Why OP officials want Mudavadi for president
Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi. Photo/FILE
By EMEKA-MAYAKA GEKARA gmayaka@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Sunday, December 16 2012 at 00:30
Posted Sunday, December 16 2012 at 00:30
IN SUMMARY
- Civil servants believe Raila or Uhuru would reorganise public service and remove them from office
Top civil servants in the Office of the President keen to secure their jobs in the next government are the key forces pushing for the election of Musalia Mudavadi as President, it has been established.
The Sunday Nation has established that the bureaucrats who have been pulling the strings behind the curtains see Mr Mudavadi as “safe” and have mobilised resources to support his campaign.
They are said to have worked hard to ensure that Mr Mudavadi got a last-minute accommodation by Jubilee Alliance.
The campaign by the bureaucrats who are working in collaboration with the National Security Intelligence Service is driven by the uncertainty of their future in case of a possible Uhuru Kenyatta or Raila Odinga presidency.
The public civil servants fear that Mr Kenyatta or Mr Odinga may reorganise the Public Service in a way that might render them jobless or sever their patronage.
Mr Kenyatta and Mr Mudavadi are set to face off on Tuesday for the Jubilee Alliance ticket which has Eldoret North MP William Ruto as running mate.
The National Alliance party secretary-general Onyango Oloo yesterday acknowledged that Mr Mudavadi was backed by influential individuals but said that was no threat to Mr Kenyatta’s bid. He said the party would not be arm-twisted.
“We know that Mudavadi has support from some people in government and even churches but the final decision will be made by the people of Kenya. Even State House cannot make that choice,” Mr Oloo told the Sunday Nation.
“Kenya is a multiparty democracy where everybody has a political choice. But whether an individual has a preferred candidate does not matter. The will of the people must be expressed through the delegates without undue advantage, arm-twisting or blackmail.”
Two weeks ago, Nominated MP Rachel Shebesh claimed President Kibaki’s private secretary, Prof Nick Wanjohi and other State House operatives were pushing for a Mudavadi presidency.
And speaking in the presence of Mr Kenyatta last weekend, some TNA politicians who accompanied him to Gatundu to register as a voter accused State House operatives of pushing him to withdraw from the presidential race.
Sources say that the civil servants behind the Mudavadi candidature have three points from which they are pushing their case.
First, they are playing the tribal card to say that it would be more acceptable to have Mr Mudavadi rather than Mr Kenyatta, a Kikuyu, succeed President Kibaki.
Second, they say that the trials awaiting Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto at the International Criminal Court could create an awkward position for the government given that they come about a month after the General Election and the period of a possible run-off.
The Mudavadi backers, it is understood, are advancing the argument that Kenya would be isolated by influential world superpowers, rendering it a pariah state with possible sanctions on trade, travel and aid.
They say with Mr Mudavadi, they are likely to keep their powerful positions in the government should Jubilee win the March 4 General Election. They believe that Mr Kenyatta would prefer a different line-up at the top.
Third, the power men in the Kibaki presidency say Mr Mudavadi is more malleable, unlike Mr Kenyatta, who is viewed as more “strong willed and wealthy and not easy to manipulate”.
State House has denied involvement in the Mudavadi campaign but its shadow is seen over the Deputy Prime Minister largely because his party, the United Democratic Forum, was founded by Prof Wanjohi with other people associated with the President.
UDF was founded in April 2011 and was initially associated with Mr Kenyatta. The first members were recruited at leadership seminars organised by some State House bureaucrats in Karen, Nairobi.
A finance officer at the Office of the President, Mr Francis Xavier Wang’ombe, is said to have been one organisers of the “trainings”.
The other name that featured in connection with the Mudavadi drive is that of acting head of Public Service, Francis Kimemia.
An aide of Mr Kenyatta who requested anonymity, yesterday said that Mr Mudavadi was backed by bureaucrats who were uncomfortable with the deputy prime minister’s record at Treasury when he made it difficult for government officials to make money.
He said the anti-Uhuru group claims that he is arrogant, inaccessible and difficult to please.
“These are the same people who yanked Mr Mudavadi from ODM. They hoped that the ICC cases would start before the elections,” the source said, alluding to claims that Mr Mudavadi was “stand-by” candidate in case the two were locked out of the race because of the ICC case.
State House has denied any role in the ongoing coalition building while Mr Mudavadi has also come out to declare that he was not “anybody’s project”.
“We (State House) wish to state that President Kibaki remains focused on his service to the nation and peaceful elections and transition and should not be dragged in ongoing political activities,” it said in a recent statement responding to concerns by TNA politicians that it was arm-twisting Mr Kenyatta to step down for Mr Mudavadi.
And on Jamhuri Day President Kibaki said: “Kenyans should elect honest, visionary and hardworking leaders who have the concerns of Kenya at heart in the next General Election.”
But the State House link is a double-edged sword. While it is seen as an endorsement from a “special address” for Mr Mudavadi who has cast himself a force of stability keen to consolidate President Kibaki’s legacy, it has attracted backlash from sections of the Jubilee alliance.
And while some say a Mudavadi-Ruto ticket is best placed to defeat Mr Odinga, those opposed to the arrangement reckon that the absence of Mr Kenyatta could lead to voter apathy in his Central Kenya backyard.
Mr Herbert Kerre, a Kabianga University College lecturer, says the officials’ campaign shows a serious conflict between factions in Kikuyu politics: One led by Mr Kenyatta and the other by President Kibaki.
“They must be doing so with the blessing of their master,” said the lecturer.
The participation of bureaucrats in elections is new in an environment where political victory comes with government jobs and business.
The Waki commission that probed the causes of the post-election violence recorded claims of participation of civil servants including former Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura and state security agencies in the 2007 political campaigns.
The commission criticised the NSIS and Mr Muthaura of acting in a partisan way for commissioning and executing an opinion poll for President Kibaki’s PNU.
Security agencies also sought to “plant” their operatives as agents in polling stations.
On Saturday at the Jeevanjee Gardens, Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto declared their determination to win the election in the first round.
“We have agreed on how we are going to choose our flag bearer and I am confident we are going to win resoundingly. And I want to assure you all that this team here will remain united to the end,” Mr Ruto said while welcoming Cooperatives Development minister Joseph Nyagah, who defected from ODM to TNA.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment