Why Raila should give up presidential ambitions for his rival Mudavadi

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By KWAMCHETSI MAKOKHA
Posted  Friday, March 9  2012 at  18:06

Faced with the prospect of a humiliating defeat at the General Election, Prime Minister Raila Odinga needs to cut his losses and step down for his party deputy, Mr Musalia Mudavadi.

The Orange Democratic Movement, once the giant of the field, is today a political mouse — thanks in no small part to Mr Odinga’s leadership.

Discord has driven members into numerous other political vehicles, all with the aim of taking down Mr Odinga.

All opinion polls show that ODM is nowhere near being the majority party, as the Kenya African National Union once was, largely because of Mr Odinga’s style and character.

Mr Mudavadi, who is also Deputy Prime Minister and minister for Local Government, had painstakingly negotiated for a half loaf in the coalition government, but Mr Odinga has settled for three slices instead. It was not enough to go round.

Although Mr Mudavadi personally drew voters into the party with his charming smile, charisma, thick moustache and polished English, Mr Odinga alienated many of them by expelling them from the Mau Forest Complex, encouraging their charging at the International Criminal Court and their prosecution in Kenyan courts.

In the space of just four years as Prime Minister, Mr Odinga is weighed down by baggage — from questions being raised about the maize importation scandal to the youth employment programme, he has a suitcase of issues that do not endear him to voters.

Mr Mudavadi travels light, however, with a paperbag of allegations around the grave matter of the cemetery land and the out-of-court settlement with the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission.

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Where Mr Odinga attracts enemies like a magnet, Mr Mudavadi has friends everywhere. Former President Daniel arap Moi loves him like a son; Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta considers him a brother, Eldoret North MP William Ruto trusts him with his future.

Mr Mudavadi’s skilful navigation of relationships, learnt from his long experience as a minister and Vice-President in the government of former President Moi, is a guarantee that he will not be bumbling around government, threatening civil servants, as has been the habit of Mr Odinga.

No wonder Mr Mudavadi’s decision to seek the party’s ticket to vie for the presidency has electrified the whole country, increasing his personal opinion poll ratings by three-fold from just one per cent in three months.

Every month, Mr Odinga’s ratings keep dropping. Whereas not everybody in ODM likes Mr Odinga, Mr Mudavadi is loved to bits by everybody outside the party.

Surely, that must be the formula for electoral victory, to win the support of your foes and opponents.

People who would otherwise never have had an interest in the party’s affairs are just waiting to be led by a gifted and handsome young man like Mr Mudavadi.

Future supporters are already swooning at the prospect of his thick moustache on the currency in their wallets.

Mr Mudavadi is the only individual who can mend the breaches Mr Odinga has created between ODM and the Kenyan people.

He can destroy the dangerous personality cult politics in the party and replace them with policies.

This is not the time to start citing useless party constitutions about the leader automatically being its presidential candidate.

Mr Odinga should personally suspend the party constitution and anoint Mr Mudavadi as the ODM torchbearer. Mr Mudavadi has been loyal to Mr Odinga when everybody else was deserting him.

When Mr Odinga needed someone to rehabilitate politically, Mr Mudavadi stepped forward and said: “Use me as a test case of your influence.” It is payback time.

kwamchetsi@formandcontent.co.ke