Over the past few months ODM-Kenya Presidential candidate Kalonzo Musyoka has exposed his soft underbelly in political strategy, this even as he declares that he is a “master strategist†and a “revolutionary“.
Time
and again a serious lack of political acumen has been exhibited by his
monstrous blunders made in an effort to "steal the show" from his main rival in
the Orange Democratic Movement Raila Odinga.
Having
realized earlier that the only person that stood between him and the opposition
outfit's leadership mantle was Raila, Kalonzo not by coincidence but by design,
chose to portray his stand on issues as completely opposite to his rival's.
A
brief trip down memory lane will point to instances where Kalonzo has conspired
to outmanoeuver and "steal the show" from Agwambo, as Raila's supporters
adoringly refer to him, but has come out bruised and weaker.
From
their heydays in LDP, Kalonzo always
insisted on taking positions on issues that would project him in the public
domain as the alternate center of power in LDP.
There was tussle of whether the flag bearer of LDP
was to be picked by consensus, delegates or direct voting by members of the
party. While Raila favored the delegates method, Kalonzo chose direct voting by
members after learning of Odinga's preference and knowing all too well that
that his stand would look more democratic. This was done despite the reality
being that a direct vote in the nominations would cost a colossal amount of
money which LDP did not have. Besides this,
there was the difficult issue of identifying the bona fide members of LDP.
After
moving to ODM-K, Kalonzo again deliberately opted for the stance of always
taking a different view to that of Raila. When the issue of the mode of
choosing the ODM-K Presidential Candidate came up in the Naivasha plenary,
Kalonzo shifted from his direct vote preference to a delegates system but here
again he was taking a diametrically opposite position from Raila. While Raila
was for delegates chosen from the constituency level, Kalonzo insisted on
having delegates from the sub-location level. When this notion came a cropper,
he then insisted that the delegates would only be chosen from the constituency
level if their number was increased from Raila's suggested 1000 to 2000. All
the while Kalonzo was making these demands, he was in Nairobi
to keep an appointment of a TV interview while all party members including all
Presidential Candidates were busy holding deliberations at the Naivasha
plenary. Ostensibly Kalonzo was issuing his demands via his mobile phone to his
group of supporters at the meeting.
Then
there was the London trip debacle.
All ODM-Kenya Presidential candidates except Raila and Joseph Nyagah failed to
make the trip which had been heralded as a "bonding session". Four candidates,
Uhuru Kenyatta, Julia Ojiambo, Nazlin Umar and Kalonzo skipped the excursion in
solidarity with William Ruto another candidate who reports said had been denied
entry into the UK
owing corruption cases against him in the Kenyan courts. Two others, Musalia
Mudavadi and Najib Balala had originally planned not to travel. On this
occasion Kalonzo triumphantly declared he had decided not to travel as a show
of support for his "brother" Ruto. His second reason for opting out of the trip
was because his intelligence network had reliably informed him that the trip
was to be used to clandestinely endorse Raila as the ODM-Kenya flag bearer in
this year's election. Clearly his explanation was an attempt to paint Raila as
the lone ranger in the movement.
When
the Lang'ata MP was preparing to launch his vision in May, Kalonzo sensing the
euphoria Raila's event was creating rushed to a Nairobi
hotel and unveiled his "tax proposals" to the nation a day before Raila's gala
event. Again the motive here was to steal the thunder from Raila who by this
time had eclipsed Kalonzo in terms of popularity in opinion polls.
Kalonzo
then ridiculously took a swipe at media houses accusing them of giving undue
and unwarranted coverage to Raila.
When
Uhuru, Ruto, Ojiambo and Nazlin all declared that they would not be submitting
their presidential nomination papers back to the Anyang'
Nyong'o led ODM-K secretariat but to a properly constituted ODM-K elections
board, Kalonzo swiftly joined the bandwagon. He even displayed a copy of a
million shillings cheque for the nomination fee while picking up his nomination
papers from the secretariat and gleefully declared that money was not the
issue. He then refused to hand the cheque to Nyong'o. This stunt was primarily
not only geared at seeking cheap publicity, but also taking a swipe at Nyong'o
who reportedly is a Raila supporter. He was also intent on quashing the
perception that his campaign lacks financial support as opposed to Raila's.
