Raila and Uhuru in secret meeting

By MUGUMO MUNENE mmunene@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Saturday, August 14 2010 at 21:00
In Summary

New Alliance: Finance minister visits PM at home in what may turn out to be the beginning of a political relationship as both men set their eyes on the Kibaki Succession.
Mr Kenyatta led a group of mainly extended family members to the PM’s residence to deliver a get-well-soon message in a meeting that lasted well over five hours

Prime Minister Raila Odinga and his Deputy Uhuru Kenyatta have held a private meeting that could herald the beginning of a new political alliance.

The meeting, which took place in Mr Odinga’s Karen home last Saturday, was billed as a family affair where the Kenyattas paid the Odingas a visit to wish the PM quick recovery following his recent hospitalisation.

The occasion – which sources say was laced with heavy political undertones — was supposed to be a private affair.

Mr Kenyatta led a group of mainly extended family members to the PM’s residence to deliver a get-well-soon message in a meeting that lasted well over five hours. Mr Odinga has been recovering at home after undergoing head surgery at the Nairobi Hospital on June 29.

“We went there in a convoy of about 10 vehicles to deliver a get-well-soon message. There was stuff like unga and mbuzi for soup (flour and goats for soup recipe) of the nature you take to a recovering person just like happens in the African tradition. It was cordial and social but laced with political undercurrents and remarks,” said a delegation member who cannot be quoted revealing family secrets.

The two leaders discussed family political matters which inevitably are at the heart of the country’s politics, impeccable sources told the Sunday Nation.

The delegation, which mainly consisted of Mr Kenyatta’s close relatives, was driven into the Odinga residence at about 11 a.m. and stayed on until 4 p.m. In the team was Mr Muhoho Kenyatta, a quiet but heavily influential brother of the Deputy PM.

Mr Kenyatta did not respond to our calls yesterday and neither did he respond to a text message seeking further details about the visit.

Mr Odinga’s spokesperson Dennis Onyango said: “That was purely a family matter and people should not read too much into it.”

It is however not lost on observers that the two families are seldom on the same side of national politics.

Mr Kenyatta and Mr Odinga found themselves in New Kanu, an outfit crafted by former President Moi to succeed him when he left office in 2002.

But the arrangement came apart after the former President named Mr Kenyatta his successor and pulled all stops to ensure his plan succeeded.

Disgruntled, Mr Odinga and other Cabinet ministers who thought Mr Moi should have let democracy to play out left Kanu after which the country’s independence party came unstuck.

Details pieced together by the Sunday Nation from those familiar with the diaries of the two men indicate that Mr Kenyatta was in touch with the PM and called him soon after his hospitalisation on June 28 at which he promised to visit him. It was not until last Saturday, after the referendum campaigns, that Mr Kenyatta followed up on his promise.

The two men are no strangers to each other and have had an on-and- off political relationship. It began a generation before their day in government when with their fathers, founding President Jomo Kenyatta and his first Vice-President Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, formed a formidable alliance at the dawn of independence and later fell out. Bitterly.

Should it turn out that Mr Kenyatta is keen on forming an alliance with Mr Odinga, then it may be that he is borrowing from wisdom passed down by his father in his younger days.

“Growing up in the Kenyatta household taught us many things. My father taught us to treat everyone fairly. He taught us the essence of justice and fairness, he told us to learn from history but not to live in history,” Mr Kenyatta told the BBC when he ran for president in 2002.

As it turned out, he and his Kanu outfit were handed a decisive defeat by political forces led by President Kibaki and fuelled by Mr Odinga.

Mr Odinga and Mr Kenyatta are both interested in the country’s leadership. Political advisers close to the PM say that Mr Odinga is keen on handing President Kibaki a graceful exit from the national stage.

“He has repeatedly said that he doesn’t want anyone (from his team) to antagonise the President,” said one of the advisers who cannot be identified.

In doing so, the Sunday Nation was told, the PM hopes to harvest politically from the goodwill that the President and the Grand Coalition have cultivated with the endorsement of the new constitution.

On the other hand, Mr Kenyatta is keen to inherit the support President Kibaki enjoys in Central Kenya as a buttress for his national politics.

In June, Mr Kenyatta hosted a large delegation of central Kenya leaders at the Limuru Conference Centre at which they pledged to support the new constitution. By acclamation, the grassroots leaders asked Mr Kenyatta to bear their torch in national politics.

The meeting followed political whispers about Mr Kenyatta’s position on the draft constitution which prompted his critics at some point to label him undecided.

In 2005, Mr Kenyatta had joined forces with Cabinet ministers who were opposed to the Wako draft constitution at the time.

After the referendum, which the government side lost, the campaigners took on their Orange symbol and turned it into a party. Mr Kenyatta refused to play ball and stuck with Kanu.

Come 2007 and Mr Kenyatta announced that he would not run for president and would instead support President Kibaki. At the just-concluded referendum campaigns, Mr Kenyatta found himself on the same side with Mr Odinga.

The PM’s visibility at the start of the campaigns caused quiet jitters in President Kibaki’s inner circles with some worried that a “Yes” victory would grant Mr Odinga an advantage over his competitors for president in 2012.

The feeling nearly subverted the ‘Yes’ campaigns and appeared to have reached the PM’s quarters.

“The Green Alliance was formed in the early stages of the referendum out of the fear that ‘Raila was running away with Katiba’. It comprised largely of Uhuru’s aides, two of them new entrants to his circle,” said a ‘Yes’ campaign official. “The Green Alliance crowd fizzled upon President Kibaki’s displeasure with two secretariats. When the PM fell ill, the movers joined the Kibaki campaign trail.”

In a recent interview with the Sunday Nation, Mr Odinga said it was “good that I was away especially for those who felt that I was overbearing at the campaigns”. However, the PM has been conciliatory after the ‘Yes’ victory.

“The work of reconstructing this country has to begin now and it will require a bipartisan approach. We will not rebuild or accomplish anything if we face the future as ODM or PNU,” the PM said this week.