Why Uhuru Kenyatta’s plan to revive Azimio faces fresh hurdles

Some top officials of Mr Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party are also opposed to the grand plan, seeing it as a scheme to prop up Wiper Patriotic Front leader Kalonzo Musyoka as the opposition’s presidential flag bearer and undermine other candidates.

Ms Martha Karua’s People's Liberation Party (PLP) has also claimed there is a plot to undermine a report by a technical committee set up by the United Opposition.

Read: Uhuru Kenyatta ‘super coalition’ plan against President Ruto

The committee, headed by former minister Kipruto Kirwa, is said to have proposed a coalition name and a formula for pairing candidates. The PLP official claimed that attempts by the opposition leaders to convene a meeting to endorse the report have repeatedly been thwarted.

At the heart of the resistance is a clause in Azimio's agreement that names the party leader as the coalition's automatic presidential candidate.

In February, Mr Kenyatta named Mr Musyoka as the new leader of the coalition, replacing the late opposition leader Raila Odinga. Mr Odinga was the coalition’s party leader and presidential candidate in the 2022 race.

On Tuesday, as the opposition's competing interests and power struggles played out in public, Mr Musyoka moved to convene a meeting with Mr Gachagua and Eugene Wamalwa, the leader of the DAP-K party, in what sources described as an attempt to manage any possible revolt.

Mr Musyoka said the meeting was part of his ongoing engagement with like-minded political parties and groups, following his mandate from the Azimio Council to expand the coalition.

“We continue our engagements, strengthening the unity of the opposition as we work together to restore hope and deliver the Kenya that our people deserve,” he said. But as Mr Musyoka projected a united front, his newly-admitted co-principals in the Azimio coalition – Democratic Party leader Justin Muturi, Party of National Unity (PNU) leader Peter Munya and Devolution Empowerment Party (DEP) leader Lenny Kivuti – accused Mr Gachagua of trying to coerce them to dissolve their parties and join DCP.

Read: Power struggle in Mt Kenya as Gachagua is accused of 'tyranny'

Jubilee co-deputy party leader Jeremiah Kioni told the Nation they should be told the urgency in reviving the coalition. He claimed some of them have been locked out of the coalition’s top decision-making organ for supporting candidates other than Mr Musyoka.

“We need to be told why it is being revived. Kalonzo himself has been rooting for the United Opposition. At some point he even suggested the need to collapse Azimio. I want to know why all of a sudden there is a rush to revive it,” said Mr Kioni.

He described the current Azimio as a pale shadow of its former self, claiming that he has been isolated for backing Jubilee presidential candidate Fred Matiang’i.

“They removed me from the meetings because of my support for Matiang’i. There seems to be many schemes against Matiang’i by political brokers,” he said.

Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi said Linda Mwananchi can only wish Azimio well in its plan to restructure and rebrand. He said the faction’s main focus now is to sell Mr Sifuna, its presidential candidate, across the country before engaging in coalition talks. He said the camp plans to tour at least 31 remaining counties seeking views of Kenyans.

“Our focus now is to promote Linda Mwananchi and have our candidate formally declare his presidential bid,” said Mr Osotsi.

Read: Matiang'i exposes power struggles amid Gachagua camp tensions

“We are not saying we cannot join, but at the moment our focus is on building our party and candidate,” he explained.

Similar views were shared by Funyula MP Wilberforce Oundo, who told the Nation that Linda Mwananchi has not given the idea of joining Azimio any consideration.

“We will only join a coalition that is organised well enough to send Ruto home. Linda Mwananchi at the moment is not a member of Azimio. We have not given the matter any consideration,” said the MP.

Allies of Mr Gachagua, led by Gatanga MP Edward Muriu and his Embakasi Central counterpart Benjamin Gathiru popularly known as Mejja Donk, also said that DCP has no plans of joining the Azimio coalition.

DCP acknowledged efforts to unite the opposition, but noted its plans to solidify its support bases before engaging in any coalition talks. Mr Muriu said they can only join the coalition if there is an overhaul in its structure and leadership. He pointed out that ODM still remains a principal member of the coalition.

“Whether to join or not to join will be discussed much later. Our focus now is to solidify our position in the Mountain and Maasai land,” said Mr Muriu.

