then I have three more children, two girls and a boy, from a broken marriage.
I am a self-made businessman. I am in the mining industry where I deal with gemstones. I am also in the real estate business. That is my source of income and that is what I have been doing all my life.
I am a trained gemstone cutter and experienced in selecting different qualities of gemstones. I have been trained at the Geological Institute of America in St Monica in California and I am also a holder of a social science degree with first class honours.
I have served in different political parties starting with Kanu where I was a life member. I still retain the certificate of Kanu. I was the vice-chairperson of Kanu Machakos branch then under Mulu Mutisya. I went to LDP where I played a role and I went to DP where I supported Mwai Kibaki. I was with the SDP of Charity Ngilu as the patron. I was a founder member of the National Rainbow Coalition. I was in the politics of orange and banana and stood with Raila and Kalonzo. Then I became a member of ODM-Kenya. From ODM Kenya I went to Wiper.
I negotiated a coalition deal with PNU for Kalonzo to become the vice-president. I am now a member of UDA where I serve as the chairman and I am campaigning to ensure that we form the next government.
Courage starts by believing in what you are saying. I have been arrested seven times and charged with hate speech but those cases did not go far. That was before the 2017 elections. The target was actually Raila, not me. To get to Raila, you had to attack Muthama so that Raila would react and cause chaos and be arrested, but we advised him to remain calm.
I speak the truth with courage. Other than arrests by the DCI for hate speech, have I ever been sued by someone for defamation for something I say?
Your business licence was at one point withdrawn, what is the current situation?
There was no time that my licence was withdrawn. What happened is that the Minister for Petroleum and Mining at that time issued roadside instructions on how the exports should be conducted. I think he was targeting me because we are the biggest exporters of gemstones in the country.
The new rules were to slow down my business. The instructions were that when you are applying for exports permit, you have to apply to the Director of Mines, then the official takes the application to the minister to approve. It was creating unnecessary bureaucracy. If the CS, say, had travelled to America, you would not do the exportation until he returned and personally approved. We went to court, challenged the orders and the matter is still there but we are back in business.
After the contentious 2007 elections, ODM Kenya (now Wiper Party) to which you belonged to quickly cobbled up a working deal with President Kibaki and PNU that led to Mr Kalonzo Musyoka becoming the vice-president. How was the deal struck between Kibaki and Kalonzo in 2007 and what was Kalonzo promised besides the vice-presidency?
We supported Kibaki by adding numbers to stabilise his government. We agreed that we would get a certain percentage of government. There was also an agreement that in the 2013 General Election, there would be no Mt Kenya candidate who would vie as president. What a stupid way of reaching an agreement. Imagine (David) Musila, myself, (Amos) Kimunya and John Michuki sitting together in Michuki’s office at the National Treasury and agreeing that one community would be barred from having a presidential candidate.
We were the team that negotiated that agreement but the truth is that Kimunya and Michuki could not make such a decision for the Kikuyus. As a result, we ended up with a very stupid deal but the leaders, Kalonzo and Kibaki, approved it. Sometimes the devil can get into your head. Can you imagine us sitting there, believing that there would not be any Kikuyu presidential candidate in 2013?
Muthama: How we struck Kalonzo-Kibaki post-poll deal
If we had signed that agreement saying Kibaki will not vie again, it could have carried weight but now making that decision on behalf of a community and yet at that time they had people finishing university, others Form Four, others doing masters with their own interests on how they want their future to be. There we were, thinking of going with a piece of paper telling them to read its contents and accept it as it is (Laughs)
It said he would be supported by Kibaki and there would be no presidential candidate from Mt Kenya. A very stupid deal. Now, where was that support to come from? Even the Kikuyus who worked closely with Kibaki never bought that idea. They did not buy it.
How do you even go about it? Which Kikuyus would you be going to stop from standing as a presidential candidates? It is just like Raila and Uhuru. They drink tea together then Uhuru tells him he will deliver the Kikuyu votes. I told Raila he was making a very big mistake.
One of the accusations from Kalonzo’s corner is that you have always auctioned him to the highest buyer. What do you have to say about this in light of the deal with Kibaki in 2007?
I do not even need to answer that but I will explain. When he was with me, he became Kibaki’s vice-president. If I was auctioning him, then that was a very good auction and he should accept and say he wants Muthama to keep on auctioning him.
Second, the ever highly competitive position of a running mate we have ever come across was to elbow others around Raila and get Kalonzo there. I have seen challenges but that one of deputising Raila, I think it cost me part of the days of my life putting it together in 2013.
Those around Raila wanted Kalonzo to walk in as Kalonzo because they said that he did not bring anything yet he got 800,000 votes in 2007. But I managed that one. The 2017 one was even tougher but I managed to get him auctioned to be number two.
Now, here is 2022. Because Muthama is not there, where is he now? I told you I am not going to answer but I will take you through. Where is he now? What is the guarantee that he will be Raila’s running mate? When he was with me, he looked to Raila and they talked like two recognisable politicians. But now he has no guarantee and I can tell you he cannot be number two. The hope is that BBI will go through but even if it goes through, he will not be the prime minister, maybe a deputy prime minister.
In the grand coalition that was formed after the 2007 agreement, there was a great deal of disagreements between Kalonzo and Raila over protocol. There were two schools of thought. One, Raila had come out from a resounding victory of 2007, which was stolen from him. For Raila, the priviliges Kalonzo was enjoying as Kibaki’s number two weren’t really earned because ODM had won the elections and they did everything to let Kalonzo know that.
On the other side, Kalonzo was feeling like a saviour. He had rescued Kibaki. If Kalonzo had joined Raila after the 2007 chaos, Kibaki would not have been where he was because Raila would have taken the presidency. Kalonzo had the feeling of pride knowing he had rescued Kibaki.
The Kibaki side of government knew that and they accorded him respect not only as the VP but also as a co-principal. If you see the agreement that made the position of a prime minister, it said that, there shall be a ‘real’, meaning truthful, power-sharing. Raila was coming in feeling he was the owner of 50 per cent of the government, while Kibaki and Kalonzo would share between them the other 50 per cent. That issue brought a lot of difficulties in terms of protocol.
I respect Kibaki for one thing, he never interfered, he would always tell Kalonzo, wachana na Raila, kwani hii nini, tuendelee tu (Let Raila be. This is a small thing, let us continue). Kibaki would truly give Raila recognition as his partner and that is what made that coalition government to succeed and survive until the end. If it was not for Kibaki's recognition towards Raila, he would have left that government, thrown everything back to us and gone to do the things that he knows best; that is to oppose.
United Democratic Alliance (UDA) chairman Johnson Muthama at his office in Gigiri, Nairobi.
Photo credit: Jeff Angote | Nation Media Group
I mended the ways, that is why he is saying I auctioned him. In 2013, after Uhuru and Ruto started working together, we looked at the numbers which were different when Kibaki won alone but Raila had the Kalenjin votes. I was fed up of Kalonzo not being given that opportunity to serve that greater role of trying to make it to be the president.
I said that if Kenyatta and Moi forgot about Kadu and Kanu, then there is nothing stopping us from working with Raila. I went to Raila and if you check the history, you will see Kalonzo saying he did not send me to him.
I asked Agwambo (Raila) to accompany me to Tala in my constituency when Kalonzo was in Israel. Pictures were everywhere thereafter and the following day we went to watch a football match at City Stadium and that was the end. ODM Kenya supporters said Muthama is doing the right thing since Kalonzo has been short-changed by Uhuru and Ruto.
I think between 15 and 20 per cent of the total votes cast. If you watch the results from the first announcement, these people did not even know how to steal. Uhuru took the lead from the first announcement to the end. Where else have you seen this, especially against a popular candidate like Raila? It means the system was set to behave like that.
Let us come to 2017, and again despite the disagreements they had in Cord, the two with the addition of Mudavadi became members of Nasa. How did this happen?
The 2013 agreement between Raila and Kalonzo was that the former would only serve for one term. Moses Wetang’ula was also a signatory. When 2017 came, Agwambo was also shrewd. He knew if he maintained Cord, we would end up having troubles, so he created Nasa which now had Mudavadi as a new face.
The first thing he (Mudavadi) said was “do not show me the previous agreement. I do not belong to that. If you had an agreement, discuss it outside the fence but here, we want to know the future of Nasa”. Those were the circumstances that again forced Kalonzo to work with Raila.
But the formation of Nasa would also mark the fall out between you and Kalonzo. What really happened?
It is because he believed I was not speaking for him. That I was not bargaining for him. One day, he told me to my face, “If you want me Kalonzo to be the president under Nasa, deliver that ticket to me” and I wondered how that would be possible. He believed in my capacity but he did not know that even such a capacity had its own limits and there were levels it could not go beyond and that is why he keeps saying I auctioned him. But Raila did not pay me money. Had it been so, it would have been different. But things didn't work that way. I could not force Raila to let Kalonzo vie as the Nasa presidential candidate.
Things got so bad that you said you would only campaign for Raila and not Kalonzo and then you also withdrew from defending your Senate seat. Why?
I have told you about the mistreatments and discriminations that were levelled to Wiper candidates, where there was no transparency, fairness and shortcuts were used to issue nomination certificates, and I decided not to vie. It was a decision I made because I knew that Kalonzo was very bitter because he was not getting the presidential candidate slot and he was planning to fight me all through.
Therefore, he wanted Wavinya to be the governor under Wiper and he had a choice for Woman rep. The same thing happened in Kitui and Makueni. His aim was to teach me a political lesson and I said no, I would not set up myself. I had seen it from afar and I decided I would step down.
There are claims that you were a major financer of Wiper though the Kalonzo side denies this. What is your comment on this?
Well, this is like the answer I told you on being auctioned. Let me ask you, since I am no longer in Wiper, how many public rallies has Kalonzo held as a presidential candidate? That answers your question. A lot can be said but the naked truth is that there was some support that he used to get from me and many others who are not there now and that has crippled his campaigns. He even surrendered and agreed to work with Raila unconditionally.
To achieve what exactly? I am looking for an association with a national party where, even if I am not the chairman, I can see the face of Kenya. I am achieving that with UDA. By its actions, UDA is a force to reckon with. I am at peace where I am. I am done with the baggage of being surrounded by my community, village friends and saying things that have no substance. I am now happy as a Kenyan leader.
Yes, he won. But I can tell you we caused our own downfall when we ended up having four candidates in the same coalition going for the same seats. That is where we lost everything. We gave room to those who stole from us to do so because of internal wrangling. We created our own problems in that election.