Hot
on the heels came the fiasco surrounding the leaked report by the Fred Gumo led
ODM-K council of elders, which had controversially favored the candidacies of
Musalia or Kalonzo. This led to a flurry of meetings by interest groups within
ODM-K which culminated in Rift Valley MPs and Ruto asking Raila to step down in
favor of either Musalia or Kalonzo. Kalonzo then seized the opportunity to
declare that he and Ruto were like minded and speaking as one when it came to
matters pertaining to finding an agreeable ODM-K flag bearer. He quickly then
shifted his goal posts declaring that consensus was indeed the best method of
choosing the ODM-K presidential candidate and that the delegates or his earlier
preferred direct vote where susceptible to infiltration by Government agents
and sympathizers. His current stand was of course informed on the misguided
perception that Raila ambitions had been "dented" by the leaked report and he
Kalonzo was clearly the man of the moment. It is common knowledge of how Raila
aptly handled the leaked report and took his quest directly to the people to
the chagrin of Kalonzo.
On
the eve of the controversial Mombasa ODM-K rally, Kalonzo was again at his best
with his "steal the show" antics. He secured an interview with a local daily in
which he poked fun at Raila's second liberation credentials. He then famously
claimed that his major contribution to Kenya's
democratization process was coining the phrase the "Rainbow coalition" and that
the first meeting of the Rainbow coalition was held in his room whatever that
meant. One wonders whether this interview was the catalyst that led to him
being booed and heckled at the Mombasa
rally!
Clearly
losing major ground to his rival Raila as the Steadman and
Infotrak opinion polls suggested, Kalonzo unrelenting and seeking to recover
pulled a move he seemingly believed to be deft, but it turned out to be daft.
After short consultations with Julia Ojiambo's Labour Party of Kenya he announced
his defection to LPK from LDP two parties
that were members of ODM-K. It is instructive to note that his defection was
motivated by his desire to get out under the suffocating influence of Raila in LDP.
He then proceeded to instruct the registered officials of ODM-K led by his
supporter Daniel Maanzo who were holding the party in trust to take over the
operations of the party from the recognized interim officials led by Henry
Kosgei. Raila and company however successfully managed to cast his act as a
defection from ODM-K arguing that LPK had contravened the ODM-K constitution by
advertising in the newspapers for parliamentary and civic aspirants willing to
stand for elections on its party ticket. Kalonzo's "masterstroke" act evidently
ended up not having the desired domino effect of gaining him more supporters
but instead only a handful of members from his ethnic group jumped ship with
him.
And
last week when the then Kosgei led faction of ODM-K called a NEC meeting in
Nairobi, Kalonzo initially reacted by saying the Maanzo faction would instead
be holding the legitimate NEC meeting in Machakos before being reported as
saying that he would indeed be attending the NEC meeting in Nairobi. However to
political pundit's surprise, Kalonzo called a press conference on the morning
of the NEC meeting in which he wasted no time castigating the Kosgei led
faction and declaring the soon to be held NEC and its resolutions null and
void. He then retreated to his Machakos ethnic backyard for a rally with his
supporters who all again consisted of members of his ethnic group. The Nairobi
NEC meeting of course resulted in Raila and his group acquiring the first
registered ODM party from Lawyer Mugambi Imanyara. In shock and left with an
empty shell in the form of ODM-K, all Kalonzo could manage was to call Raila a
coward and traitor.
Now
while Raila and his group have moved on, Kalonzo is still up to his "steal the
show antics" and has reportedly declared that his ODM-K will hold it's
Presidential nomination a day before ODM holds it's nomination on September
1st. This according to him will prevent ODM from stealing ODM-K delegates. Talk
about stealing! One can't help but to stop and think why delegates of Kalonzo's
ODM-K would want to be associated with ODM if they are truly ODM-K delegates.
Furthermore, shouldn't it be as clear as day and night the distinction between
the two parties with one (ODM) presenting itself as an individual membership
party and the other (ODM-K) being a coalition of parties?
From
this chronicle, it is evident that Kalonzo is devoid of any originality as far
as political agenda setting and strategy are concerned. He should stop passing
himself as a Political Strategist and instead refocus his energies on building
team skills and political alliances with grassroots leaders countrywide. This
he should start by venturing out of his Akamba backyard instead of retreating
to it every time he's caught between a rock and a hard place. He should also
invest in a different PR team as his current team is doing great injustice to
him with their inefficient contributions to his Presidential campaign.
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