By Our Reporters
There is growing alarm within
the Raila Odinga-led Azimio
team engaged in peace talks
with the Kenya Kwanza government
of President William Ruto that Wiper
boss ex-VP Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka
could jump ship.
This is after he skipped a scheduled
key meeting at Bomas of Kenya
without any explanation.
Azimio had nominated the former
presidential candidate in 2007 and
later vice president to late Mwai
Kibaki to lead the talks but many
political watchers have been reading
between the lines warning it could
be devastating to his 2027 political
ambitions.
Posting on Tweeter popular TV
analyst Herman Manyora asked the
former VP to “run run run” away
from the Bomas talks where he is
facing political green horns from
Kenya Kwanza like hardliner Kimani
Ichungwa a Mount Kenya MP and
fanatical supporter of President Ruto.
Many are now pointing to what
happened in the run up to the 2022
elections when Kalonzo, Musalia
Mudavadi and Moses Wetangula were
heading the then Kenya One coalition
and had been expected to field one
candidate to face off Ruto and Odinga
as the third force.
For months they kept declaring
they were in the race to the wire!
That did not happen! The decision is
said to have angered at least 2 million
Kenyans who decided not to vote as
they had been waiting for a candidate
of the third force.
Instead Kalonzo after repeatedly
categorically declaring he would
be “stupid” if he turned round and
supported Odinga for the third time,
he later did exactly that shocking
friends and foes! The Luhya kingpins
Mudavadi and Wetangula on their
part chose to join the Ruto flagship
with prime pledges of positions that
they are now enjoying.
But Kalonzo, 71, who is not getting
younger has kept seeing his political
fortunes sinking with every election
after 5 years in which he has backed
Odinga.
The disquiet over this in his Kamba
political home-turf was demonstrated
when Ruto managed to pock holes
into a previously no-fly zone for
Kalonzo opponents.
Ruto’s party even managed to get 2
MPs and several MCAs showing the
growing discontent with the Kamba
strongman.
The Kamba made history in the
first 1992 multi-party elections when
Charity Ngilu became the first woman
to vie for the presidency that was then
won by incumbent the late President
Daniel Moi. Moi, the self declared
professor and grand-master of
Kenya’s ethnic driven politics, would
again win in 1997 using a discredited
constitution that allowed a winner to
garner simple majority and 25 percent
in 5 provinces today counties.
In both administrations Kalonzo
served both as foreign and education
minister. The former VP has also been
involved in peace keeping shuttle
talks in South Sudan, Somalia and
Ethiopia.
It is with this in hindsight that
observers are warning Kalonzo
not to “stoop low” by engaging
in negotiations with political ‘fly
weights” like Ichungwa a hardliner
who is below 40 years and just cutting
their teeth in politics.
At any rate they argue once the talks
become owned by Kalonzo and later
fail to bear fruit, this will be a major
drawback to the career of a man who
has distinguished himself as a peace
maker for many years.
Indeed Raila seemed to underscore
this point when he sarcastically pointed
out that Kenya Kwanza had fielded its
“second 11” to play in the super league
against their team headed by Kalonzo!
Raila, an avid footballer and fan is
never short of soccer metaphors and
2007 election campaigns claimed his
opponent Kibaki had been given a red
card by the referee! The Kamba vote
block has been uneasy with their most
prominent son after he backed Raila in
2013 and 2017 presidential elections.
It had been widely assumed that
Odinga would in 2022 return the favour and field Kalonzo, playing kingmaker.
But the former prime
minister 2008-2012 told off his former
allies saying they would have to wait
until he became president since he
missed the slot in 2013 and 2017.
Of immediate concern for the soft
spoken Kalonzo who was sometimes
described as flip flopping “water
melon” is the stark political reality
facing Azimio which since March 2023
has wrestled with the ruling Kenya
Kwanza on the streets in weekly
chaotic demonstrations that have
claimed lives and destroyed property.
A lawyer by profession, Kalonzo
faulted Odinga’s attack on the US
saying at this time the opposition
needs goodwill from all its friends
citing 2007-08 as an enduring lesson.
Warning diplomats of friendly
countries like US is said to have rattled
the Wiper party leader who may well
be weighing his options.
Just before the elections Kalonzo
was said to have already joined the
Ruto flagship with Mudavadi and
Wetangula and in fact went to the
Amani/UDA delegates conference
at Bomas that endorsed the current
president.
Kalonzo however walked out at the
last minute baffling many and straight
into the hands of Odinga for yet a
straight third time.
Ngilu who was then Kitui governor
had warned Azimio leaders to stop
underestimating the Ruto ‘voting
machine” as chest thumping Odinga
supporters waved away her fears.
The night of August 9 2022 would
seem to have vindicated Ngilu fears
and she has since chosen to lie low not
engaging in any further activities of
Azmio.
Kalonzo the diplomat is well too
aware of the weight assertions from
a US envoy holds despite Odinga
treating the matter lightly. The position
of US automatically becomes the
official policy of all European Union
(EU) countries and most of Asia and
Latin America. Its no accident that just
days after the US envoy spoke, Kenya
is hosting the president of Indonesia!
Kalonzo who was for many years
a minister for foreign affairs given to
civil diplomatic language has largely
distanced himself from attacks on
the US envoy in Nairobi M/S Meg
Whitman.
A moderate of unquestionable
credentials, Kalonzo is said to have
been upset by attacks Raila and some
hardliners directed at Whitman for
declaring the 2022 elections the “freest
and fairest”.
As President Ruto and deputy
Rigathi Gachagau led their troops in
defence of the US envoy, Kalonzo for
many years the charge de affairs for
the Seychelles in Kenya is said to have
taken great exception to attacks on
the US being Kenya’s largest trading
partner and a major investor and ally
for many years.
Kalonzo has since the diplomatic
spat with the US virtually gone
underground and was nowhere to be
seen despite being co-chair of the talks
that are yet to agree on an agenda. The
former VP may be already reading
the writing on the wall having been a
beneficiary of the post 2007 bungled
presidential election results that ended
in a “nusu mkate” (power sharing)
agreement largely influenced by US
Secretary of State Condeleza Rice who
tasked former UN Secretary General
the late Koffi Annan. The same talks
made Raila Prime Mnister
Kalonzo became vice president
to President Kibaki and almost
succeeded him in 2013 when UhuruRuto faced ICC charges against abuse
of humanity charges in post election
violence of 2007-08 that claimed 1350
lives.
Some Kamba leaders including
his former close associate Johnstone
Muthama who is chairman of
President Ruto’s UDA party has kept
warning Kalonzo to be careful with
his political decisions.
Muthama previously a bitter critic
of Uhuru-Ruto jumped ship as the
presidential race entered home stretch
and tried to influence Kalonzo into a
deal with Ruto.
During a campaign rally in Makueni
weeks to the 2022 August elections,
Ruto called out Kalonzo telling his
supporters that the former VP was
welcome to board his flagship. “Ask
him to look for me” Ruto told cheering
crowds.
Instead much against his own
words, Kalonzo again backed “the
wrong horse” with claims that the dice
is already cast and Ruto now enjoying
support of western nations led by US
is unassailable.
Uhuru Kenyatta (Left) and Raila Odinga in a March 18, 2018 handshake
So which way Kalonzo as the
Azimio flagship navigates through
stormy waters with the horizon of a
land flowing with milk and honey,
Canaan, becomes a distant delusion
with each passing day? Odinga has
since 2013 promised to take Kenyans
to the biblical Canaan! Thrice denied■
