Mudavadi finally left ODM. No surprises there. If you are
one of his fans in his rickety presidential bid then you must be itching with
soreness and anticipation that he will soon break his lackadaisical and lazy
manners by getting himself some jugglers (balls?). The hullabaloo about Mudavadi
being the ideal candidate because of his uncontroversial nature and that he
would be a good character around whom various disparate, rival and divergent
political factions could coalesce is rapidly being exposed for the sham it is.
Mudavadi evidently
lacks the charisma and the ability to rouse enthusiasm and fervour even amongst
his most ardent of supporters. His chances in swaying the hearts of his more
steely rivals to support his bid seem eminently remote at the moment. In fact
in my opinion Mudavadi looks like some convenient contraption that would only
stand a chance to get at the presidency should the following circumstances
arise: One Ruto and Uhuru are explicitly barred to vie either through
incarceration or a judicial order, Kalonzo emigrates to Malawi or Tanzania and
that Mudavadi somehow makes it to the run-off round where he should solely and specifically
face his former patron Raila Odinga.
Kenyans so far have had two dictatorial presidencies and one
lazy laid back chieftaincy under Kibaki. I shudder to think of another ten years
of a lazy president – which is what Mudavadi would give us. To achieve Vision
2030 we need a focused Kagame like president, not a gouty tribal chief who gnashes
his teeth at the sight of opposition and one who out of political expediency
would let his cronies run amok in and outside the government.
When analysts were singing the praises of Mudavadi as the
ideal candidate they obviously hoped that when he breaks from the ODM he would
do it with some vigour and panache that would not only tear apart the ODM but he
would also do it in a way that would give him a façade of credence as a viable
leader. The drama that would ensue was supposed to have catapulted him onto the
top of the opinion polls.
But Mudavadi slapped
opportunity in the face and he could only manage a whimpering exit from the
ODM. To make matters worse he followed this with a show of anxious teeth chatter
and knee-knocking in the so called consultations with his ‘Abandu constituency’. In fact I believe were he not prodded along
by the likes of Bonny Khalwale and Soita Shitanda, Mudavadi would have baulked
at his own presidential bid and crawled back into the arms of Raila. Of all the
things that Mudavadi was built for, which I suspect are not that many, this man
was certainly not built for high drama, intrigue, suspense and most importantly
taking of pivotal risks.
Give Mudavadi some comfort zone and a blanket and he would
be pretty content to stay there for eternity, which happens to be the underhanded
reason why Raila chose him as his running mate.
I daresay this overfed political fat-cat is good for nothing … just ask
some honest inebriated blokes from Vihiga and they would tell you as much.
Really, what has he ever done other than being heir to Moses Mudavadi (the
brother-in-law to one Daniel Toroitich arap Moi)?
Honestly what kind of oratory is this: “Some people are
saying am a Moi project, others are saying am a Kibaki project (so you wish!),
others are saying am a Luhya project (yes you are), others are saying . . .” on
and on he went in boring monotone enumerating whose project he has been and
whose he would like to be. At the end of
these joyless remarks, which he has made into a formulaic lullaby that he keeps
repeating like a broken record at each baraza,
he smugly states that since he has been a project to so many dubious forces and
of all hues and colours that in effect this amounts to him being a Kenyan
project. Oh please! Read something on fallacy you over indulgent goat.
Eugene Wamalwa has already clearly indicated that he would
not bow down to Musalia. Why then should we expect the formidable Ruto, Uhuru,
and the thoroughly impatient Kalonzo Musyoka to relinquish their bids and
amiably handover their revving political juggernauts for Musalia’s Johnny come
lately bid?
Why it would make more sense to have Musalia as a running
mate to any one of them rather than to have things the other way round. If
Musalia Mudavadi wants to make it to the presidency at all he needs to rebrand
his own political persona, he needs to learn a bit of oratory so as to connect
to the masses and last but not least he needs to trash his former boss and his
cronies like Anyang Nyong’o. There is nothing that Kenyans hate more than a
boring show and so far Musalia has been nothing other than utterly boring.
He
even meekly and hurriedly attended a burial in his own backyard this weekend in
Vihiga (he was there for not more than a wholesome twenty minutes before he
dashed off to sweat it out at his home) – all in a quest to avoid being in the
same platform and glare of his former boss Raila Odinga. How illustrious of
Musalia to be so respectful and cowardly.
M. Wycliff,
Nairobi.
PS;
Have you noticed how many Obama look-a-likes there are out
there? All with big ears and big smiles. There have even been contests for people
who look like Obama in some confounded country in South America. Which leaves me wondering:
could Barack Obama snr. have sowed more wild oats than we are aware of? Simply
troubling I say to have the man who could launch a nuclear weapon to have such
common resemblance. Perhaps it would have helped (I think I would sleep better
too) if the real Obama walked with a limp and was facially ‘contorted’ like his
cousin Raila. I just have this feeling uglier people are harder to resemble.