Mr Gathiru said DCP cannot join the coalition if there is mutual respect. He pointed out that some of the current Azimio Council members have no solid political support base to help the movement beat President William Ruto. He also insisted that any arrangement would only be about the presidential ticket. He said the other electoral seats would all be up for grabs by all parties.

“There must be mutual respect. Some of the people there have zero value. They have no support anywhere,” he said.

The lawmaker said they will have to look at the constitution to understand what it means for one to be the party leader before making any decision.

Mr Gathiru said the other option is for Mr Musyoka to lead Azimio in coalition talks with DCP and Linda Mwananchi since no party is ready to be swallowed by an existing coalition.

“No one would agree to be swallowed into something they did not create. The discussion that we must have is about what each party is bringing to the table. We would rather have three or four parties that have numbers,” said the MP.

Addressing supporters on Friday, Mr Gachagua dismissed suggestions that opposition leaders would simply meet and endorse one presidential candidate.

"Let everybody market his party," he said. "Don't imagine an endorsement from us. We are struggling day and night mobilising the public. Don't imagine that we shall sit somewhere and dish out positions. Never."

The Monday meeting, chaired by Mr Kenyatta, resolved to brand the coalition and bring together all the opposition parties under one umbrella before settling on a single candidate to face Dr Ruto on August 10, 2027.

In the restructuring announced following the meeting, the coalition admitted Dr Matiang’i, Mr Munya and Mr Kivuti as new council members.

The DP of Mr Muturi, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Umoja na Maendeleo Party (UMP) of former Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza also became new Azimio members.

Mr Muturi said they will need to review the coalition’s deed of agreement so that all members can own the process. He said the clause about the coalition party leader being the automatic presidential candidate is one of the areas that would require a review.

The former National Assembly Speaker said the idea is to bring one-term forces together in a more structured way. He said having the discussion now would allow for robust deliberations for members to understand what they are getting into.

“Some of the clauses need to be reviewed so that people understand what they are getting into so that they feel that their input was considered,” said Mr Muturi. He said other areas that would require a review include the composition of various organs of the coalition.

Suba South MP Caroli Omondi – who is Azimio Secretary-General – on Monday said they were actively trying to reach out to both Mr Gachagua and former Chief Justice David Maraga. Mr Maraga is the party leader of the United Green Movement (UDM).

Mr Omondi explained that once they have all new members onboard, they will come up with a new name that accommodates all interests of partners.

Read:  Uhuru’s Azimio reaches out to Gachagua, Sifuna camps

The thinking behind rebranding Azimio is that Raila’s supporters can still identify with the coalition in the next elections. In the grand scheme of things, Mr Kenyatta and his strategies seek to rebrand Azimio to make the coalition more appealing to the youthful population, popularly known as Gen Z, as well as new partners.

Mr Kenyatta is said to be pulling all the stops to have one presidential candidate to avoid a repeat of the mistake made by the opposition in the 1992 elections when they fielded multiple candidates that consequently handed then President Daniel Moi another win.

Prof David Monda, a US-based political analyst, says the manoeuvres by Mr Kenyatta depend on whether other opposition members agree to work within the Azimio Coalition. He says revival of Azimio could be part of the grand plan to have Mr Musyoka as the presidential candidate.

“At a bare minimum, it is Uhuru's effort to bring some type of unified structure around Kenya's fractured opposition. It is becoming clear Kenyans know who they will vote against. What is not clear is whom they will vote for.”

Prof Monda says reviving Azimio makes sense because it elevates Kalonzo and forces peripheral opposition power brokers either to play ball or leave Azimio.

“In a sense, Uhuru's move to revive Azimio can be seen as an effort to fast-track the demise of ODM and its constituent parts. The more divided the opposition is, the more they do not offer the electorate a viable and superior option to Ruto, the stronger the incumbent becomes.”

Azimio is pushing for a coalition model inspired by the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) that swept Mwai Kibaki to power in 2002.

Under this new arrangement, parties would retain their identities while rallying behind a common presidential candidate and a shared coalition platform.

In 2002, Mr Odinga’s Liberal Democratic Party joined Kibaki’s National Alliance Kenya to form Narc, which fielded candidates in 205 of 210 constituencies and won 125 of them, with 62 per cent of the presidential vote.

Follow our WhatsApp channel for breaking news updates and more stories like this.

[email protected]