By OTIENO OTIENO jkotieno@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Saturday, February 18 2012 at 21:49
Posted Saturday, February 18 2012 at 21:49
For a politician starting off his presidential bid as a rank outsider, Mr Raphael Tuju won many admirers with the way he conducted the launch of his new Party of Action (POA) last Sunday.
The former Foreign Affairs minister packed the amphitheatre at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi with supporters, delivered a powerful speech and had the event aired live on national television, suggesting that he plans to run a well-organised and issue-based campaign. (READ: Tuju unveils his Party of Action)
“I have the organisational ability to run a presidential campaign and the goodwill of many Kenyans to mobilise [resources from].
“If I didn’t have the ability I wouldn’t have made the decision to run in the first place,” Mr Tuju said in an interview on Friday.
“As I said in my speech during the launch of the party and in our 12-point manifesto, I want to address the important things that Kenyans need or affect them, like change to a modern and industrial economy, mechanise agriculture, improve education and health care and reconcile ethnic communities.”
But the presence of two heavyweights of the G7 alliance, Mr William Ruto and Mr Uhuru Kenyatta, at the ceremony introduced a twist to Mr Tuju’s campaign for State House.
It sparked speculation in the media that POA could be a key cog of a formidable political machine being built to succeed President Kibaki in the next elections.
Mr Ruto alluded to Mr Tuju being “part of the new thing that is happening in Kenya” in his brief speech.
Strategists for Mr Ruto’and Mr Kenyatta are widely believed to have privately discussed the possibility of the two leaders backing somebody else for the presidency in the event that they are prevented from running by the charges against them at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Among the names that have reportedly been floated for the short-list are Saboti MP Eugene Wamalwa and Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi.
Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka was — until last week’s public falling out with his former G7 allies –– thought to be the most likely beneficiary of the ICC trials due to his roles in the PNU coalition and the government’s diplomatic effort to have the cases deferred.
Nyanza politics
Mr Tuju, whose last public job was as President Kibaki’s adviser on media and management of diversity, also appears to fit the bill for his show of solidarity with the G7 chiefs and opposition to Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s stranglehold on Nyanza politics.
“Mr Tuju is styling himself as a less polarising candidate than Prime Minister Raila Odinga and others. It’s a drifting strategy,” argued Sunday Nation columnist Kwendo Opanga in his article on February 5.
But Mr Tuju dismissed the notion that he is presenting himself as the alternative to the PM from Nyanza.
“I consider Mr Odinga an elder statesman because he doesn’t belong to our generation, and I have no personal differences with him ... I don’t subscribe to personality politics.
“I will be seeking to mobilise the entire country which Nyanza happens to be part of,” said Mr Tuju.
The former Rarieda MP also denied he is part of the G7 alliance, saying his campaign strategists have not imagined a scenario where Mr Kenyatta’s and Mr Ruto’s names won’t be on the ballot paper.
“I know for a fact that Mr Ruto and Mr Kenyatta will run [for the presidency]. I respect their rights to run, and I believe there is nothing in law that stops them,” he said, adding that he considered it unfair to seek to prevent the two politicians from competing in the presidential race.
Mr Tuju will perhaps hope that such a bold profession of solidarity will serve to allay any suspicions that his decision to parade a dozen victims of post-election violence at his party’s launch may have caused among his friends in the G7 alliance.
Lately, MPs allied to Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto have displayed a propensity to fight any politician who has taken the opposite view of the the political ramifications of their anticipated trials at the ICC.
Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo has found himself on the receiving end of a threatened censure motion for constantly arguing that the two leaders are not eligible to run for the presidency.
The decision in the G-7 alliance to sideline the Vice-President has been attributed to perceived uncomfortable utterances reportedly made by his key allies about the ICC trials at a political rally in Machakos last Sunday.
“The only alliance I desire to be part of is one that brings together all Kenyans. Where Kenyans are the key focus, there I will be,” he said.Mr Tuju, however, says he is pursuing a different kind of alliance as he prepares for the next stage of his presidential campaign.
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