Musalia ponders his future after dismal showing

By JUMA KWAYERA

Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi and Eugene Wamalwa paid the price for failing to heed the will of voters in western Kenya.

Western voters for the second time in ten years voted against “their own”. And as the two come to terms with dismal showing in the presidential poll in which Mudavadi was flag-bearer of the Amani Coalition that included United Democratic Front, Wamalwa’s New Ford-Kenya and Kanu, cracks are emerging about who between CORD and Jubilee to back.  This is irrespective of whether there will be a run-off or not.

While Mudavadi is said to be collating data from his stronghold in Western, Wamalwa is open to talks with Jubilee from which he fled in the countdown to the polls.

The questions being raised is what does the future portend for the former Sabatia MP, after failing to break the jinx that sent him to the doldrums in 2002.

For the second time, Mudavadi will do serious soul-searching to recover from the presidential poll setback that has seriously compromised his standing among peers.

His agony is amplified by failure to get a single vote at Ndururumo Primary School, the polling centre in Ndaragwa constituency where his running mate Jeremiah Kioni cast his ballot. The ‘anomaly’ reinforces perceptions in Western that voting for Mudavadi was tantamount to voting for his rival Uhuru Kenyatta.

Although Mudavadi and Wamalwa are yet to do a post-mortem of their performance, their allies concede his campaign was haphazard. There was a serious disconnect between his secretariat and the grassroots. Perceptions of Amani leader’s disinclination to spend on his campaign is a thread that runs even among his friends

Shocked by UDF presidential election debacle, Webuye West MP-elect Alfred Sambu pinpointed some factors that adversely affected the Amani flag-bearer.

“My brother is always unwilling to spend on supporters. He did not want to spend money and the people who know him and were willing to support him fled. Unlike Uhuru (Kenyatta), he does not know how to appreciate what people do for him,” says Mr Sambu, who vied on UDF.

Right people

Sambu was one of the key pillars of the Mudavadi campaign and believes the former Sabatia MP would have performed better if he had the right people on the ground.

Vihiga County senator-elect George Khaniri was at a loss to rationalise Mudavadi’s support thinned out on polling day. Neither would he comment on what the future holds for his friend.

“We are looking at possibilities of vote manipulation. There were discrepancies in the IEBC score-sheets. What Mudavadi cannot run away from is that he is a leader and will be expected to take a decision on how Kenyans want their country governed. The interest of the country comes first and I don’t think he will be willing to trust the country with people whose credibility is in question,” says Khaniri.

He does not rule out Mudavadi backing Raila or Uhuru, saying the Amani leader cannot remain aloof at a timethe country needs him to take a position.

“It will depend on what they will put on the table. But it will not augur well for him if goes against the will of his supporters,” the former Hamisi MP says, hinting at the possibility of a reunion with Raila, who his community voted for. In 2002, Mudavadi who looked a compromise presidential candidate after joining the opposition sacrificed the opportunity to become Uhuru’s running mate on the party he had ditched two months earlier. Even after he was appointed Vice-President by former President Moi, his star dimmed and lost his parliamentary seat. There was a near-recurrence of the same when he was duped into an alliance that never was with Uhuru.

Failed to click

Asked why the Mudavadi-Wamalwa alliance failed to click in Western Province despite the two having shown great leadership potential, a member of the campaign secretariat concedes they were undermined by rivals through voter bribery and manipulation of the poll agency, IEBC, data tabulation system. He accuses Jubilee and CORD presidential candidates of “topping up” their vote count in Bungoma, Vihiga, Busia, Kakamega and Trans-Nzoia counties.

Mudavadi’s spokesman Kibisu Kabatesi would neither confirm nor deny the allegations, only saying: “The campaign is in the process of collating data and should there be anomalies, we shall lodge a complaint with IEBC.”

Sambu, however, dismissed the explanation, arguing the UDF secretariat failed to understand Western.

“There was lack of effective networking in the stronghold. Also we lacked logistical support nationally because of lack focus and unwillingness to spend money,” he says.

As the dust settles down, Amani alliance faces a split with main parties pulling in different directions.

“We are faced with a situation where Wamalwa is leaning toward Uhuru, while Mudavadi will be confortable with the Prime Minister. The same applies to their friends who have been prevailing on them align themselves to the two camps,” Mr Charles Welangai, a member of the Mudavadi think-tank, reveals.

In Welangai’s opinion, the clout Trade Minister Moses Wetangula has in CORD will trigger an exodus from Amani to Jubilee.

Mudavadi is coming under pressure from his Raila-friendly supporters who would rather put their eggs in CORD basket instead of Jubilee. The reservations run even deeper now after Kioni’s vote did not reflect in the tally at his polling station.