President Kenyatta faces a fresh headache in his bid to craft a mega coalition following rising tensions between Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader Raila Odinga and his Wiper counterpart Kalonzo Musyoka.
Hardliners in their respective camps yesterday vowed not to give up on the flagbearer slot. The renaming of the coalition is emerging as another contentious issue, escalating tensions from the weekend when Mr Musyoka’s entry scuttled a plan to formally crown Mr Odinga as the alliance’s presidential candidate.
As the mistrust between the former allies raged, Mr Odinga’s supporters, who were keen to have him anointed the Azimio la Umoja presidential flagbearer after parallel ODM and Jubilee Party meetings at the weekend, are now accusing their partners of instigating protracted negotiations to run down the clock.
Mr Musyoka’s One Kenya Alliance (OKA) has announced its bid to join Mr Odinga’s Azimio la Umoja, but disagreements on whether: negotiations will be done through individual parties or as a coalition; the running mate slot was available for OKA; and what the Wiper leader’s role will be in the outfit are other sticking issues threatening talks that have a March 12 deadline.
It was not yet clear by Monday if Mr Musyoka will attend the Azimio rally planned for tomorrow (Wednesday) in Nakuru and which President Kenyatta is expected to attend.
Signs of trouble and suspicion started brewing on Saturday when President Kenyatta led the ruling party’s National Delegates Convention (NDC) at the Jomo Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), when Mr Musyoka appeared to cast doubts on the possibility of Mr Odinga steering the new coalition.
Instead, Mr Musyoka appealed to the Head of State to take control of the coalition, something that did not go down well with Mr Odinga’s lieutenants, before the Wiper leader gave the ODM leader’s Azimio meeting at Kasarani gymnasium a wide berth.
“I give a promise that, as OKA, we are together in this journey, but we will negotiate [through] structured dialogue ... honest conversation ... correcting even historical imbalances because building a coalition is not easy anyway…and I propose Mr President that you take leadership of that coalition,” Mr Musyoka said at KICC, making reference to the same trust issues the OKA team cited as a reason that led to the death of the National Super Alliance (Nasa).
Although the ODM leader’s camp says it has no problem with President Kenyatta leading the expanded outfit, they have expressed their reservations with Mr Musyoka’s actions, which appeared to cast aspersions on Mr Odinga’s ability to lead the team.
Mr Odinga’s presidential campaign board chairperson Ndiritu Muriithi yesterday seemed to suggest that the tensions risk delaying the launch of the coalition and official unveiling of the presidential candidate.
“The reason we didn’t even unveil over weekend was to provide opportunity for further consultations but even as these leaders are consulting, they must realise that the country is moving on and the country is decided on who the fifth president is going to be and we should not pretend,” Mr Muriithi, who is also the Laikipia governor, told the Nation .
But even as he said consultations would happen, Mr Muriithi was clear in his mind what should happen next.
“Nobody,” he said, “is under any illusions as to the preferences at the moment. The only question remains how people are accommodated in the coalition going forward. We shouldn’t be holding the boat; we should move forward.”
Mr Muriithi went on: “Even the delegates at the Jubilee event on Saturday did not leave any doubt as to whom they want. They said it in plain language.”
However, Kitui Senator Enoch Wambua said the Wiper leader expected to be handed the presidential ticket.
“We will have a conversation about producing a presidential candidate. As Wiper, we are not ready to deputise [Mr] Odinga. Kalonzo deputised Raila twice in two presidential elections and he has told the public many times that he has had an agreement with Raila that in the 2022 presidential election, whether Raila won 2017 election or he lost, he was going to support him [Kalonzo],” Mr Wambua said yesterday.
OKA consists of Mr Musyoka, Kanu Chairman Gideon Moi, Narc Kenya’s Martha Karua and United Democratic Party (UDP) leader Cyrus Jirongo.
On Monday, Kanu Secretary-General Nick Salat, in what could also fuel more tension in the Uhuru-Raila team, said they would reserve their proposed name for the grand coalition dubbed Azimio-One Kenya Alliance with the Registrar of Political Parties to secure it as negotiations continue.
“It is in order for us to reserve the name of the proposed grand coalition—Azimio-One Kenya Alliance—with the Registrar of Political Parties. We were waiting for a working day like today and we will do that. So the plans are definitely there,” said Mr Salat.
This has, however, not been taken lightly by Mr Odinga’s camp.
A Jubilee MP who sought anonymity for fear of being accused of jeopardising the ongoing talks said: “We know what happened to Raila in 2005 when he lost the original ODM-Kenya”, in reference to Mr Musyoka’s move to snatch away the outfit.
“These are the same people who frustrated him at the last minute and it seems they are at it again. This time round, we are alert. There will be no monkey business,” the MP said in reference to the differences between Mr Odinga and Mr Musyoka in the run up to the 2007 General Elections.
At the time, the current Makueni MP Dan Maanzo, an ally of Mr Musyoka who was the registered ODM-Kenya Secretary General, was accused of running away with the party’s documents, forcing Mr Odinga to seek a new party, ODM, from Mr Mugambi Imanyara.
Monday, the Jubilee legislator said embracing the new name— Azimio-OKA—was not tenable owing to the short period of time to the elections to market it.
“If it was Azimio-UDA the better because they have been on the ground like us not OKA which has been hopping from one hotel to the other,” the legislator quipped.
Another source in Mr Odinga’s camp intimated to the Nation that Mr Musyoka’s camp was not sincere about the ongoing talks amid claims of demanding for a running mate slot, which, he noted, had already been reserved for Mt Kenya region.
“The running mate will go to a region with many votes which is obviously Mt Kenya region. There will be no compromise on this. There is no way the position can be given to somebody who does not even have a single governor behind him,” the MP said.
Governors Charity Ngilu (Kitui), Prof Kivutha Kibwana (Makueni) and Dr Alfred Mutua (Machakos) have all rallied behind Mr Odinga. The Kitui senator also revisited the impasse over the distribution of the political parties funding between ODM and its former Nasa affiliates, noting that it was difficult to trust Mr Odinga again, further souring the talks for a broader coalition between the two leaders.
“It is true we were short-changed out of political parties funding, that’s a fact. When the ODM party leader agreed to pay some money to Nasa, he said Wiper was entitled to Sh70 million but today, they have only paid about Sh20 million,” said Mr Wambua.
National Assembly Deputy Minority Leader Robert Mbui said that, whereas they were not issuing any demands as “irreducible minimums” to work with Azimio, they were keen on ensuring that the interests of all the affiliate parties in OKA were taken into consideration.
“That’s why we are calling for the structured dialogue. This is simply to get it right on how we will field candidates in the larger coalition.”
“On the issue of naming the coalition’s candidate, a team led by President Kenyatta can make that decision,” Mr Mbui said.
He went on: “We have also noticed that the President has a tendency of favouring one side. So, given the opportunity to chair the negotiations, we hope he will listen to both sides.”
