VP Kalonzo Musyoka at during a rally at Mombasa's Tononoka grounds Mombasa.Photo Elkana Jacob
Kamba allies of Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta are planning a meeting next weekend at the Lukenya Hills to disown Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka.
The team has called what they describe as one of the biggest meetings in Ukambani to chart the community’s political destiny without Kalonzo, whom they believe will join Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
The planned meeting comes as it emerges that Kalonzo's camp is deeply divided with various leaders sending mixed signals over the VP's political direction.
His lieutenants Kangundo MP Johnstone Muthama and Mbooni MP Mutula Kilonzo are tilting towards Raila's ODM while Yatta MP Charles Kilonzo and Mwingi South MP David Musila favour a Kalonzo-Musalia pact.
The third group of Kibwezi MP Philip Kaloki and Kaiti MP Gideon Ndambuki appear to be comfortable with the VP in the G7 alliance. Only last week, Kalonzo and former minister Francis Nyenze met Kanu's Gideon Moi over a deal.
Kalonzo's adversaries in the Ukambani region, however, are convinced that the VP may eventually swallow his pride and work with Raila, a move that has orchestrated the meeting.
Organisers say the gathering will be attended by over 5,000 leaders including the Kamba council of elders, MPs, more than 300 councillors, clergy, professionals, opinion leaders as well as women and youth leaders.
The meeting will issue the 'Lukenya declaration' that will ask the Kamba community to denounce and reject Kalonzo for joining Raila, and declare support for Uhuru’s candidature.
A committee comprising Water minister Charity Ngilu, MPs Kiema Kilonzo, Wavinya Ndeti and Harun Mwau, and URP deputy secretary general Fred Muteti has been appointed to plan the meeting.
Former MPs Kivutha Kibwana, Agnes Ndetei, Grace Mwewe and Adeline Mwau are also involved. “We have agreed on the tentative date of the meeting which will be on the weekend of November 25. The agenda will be to declare that the Kamba community supports the alliance of Uhuru-Ruto-Ngilu and that our community will not be pushed to ODM,” Kiema, who is the Mutito MP, said.
He said Kamba leaders from the Coast counties of Mombasa, Taita Taveta and Kwale will also attend the meeting. At the meeting, Uhuru, Ruto and Ngilu will be anointed Kamba elders at the same venue the founding President Jomo Kenyatta and independence hero and former minister Paul Ngei are said to have taken an oath to bind the Kikuyu and Kamba communities together politically.
“The Kamba elders who have been invited will seek to bind the Kikuyu and Kamba communities together and ensure they both vote as a bloc since it will be happening at a place of symbolic value in the politics of Ukambani,” Kiema added.
Yesterday, Charles Kilonzo, who was said to be one of the meeting planners, distanced himself from the group. “I am a committed Wiper party member and will not involve myself in such meeting whose agenda is to bash my party leader and Vice President,” Kilonzo said.
Wiper party ambassadors’ patron Francis Mwangangi scoffed at the planed meeting saying the Kamba community is wholeheartedly behind the VP and such attempts to undermine him will fail.
“Kenya is a democratic country and people can meet freely and express themselves but they should know that the Kamba community is solidly behind Kalonzo,” Mwangangi, who is eyeing the Yatta parliamentary seat added.
This latest move by Uhuru’s allies may be seen to add insult to injury on the VP’s political career – he has already been elbowed out of the G7 alliance that he belonged to with Uhuru and Ruto.
Kalonzo’s allies believe the DPM and his camp have not been comfortable with their being in the G7, claiming: "Uhuru is yet to forgive Kalonzo for deserting him in 2002 when both were in Kanu.”
The two have been close allies in the last four years but the entry of Ngilu, hitherto a close ally of Raila and a fierce rival of Kalonzo, into Uhuru’s camp was considered as an indicator that the VP is unwanted in the group.
Kalonzo, who is the second longest serving MP after President Kibaki also faces another challenge as close ally Muthama has announced that his Wiper party will join ODM. Kalonzo and his party have several times denied any deal between ODM and Wiper.
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