Report By Bob Ndira Uradi in Kericho Town
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RUMOURS and speculations making the round in this tea land town that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Government Wycliffe Musalia Mudavadi is the newest project of the retired President Daniel Arap Moi.
Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta was Moi’s project in the 2002 general election as his anointed successor to the presidency, but was roundly rejected by his Kalenjin voters. The latter was the son of the Moi’s own political mentor, the founding President the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and therefore was part of his grand scheme for political dynasty in Kenya.
These rumors and speculations, however, the remotest as they are for now, could be somehow credible judging from the sudden change of hearts by many people in this region towards the ODM deputy leader by many Kalenjin, particularly members of the populous Kipsigis community.
The Kipsigis is a sub-tribe of the larger Kalenjn ethnic groups. Its members occupied the votes rich region comprising of Kericho and Bomet Counties, But members of the same community also have a strong presence in the diaspora districts and constituencies such as Trans-Mara, Kuresoi, Molo, Nakuru, Koibatek,Rongai, Tinderet, Nandi Hills .Aldai, Narok North and Narok West and Cherangany.
In the general elections of the year 2007, the community voted for the ODM and the Prime minister Raila Odinga on a man-to-man, and out of its close to 1.3 million votes, the latter is believed to have garnered about 85 per cent, Thus was so despite of the strong anti-Odinga campaign by the retired President Daniel Arap Moi, the self-styled professor of Kenya’s politics whose word is counting a lot among members of this particular community.
Thanks to the strong and tireless campaign efforts mounted by prominent and senior members of this community who included the former Deputy Chief of Staff of the combined armed forces of Kenya Lt.Gen.{rtd} John Arap Koech, the populist and then political kingpin of the community, the Late Donald Kipkalia Kones and his boyhood friend Franklin Bett {now the Minister for Roads, the late Lorna Laboso, the first single and unmarried woman to win a parliamentary seat in a rural constituency inside the Kipsigis reserved land.
It is also worthwhile to mention the names of the younger generation of politicians in the region who played the pivotal role in popularizing the ODM in the 2007 general elections which saw Raila Odinga sweeping the board in the presidential race against President Mwai Kibaki .They included the youthful politicians like Magerer Lang’at, the late David Too, Dr Julius Kones, William {Chemosit} Arap Kettienya and others and to a lesser extent Charles Keter Donald Ng’eny.Nicholas Tum and others.
It became obvious that the community had risen up against the former strongman Daniel Arap Moi and voted for the man whom he hates most, Raila Odinga.
However, the latest rumors and speculations making the round in this region is that Moi and others have hatched the plan to rock the boat of the Orange Democratic Movement {ODM} and scuttle the presidential ambition of its leader Raila Amolo Odinga by the alleged scheme of secretly sponsoring and bankrolling Mudavadi to divide and weaken the ODM thereby split the bins for “Agwambo” before he finally ditched the ODM for the prior arrangement for his soft landing into KANU.
Sources close to KANU in Kericho have revealed that there several options. The first option is for Mudavadi to go into full length in challenging Raila Odinga in the party’s presidential nomination, if he succeeds in dethroning Odinga and become the ODM torch-bearer in the next general elections, then KANU would automatically merge or form a loose alliance with the ODM. And in such political scenario, Moi’s favored son Gideon would be Mudavadis running-mate. But before this the current national chairman of KANU Uhuru Kenyatta would be edged out of the party leadership within the next two months.
Proponents of this idea have the Kalenjin votes in mind. They fear that the G47 alliance that would see Uhru Kenyatta contesting the presidential election with the Eldoret North MP William Ruto as his running mate would scare away the Kipsigis votes. This particular community has the history of single handedly having fought so many tribal wars against their Kikuyu neighbors ever since 1992. And therefore the Kipsigis voters might not be comfortable voting for another Kikuyu president in the near future.
Political pundits among this community were quick in saying that although the community loves the Eldoret North MP William Ruto, there are strong discontent and dissenting views about his close political association with Kenyatta. These were some of the reasons why this particular community had rejected Uhuru Kenyatta’s presidential bid in 2002 despite the strong and well elaborate campaign mounted for him in the region by the retired President Moi, who even went out of hand using the government resources and facilities in a well orchestrated campaign, but could not succeed in selling Uhuru Kenyatta to the Kipsigis voters And Moi is said to be very much aware of the inner feeling of the community
Moi is also reported by other unconfirmed reports making the round in this region to have advised his group not to spend the election resources while trying to lure the Luo voters to their side, arguing that the Luos are the most unreliable lots when it come to question of who to vote for, they will always troop up behind Raila Odinga after squandering such resources, therefore it would be a waste of time and energy, according to his past experience.
Kisiis and Luhyias voters are venerable voters in Western Kenya who could easily be manipulated with cash hand outs and other niceties. Experts in the anti-Raila groups have therefore directed Mudavadi’s campaigners to target the Kisiis and Luhiyas.
It says that the Sabatia MP has plan A and B, The plan A involved his aggressive campaign for the ODM presidential ticket, but in the event of his failure to win the party ticket against his , boss, the DPM would ditch the ODM and cross over to KANU.
