Unlike a cat with its proverbial nine lives, a politician only has at most two political lives, meaning if he or she goofs once, there is a chance the public may give him or her another chance but rarely a third one. On the other hand, one generally gets at most three chances to permanently correct their course or as the Americans say in baseball terms, it’s three strikes and you’re out.
Going by either of these premises, Mudavadi’s political career is over even before the fat lady sings. This didn’t have to be this way. Mudavadi was lucky to be born in a family whose head was a close ally and friend of ex-president Daniel Arap Moi. Because of this relationship, Mudavadi easily made it to Parliament succeeding his late father and was appointed as one of our country’s youngest serving minister.
In all the years Mudavadi served as minister, he is only remembered in connection with the Nairobi graves scandal in which he was implicated in a corrupt deal in which the Nairobi City Council paid a whopping Sh300 million shillings for land worth only Sh24 million. No service with distinction or accomplishment as a politician worth noting during the entire time Mudavadi served as minister.
This was strike number one and part of Mudavadi’s first political life. Mudavadi also has the dubious record of having served the shortest as our country’s Vice President. Needless to say, Mudavadi neither accomplished nor did anything to be remembered for as our Vice-President other than being part of a hapless 2002 project by Moi in which he tried to shove down our throats a Uhuru presidency nobody but Moi and the few gullible and ill-advised wanted.
This was strike number two and the end of Mudavadi’s first political life. The resounding defeat of the Uhuru project was so sweetly definitive and devastating, Mudavadi was sent packing even as an MP as he also lost his seat as MP for Sabatia. Having been so devastatingly defeated and basically finished politically, Raila reached down to the politically wounded Mudavadi and nursed him back to life, leading to his once again being elected as Sabatia MP and thanks again to Raila, his appointment as Deputy Prime Minister.
You would think Mudavadi would be grateful and do whatever he can to help the very man who saved him from total political ruin be reelected but this time sworn as president while awaiting his turn; you’ll be wrong as Mudavadi had better ideas which, in fact, are terrible ideas that will permanently seal his fate as a failed politician.
There is no question in anyone’s mind that Mudavadi is now a project of his own schemed right out of State House. As in the Uhuru project Mudavadi was a part of in 2002, this, too, shall come to pass as a failed project because the underlying fundamentals are the same most important of which is the fact Kenyans simply detest the idea of leaders or people they don’t want being rammed down their throats as their leaders wapende wasipende.
This is precisely why even parties cannot have direct nominations anymore or anything other than an open and transparent nomination process. Mudavadi’s defecting from ODM and allowing himself to be a project is the third strike and end to his revived political life. It’s doubtful he’ll ever have another chance in life to be what he could have been politically but for his failure to make the right decisions hitherto. Put another way, Mudavadi has hammered the last nail into his own political coffin and thus the appropriateness of this eulogy of his political life.
First, by refusing to learn from his past mistakes, namely, his going against the prevailing strong winds against a failed project in 2002, and agreeing to yet again be used as an empty suit in an all but certain to fail project, Mudavadi has amply demonstrated he is not his own man. Second, not being his own man is precisely the reason why those propping Mudavadi up as a project believe he is the best choice for this project because they can control and manipulate him at will in the unlikely event they’re successful with the project.
Third, the fact that Mudavadi is not his own man and is being targeted to be a project because he can easily be manipulated and controlled as president by those propping him up is reason numero uno he will and shall be rejected by Kenyans who are now even more wiser than we were in 2002.
Indeed, it cannot but strike many as odd even strange those propping Mudavadi up as their project cannot see that the very reason Mudavadi is attractive to them, namely, being a weak and indecisive politician is the very reason he has failed to convince many even in his own backyard that he’s worth taking seriously as presidential material. No one can be happier in this failed project than Raila and ODM.
Samuel Omwenga is a lawyer and political commentator in the US
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