Uhuru convenes cri**s talks over Raila DP choice
President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga last evening held a crisis meeting with Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka to quell the rising tension within the Azimio La Umoja-One Kenya Alliance over the position of running-mate.
The meeting at Nairobi’s State House is said to have kicked off a few minutes after 5 pm and lasted about three hours.
Kalonzo is said to have been summoned from his Wiper Party offices where he had been meeting his allies at around 4.30 pm while Raila went straight to State House from Kasipul constituency where he had attended the burial of late Kenya’s ambassador to Qatar, Paddy Ahenda.
Though details of the meeting remained scanty by the time of going to press, sources intimated to the People Daily that Kalonzo was reportedly told by the two principals “to go slow” on his demands lest he breaks up the coalition.
The two leaders are said to have told Kalonzo to hold his horses and let a team of professionals, tasked with identifying “the best-suited running-mate for Raila to do its work.”
Scientific method
“The two principals promised to make the process as fair and transparent as possible. A scientific method would be used to identify the final nominee,” said a source privy to the meeting.
Efforts to get a comment from State House spokesperson Kanze Dena were fruitless as she neither picked calls nor responded to our text messages.
Kalonzo has recently been on a warpath with allies of Raila and Uhuru, describing himself as “the natural candidate” to be considered as Raila’s running mate although it has been widely expected that the Azimio leader will pick one from the Mt Kenya region.
Allies of the Wiper leader have insisted that unless their party leader is given the running mate position they will explore other options.
But even as allies of the Wiper leader heightened their running mate demands, a section of women leaders in the coalition led by Kalonzo’s archival and Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu, complicated matters with fresh demands that Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua be nominated to the position.
Addressing a press conference at a Nairobi hotel yesterday, the women leaders drawn from 26 different political parties under the alliance promised to push to have Karua named as the running mate.
The women leaders included Public Service and Gender Programmes Cabinet Administrative Secretary Rachel Shebesh and Nairobi Governor Ann Kananu.
“We don’t know why you cannot see the value of Karua. Her record speaks for itself. Karua is one of the formidable female politicians in the country who can sway crowds towards a particular direction,” Shebesh said.
She added: “We are now in the negotiation space for her, irrespective of which political party we come from.”
Shebesh said the move will be good for Raila and that it will give women hope that they can be leaders at the level of a deputy president.
“The rest of the names that are lobbying around Azimio, we wish them well, but we think our strategy might be the winning one,” Shebesh said.
In an apparent reference to Kalonzo’s late entry into Azimio, Ngilu said they would not allow “johnny-come-lately” to destroy the coalition with hard-to-meet demands.
“Even though we are in a season of political negotiations, leaders must make reasonable demands. We have in the recent past read in the media about some leaders making some demands without considering several basic factors,” she said.
Ngilu said the journey to drum up support for Karua as Raila’s running mate is unstoppable.
Addressing journalists last week, Kitui Senator Enock Wambua said that they are in Azimio to support Raila’s presidential bid but only if they are given the running mate position.
He said if the demand is not met by the Azimio fraternity then they will seek other options insisting that Wiper will not be forced into doing things that they don’t believe in.
“The lower Eastern region is very clear on why they are supporting Raila for the position of the presidency in this election and that reason is that they believe that Kalonzo will be the running mate. The running mate slot is the bottom line for us,” the senator said.
Short of options
“There are always options on the table on what we can do if the path we have chosen to walk is blocked. The Wiper party is not short of options and we are not going to be coerced into doing things that we don’t believe in,” he added.
Wambua also disputed the move by other constituent parties within the alliance seeking to be included in the discussion on who should be Raila’s running mate.
Wambua’s position was echoed by Makueni Town MP Dan Maanzo, who while confirming yesterday’s meeting, insisted that they are ready to seek “other options” if their demand is not met.
Speaking to the People Daily last evening, Maanzo stated: “The meeting is ongoing at the moment, but our irreducible minimums are not negotiable. Kalonzo is the best placed for the position of running mate”.
Last week, Wiper was among political parties that wrote to the Registrar of Political Parties objecting to an alleged breach of the coalition agreement.
In the letter signed by Shakila Abdalla, the Wiper Secretary-General and his UDP counterpart, Bernard Wafukho, allies of Kalonzo claimed the coalition agreement deposited with Ms Anne Nderitu on April 1 had been changed irregularly. As a result, they wanted her to suspend its registration.
According to the letter, the original agreement had only three clauses – affiliated to ODM, Jubilee and One Kenya Alliance, respectively. However, the amended agreement has four.
Kalonzo’s allies also alleged that the Azimio Coalition Council – presumably its highest decision-making organ – had also been irregularly expanded from seven to 11 members to take care of the interest of the newly-added caucus.
They also questioned whether the coalition’s running mate candidate would also serve as deputy party leader as required by law.