Plan B is that he is the preferable KANU/PNU alternative candidate in the event of Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto being prevented by the law from contesting the presidency due to the ICC cases facing them at the Hague Mudavadi would then be the most favored presidential candidate for the combined parties like PNU, URP, WPK and KANU with Moi’s favorable son Gideon Moi as his running mate.
A number of political personalities in Kericho who spoke to this write and requested that their names should not be published for fear of reprisals said the campaign for Mudavadi’s presidential bid has begun in earnest.
It I being alleged that Moi is the one who is bankrolling Mudavadi’s campaign kitty, The retired President according to sources is not comfortable with Raila nor is he in favor of the Eldoret North MP William Samoei Ruto. He has yet to forgiven the two for having been instrumental for his election defeat in 2002, which brought KANU regime to an abrupt end after close to 40 years of uninterrupted rule.
The link between the Mudavadis and the Mois is dating back close to 65 years ago. It started in 1954 when Mudavadi’s father the late Moses Sabstian Budamba Mudavadi was working in the North Rift, first as a teacher and later as an Assistant Education Officer {AEO} and later as the District Education Officer{DEO}, while Daniel Toroitich Arap Moi was the head teacher at the various primary schools in the region and later at Tambach Teachers Training College in Baringo.
Mi by then was the darling of the African Inland Mission {AIM} now African Inland Church {AIC}and the then White Missionaries highly recommended him in the support of Mr Moses Mudavadi, and that is how the self-proclaimed professor of Kenya’s politics entered into politics. He succeeded John Ole Tameno who had voluntary resigned in huff from the colonial Legislative Council.
But in the first election of the eight African elected members of the Colonial Legislative Council in March 1957, Moi won the election as the representative of the entire Rift Valley Province. Earlier in 1948 the colonial government had nominated the late John Chemallan from the Nandi sub-tribe as the first black Legco member for the Rift Valley, while Eliud Wambu Mthu represented the entire Central Province and Nairobi, Mr Beneah Apollo Ohanga a Lup from Gem represented Western Kenya and Jimmy Jeremiah represented the Coast. But in 1952, the son of the late E-Senior Chief of Bureti the late Cheborge ArapTengecha, the late Francis Chuma was also nominated in the Colonial Legislative, but he only served beefy.
The common saying among the Kipsigis people is that it is a repaying time for Moi to help the son of his friend and brother-n-law Moses Mudavadi to become the fourth President of the Republic of Kenya. He previously appointed Mudvadi to the key Ministerial slot of the Minister for Finance and later the Vice President in which the latter had briefly prior to the 2002 general election appointed Mudavadi his Vice President before the last KANU regime was ousted out of power in 2002.
It could be remembered that that Moi association with Mudvadi’s father is dating back to the years 1950s while both were teachers in the North Rift.
It was during this period of time when the colonial administration sought for an intelligent and well educated African in the region who could be fit to be recommended for the nomination to the colonial Legislative Council. Mudavadi was tipped for the job, but instead he recommended Daniel Arap Moi for the job instead of clinching it for himself. The late Muadavadi also was married to a Tugen woman who is a close relative of the Mois. Thus, this was the beginning of the cementing down the relationship that ha survived for over 60 years.
The late Moses Mudavadi served in the Moi’s cabinet in senior ministerial positions of Education and later in the Local Government and had become the most powerful member of the cabinet from Western Kenya. At one time hr served as the Secretary-General of the ruling KANU party after succeeding the late Robert S.Matano.
Taking all these into account, It Is indeed therefore prudent that the rumor about Moi’s covertly involvement in the alleged support or Mudavadi to break the back-born of Raila Odinga’s ODM in the same fashion the latter had succeeded in dismantling Moi’s KANU last regime in 2002 cannot be ruled out.
In order to survive this onslaught on ODM Raila and his lieutenants must pull up their sacks and put in place the most effective plans to effectively and elaborate counter checks. At the moment the ODM is still very safe in Western Province, but not so safe in the South Rift and Kisii regions. The party needs to do a lot of home work in order to regain its lost past glory in the two regions.
It must recruit and groom the most credible individual political personalities to serve as a back-up teams to supplement the services now being rendered by the likes of Franklin Bett, Magerer Lang’a, Madam Beatrice Kones, Madam Joyce Laboso and others. It must shop for strong and credible people in the two regions.
The young Mudavadi had served under the Moi Presidency and was his last Vice President in 2002 when KANU lost power to the amalgamated parties, which grouped under the umbrella of charity Ngilu’s NARC. I regrouped former Moi’s trusted lieutenants and KANU stalwarts like Prof.Geore Saitoti, Charity Ngilu,Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, Moody Awuori, Raila Odinga, Najib Balala and others.
The group handed a devastating defeat to Moi’s preferable KANU presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta and helped President Mwai Kibaki win the presidency.
The name of Musalia Mudavadi is being mentioned in almost every village in both Kericho and Bomet Counties as the next President of the Republic of Kenya. Members of this community, however, are openly saying they wouldn’t be happy with the another Kikuyu president taking into considerations that this is the Kalenjin sub-tribe which has fought the fiercest tribal skirmishes against other communities.