Raila, Mudavadi could lose face as loyalists engage in war of words

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Published Sunday, May 13 2012 at 00:00

By JUMA KWAYERA

A vicious verbal tirade between Prime Minister Raila Odinga and his deputy Musalia Mudavadi’s communications teams offers a rare peek into the inner workings of the two presidential aspirants’ ‘war councils’.

Pointers are that the ferocity of the attacks is just a test-run of the election campaign proper. Barely three months into his new job as head of the Raila Odinga Presidential Campaign Secretariat, journalist and publisher Barrack Muluka and Mudavadi’s Private Secretary Kibisu Kabatesi have gone hammer and tongs at each other.

They have set a campaign momentum Raila and Mudavadi are expected to sustain, to further erode vestiges of civility and decorum remaining between the two former allies.

Although the former allies had promised to anchor their strategies on issues, it is evident they have retooled their strategies and are aiming at softer targets — character.

Police keen guard after supporters of Raila and his former ally Mudavadi [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

Where Raila is abrasive and combative, Mudavadi cuts the image of a sober, but tough bargainer. To the media and the electorate, Muluka and Kabatesi are bent on inflaming political passions and in the process setting the stage for a more bruising contest between the PM and DPM, if not communities in western Kenya where they draw their largest following.

Communication expert Egara Kabaji says the war of words from the Raila and Mudavadi camps serves the interest of their rivals.

Clear message

“Salvation for Odinga and Mudavadi will be a clear message that resonates with the people. Otherwise Muluka has serious job to do only that the way he is doing undermines his client,” says Prof Kabaji, who is Director of Communication and Publishing at Masinde Muliro University.

The PM and DPM aides have relegated fellow message managers in the business to bystanders and provided a glimpse of a picture of carefree distortion of image in competitive politics. Little, if any, is coming from the other presidential aspirants — Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto, Peter Kenneth, Martha Karua or Prof George Saitoti — as the PM and DPM have stolen the show and dominated news content in the past three weeks.

The tussle between the two through their spin-doctors draws parallel in the US presidential campaigns. President Obama’s head of election advertising team Jim Margolis says those election secretariats are “hell’s kitchen” where the chefs have “a flair for boiling down a good résumé in 30 seconds.”

The discharge of their mandate is in stark contrast of Obama’s campaign manager David Axelrod, who is credited with anchoring the message of change and hope that propelled the democratic presidential candidate to the White House.

Axelrod explains his role thus: “I have never believed in the Wizard of Oz theory of consulting, that I am all-knowing and all-seeing, and that everyone around me is kind of a backbencher.... I see my job simply as helping disseminate the message of Barack Obama, working with the communications team to make sure that we’re true to the ideals and the values and the programmes that he wants to advance in this country. And that’s the extent of my involvement.”

Kabaji agrees. “Candidates are never on top of things. It is the responsibility of their handlers to gauge the public mood and package their messages to suit it. The handlers run the show, but in this case they are making it difficult for their clients to popularise themselves by issuing stupid statements,” he argues.

Muluka is the official face of the PM’s communication strategy. He heads a team of media personalities, political scientists, researchers and economists tasked with doing damage control and at the same time ensuring their candidate enjoys publicity.

Mudavadi is in the process of constituting his presidential campaign secretariat, having only unveiled the United Democratic Forum barely two weeks ago.

Raila’s campaign team has headlined its campaign against Mudavadi with perception of a conservative and insensitive to the plight of the people and beholden to powerful interests.

Team Raila responded to accusations of terror and violence at the burial of Nairobi Mayor George Aladwa father thus: “Throughout his (Mudavadi’s) career, he has been used to soft options as a freeloader. He has also been part of the worst economic and political dispensation in the country to the extent that it is laughable for him to speak about good governance, the economy, corruption and allied topics. He just does not have the credentials.”

Kabatesi responded in kind by invoking animism as an ideology the Prime Minister is using as his election strategy. In a statement to the media last weekend, Kabatesi said the vicious attack on DPM by Muluka is motivated by the sense of loss the PM feels. “Their vulgarity speaks volumes about the ‘character’ of their candidate (Raila).... You can read animism here; serious evil visited onto a very peaceful and religious community. Never has this community ever witnessed such wickedness against their value system of honouring the dead.”

Verbal strides

Asked about the decidedly raw attack on PM’s opponents in the coming presidential election, Muluka acknowledged the verbal strikes are aimed to be punchy enough to weaken opponents and that the content is sanctioned by the PM.

The attacks have at times worked against the aspirants. When Muluka hit about at Deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret MP William Ruto, describing them as criminals who should be serving time in prison, the response was fast and furious.

This was in reference to the crimes against humanity the two are facing at the international Criminal Court. The unrepentant PM got the flak for ‘rejoicing’ in the misfortunes of his opponents.

The silence of the protagonists about the bare-knuckled attacks have also raised eyebrows among supporters of Raila and Mudavadi, who until three weeks back were leader and deputy leader of ODM, respectively.

The personalised nature of the attacks is also telling, although the two say they enjoy a healthy professional relationship.

Muluka, however, admits a rift traced back to the 2007 parliamentary nominations scarred his relationship with Mudavadi, who he accuses of influencing a decision by ODM to ‘deny’ him the ticket.

It is against this backdrop that Kabatesi terms Muluka “an intellectual tool playing the politics of reciprocity to the master after being hired.”