Mudavadi's Biggest Obstacles In His Presidential Bid

Mudavadi's Biggest Obstacles In His Presidential Bid

By Victor Omondi on 2012-08-16 01:25:49 (7 comments)

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Musalia Mudavadi is a politician known for his soft spoken and diplomatic way of doing things. Having joined active politics as a result of influence from the former President Moi, it has always come across that it was never his will to join politics, especially with the fact that Kenyan politics is full of mudslinging and insults.

That aside, Mudavadi has made his way up the political class becoming a minister and rising to become the vice president of Kenya in 2002. This has given him vast experience in public service and the political under-games that come with it. Mudavadi has made choices in the past that have projected him as a trustworthy ally both while serving under President Moi and Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

Having made a decision to vie for the presidency under the United Democratic Forum (UDF) party has put him on the spotlight with several Kenyans and the international community keen on appraising his candidacy. Mudavadi made a bold step, something that he is not known for; he defied the opinion polls and his boss to step up a strong campaign for the presidency.

What kind of a presidential candidate is Musalia Mudavadi?

To begin with, Mudavadi has been described as lame, uninspiring, risk-averse and an aspirant whose candidature balances entirely on what befalls the other top contenders in the presidential race. He has evaded some issues during his campaigns with the fear that making his position known would make him loose some of his support base. Really? Isn’t a leader supposed to make known his stand especially on matters that matter to the people he leads?

Looking at the opinion polls carried out recently by Synovate, one would not help but wonder why Mudavadi stands across as the universal compromise candidate but not the number one choice. This is to say that if the top contenders were not in the presidential race, Mudavadi would easily become the fourth president of Kenya.

In the past couple of months, Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi has been challenged to show his stamina, take clear-cut positions in key national debates and demonstrate that he has the temperament and know-how to be the next commander-in-chief.

Mudavadi’s campaign has been pegged on national reconciliation and stability with the continuous echo of working with other presidential candidates to ensure a united country during and after the elections. This is a good strategy but the approach is detrimental. With word going round that Mudavadi is a political project, his spirited call for pre-election pacts with parties vastly viewed as majorly working against Odinga’s candidacy and his unrelenting campaign for Raila Odinga to quit the presidential race have just confirmed the rumors.

His former party, ODM, has also done a blow to his candidature by amending the party constitution clause that made the party leader the automatic presidential candidate therefore opening avenue for others to challenge the party leader, Raila Odinga. This has elicited questions as to why he quit ODM yet the party had made commitment to strip-off the clause and having gone ahead to do so.

First and foremost, Mudavadi has to fight off the ‘project’ tag and steer clear of attacks against the Prime Minister if he is to portray himself as a leader whose primary concern is to better the lives of Kenyans through an all inclusive government. This would endear him to all voters across the political divide and pull the undecided voters to his side.

Secondly, Mudavadi has to work on his public presentations and his message to the electorate. He should not project himself in the rallies as a diplomat, a ‘by-data’ leader, but should be someone whose utterances inspire people, unveils a new dawn and a deviation from what is considered ‘nyayo’ or politically normal. Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka also uses the diplomatic approach; talks safe and only talks of the obvious things that Kenyans expect every government to do therefore adversely diluting his candidature. This should not be Mudavadi’s approach, he needs a complete overhaul and talk and act tough on issues of graft, tribalism, land.

A speech that inspires people is a speech that, whether written or not, comes out of the presenter’s mouth like it has its origins deep inside the heart. A speech that inspires, gives hope even when the future looks dim, convinces the audience that you really believe in what you say and can defend it to the last drop of blood. Take for example, Uhuru Kenyatta’s speech during the launch of his party, The National Alliance (TNA), the delivery made several Kenyans who had hitherto doubted his candidacy to think twice; it is simply because he did his rehearsals, utilized technology and gave a wholehearted presentation.

Thirdly, Mudavadi’s campaign should focus on bringing other leaders to his fold, but not highly publicized boardroom meetings with the other presidential aspirants. His campaign should strike deals behind the curtains and come to the audience with the resolutions. His open ‘meet all leaders, strike all deals’ approach would depict him as a leader deficient of a constituency and therefore focused on riding on other people’s support. For Mudavadi to keep on reaching out to the other contenders like William Ruto and Uhuru Kenyatta and receiving a cold shoulder is not good for a presidential campaign. He would rather bring a Mr. Ntoitha M’Mithiaru or one Oyugi Magwanga to his fold, if possible, instead of licking the feet of his competitors.

Justice Minister Eugene Wamalwa paints Mr Mudavadi as Johnny-come-lately who is trying to find accommodation in the G-7 alliance. The two are fighting of the Luhyia voting bloc ahead of the March 2013 election.

Eugene said that when other ODM rebels such Mr Ruto were leaving the party, Mr Mudavadi dismissed them and insisted that the Orange was the party of the moment. “Now he is all over the place saying he can work with Ruto and Uhuru. I liken him to a person who brings out maize to dry at 5pm before taking to the flourmill, too late in the afternoon. We have been in this thing for a long time,” said Mr Wamalwa.

For Musalia Mudavadi’s campaign to change people’s perception about his candidature, he must present a strong and decisive figure to the public, must be ready to make political enemies along the way, must be able to take political discourtesy and not go around whining about it and show that he is ready to go all the way whether the other top contenders are cleared to run for the presidency.

Like that, the team will breathe in new life into the ticket and present the torchbearer with the possibily of a win even with all the other candidates getting the clearance to run.
Source: http://sweetkenya.com