THE JUBILEE PACT

 THE JUBILEE PACT

With the race to state house intensifying, several parties ran into forming coalitions that could see them win the presidential elections in the first round without probably going in for a run off. This led to formation of four alliances on the 17^th of January and one of these alliances was the Jubilee Alliance that comprised of three parties that signed the deal that is The National Alliance (TNA), United Republican Party (URP) and United Democratic Movement (UDM). The key principals from these parties, Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto and Musalia Mudavadi respectively, agreed to sign the pre-election pact amid various challenges in opinions that they were facing i.e. that of choosing a presidential candidates as each of them had been endorsed by their various parties as their flagbearer’s.

However even with the political drumbeats, they managed to get moving and the three agreed that Ruto would be the Deputy Flag bearer whereas the candidate had to be chosen amongst Uhuru and Mudavadi. However, this did not work out as seemingly, there was something in the offing and probably, Uhuru has used this tactic to lure Mudavadi to his side by promising to step down in his favour so that he could be the coalition flag bearers. 

This trick never worked out and Mudavadi made a grand walkout with his colleagues from the coalition to form an alliance with Gideon Moi of Kanu and his fellow tribesmen like Eugene Wamalwa.  Deputy Prime Minister and UDF presidential candidate Musalia Mudavadi accused his former allies In Jubilee Alliance, barely two days after parting ways with them of playing games with Kenyans, as he took his campaigns to his home turf of Kakamega County.

 The Jubilee duo however answered him and they said , “Musalia Mudavadi needs to accept the reality that he must work hard to convince the delegates to nominate him Instead of trying to arm-twist Uhuru Kenyatta to Step down for Him.” This however did not auger well with Mudavadi.

Days after, things have picked up and the coalition is sending some signals to their rival counterparts, CORD, that they are headed for the statehouse in the first ninety minutes. Currently Deputy Prime minister Uhuru Kenyatta has been unveiled as the presidential flag bearer, Eldoret North MP William Ruto as the running mate and NARC leader Charity Ngilu as the designate majority leader in the senate should the coalition win.

The coalition flag bearer noted that they had come together in order to reconcile Kenyans and preach peace to them and he acknowledged that the long awaited liberation had started and that it was time for the youths to take over the leadership of the land.

The DPM, counterparts also recognised the fact that winning the election was not going to be an easy task and thus they shall have to work extra hard and remain united to the end and that they were going to shun divisive politics, politics of tribalism and mismanagement of national resources.

 “The Jubilee boat has taken off and we are all captains in this journey.” Uhuru Kenyatta

RELIGION AND POLITICS

Religion has over the years played a key role in our country’s politics. It has been one of the key determining factors for our presidential, parliamentary and civic candidates and even today during this forth coming March 4^th general elections, it is quite a good bet and a determining factor for our presidential, gubernatorial, senate, county representative and women representative aspirants just to mention but a few.

The church today has been and always referred to as a group of people governed by similar beliefs and who congregate together to worship a superior, higher being. It is always said that the church should take a neutral stand in matters to do with politics and should not align itself with any candidate in a political field as religion and politics are two diverse things.

 However, in the contemporary society, its surprising to note that the church and church leaders and has taken sides and even fielded and supported candidates in the political arena and even aligned itself along tribal and ethnic camps. We have for example had church leaders like Bishop Margaret Wanjiru, Pastor Pius Muiru, Kamlesh Pattni Mutava Musyimi among others express interest in seeking elective posts.

We have also prominently viewed politicians run to church in haste to seek for blessings from preachers and their congregation and some of them align themselves to certain faith and denominations. We have always seen the Vice President, Kalonzo Musyoka, associate himself eith Christians and always say that he is a born again Christian. The Prime Minister too has always said he is a Christian and even been baptised one time by Prophet David Owuor. The two candidates and others have all believed that they are God chosen to run the nation.

I am surprised that the Jubilee alliance presidential candidate, Uhuru Kenyatta who recently talked of “dark powers” misleading him, also states that he is a born again Christian and however much the powers misled him, he is ever in church to seek for God’s blessings. Musalia Mudavadi of the Amani Coalition, Peter Kenneth of the Eagle Alliance, Martha Karua of Narc Kenya and Ole Kiyiapi of the Restore and build Kenya have always attended numerous services every Sunday to seek for blessings too.

President Kibaki known of not so famous in attending services like Moi , lately seems to have changed and now a regular church attendant. This shows how significant the religion is in politics.

However, I tend to believe that our politicians attend services to seek for numbers as they are made aware that 80% of the country’s population are Christians. They are unmistakable since for them to get these votes, then they have to be like them…….!

 

MAYBE HE WILL SNEAK THROUGH!

MAYBE HE WILL SNEAK THROUGH!

                        Wycliffe Musalia Mudavadi, born on September 21, 1960, in Sabatia, Vihaiga District is a Kenyan politician, currently serving as Deputy Prime Minister and  the presidential hopeful of the United Democratic Forum Party (UDF) that is in the Amani coalition. He is married to Tessie Shangatti Mudavadi and has three children with her (two boys and a girl).

Previously, Mudavadi has served as the last and the shortest serving Vice President in 2002 under President Daniel Moi’s government after an unsuccessful attempt to bring the luhya tribe to the KANU camp which was the then ruling party. During the 2002 elections, Mudavadi race for the Vice President as Uhuru Kenyatta’s running mate on a KANU ticket which was the then political machine, flopped unfortunately, despite getting the support from the then outgoing president Daniel Moi.

However, the presidential hopeful of Amani Coalition has faced lots of hiccups since decamping ODM for UDF. He has been a victim of political con and been branded names like “shetani” by Uhuru Kenyatta and even branded and labelled names like “state house project" by Cyrus Jirongo.

In the process of cobbling up coalitions, mistakes were being committed and some may have dug holes that may have swallowed them. I may be wrong but I tend to believe that Mudavadi was one of the victims of this statement as he ran to the jubilee alliance but later was side-lined and chased away.

However, Mudavadi has taken a swipe at the Jubilee alliance principals saying that they had plotted to derail his candidature but has recently vowed to go it alone after leaving JUBILEE Alliance and has teamed up with fellow tribesmen like Wamalwa in a 50-50 power sharing deal to form the AMANI coalition and has thus been branded the name, “Luhyia Leader” and not a national leader.

It has been evident that the presidential race has been a race of two horses as the Cord presidential candidate and the Prime minister has always stated but even with him forming the Amani coalition, which has been believed to be the third force, the question is that will he sneak through and form the next government?  I doubt but maybe his third force is a donkey aimed at sneaking past the two horses.

                                                          (Deputy prime Minister, Musalia Mudavadi)

 

" i am certain that i am going to rattle my opponents. "

Musalia Mudavadi