MUSALIA MUDAVADI

Musalia Mudavadi’s Political Life And Campaign For Presidency

Musalia Mudavadi is running for president and apparently, there are way too many shadows chasing after him to tell whether he is winning the race or getting away from something. The one time vice president has corruption cases, mad politicians, broken legacy, dynastic affiliation and surrogacy overshadowing his determined walk to statehouse.

Mudavadi comes into the presidential race with a semblance of a man out to prove a point rather than a man out to win an election. In his defense, that might be the product of a propaganda machine by political detractors or history trying to torment the Member of Parliament of Sabatia constituency.

He will be 52 years of age when he assumes the presidency, should he successfully fight away the myriad challenges associated with the general elections. On the part of his experience, he might not have had too much of that in 1989 when he first entered parliamentary politics but today is a different story.

Musalia Mudavadi, Presidential candidate 2012. Picture courtesy of jamhurimagazine.com

Musalia Mudavadi first entered parliament in 1989 with no opposition after his father Moses Mudavadi died leaving the parliamentary seat his son’s to take. However, his mettle was tested both in 2002 and 2005 when he had to be his own man and fight off stiff competition with mixed results.

In 2002, he was resoundingly defeated by the Narc wave first as a running mate to Uhuru Kenyatta’s KANU presidency and again by Moses Akaranga as a member of parliament for Sabatia. After this political humiliation, he left KANU to join ODM in 2005 and become the running mate of the party leader Raila Odinga in what almost became a re- enactment of the 2002 political skit.

However, this time he did one better by getting re- elected as the people’s representative of Sabatia to parliament. Under the coalition government, he joined his former comrade Uhuru Kenyatta as a joint Deputy Prime Minister to put a brick on the wall of his epic political ricocheting.

Corruption in government involving a cemetery scandal and allegations of misappropriation of CDF funds in his constituency caps the words of Barack Obama who likens corruption in Kenya to a terminal cancer. Virtually every single leading presidential candidate in Kenya has one grand corruption case or the other hanging over their heads leading up to the 2012 general election and Mudavadi is no exception.

In the cemetery scam, Mudavadi is accused of obtaining a clean Ksh283million in a Langata Cemetary land purchase. The Kenya Anti- Corruption Commission accused him of allegedly being part of a transaction between his ministry and treasury officials in which public land was bought from an individual with an inflated price tag 13 times its value.

Mudavadi was also the minister for Local government at the time. Prime Minister Raila Odinga came to his defense along with ODM party members who together read political mischief in the accusations.

“Obviously, the owners of grand corruption and their surrogates are viciously fighting back to the extent they are compromising the integrity of State institutions (KACC),” Mudavadi told the Standard newspaper.

An independent watchdog organization called the National Taxpayers Association accuses Mudavadi of not being vigilant enough in ensuring CDF funds in his constituency are being effectively utilized. According to an audit done by the body, Kshs. 9,006,475 of taxpayers’ money in his custody has been wasted on badly implemented projects. Although some of the projects refer to 2003/2004 financial period under Akaranga’s leadership, 13% of this spending was authorized in 2009/2010 when he was in charge.

Several millions have allegedly also been lost through abandoned projects and funds unaccounted for in his constituency according to a report by NTA. Although it is the CDF committees at the grassroots who make the recommendations of projects to be undertaken and spending thereof, the MP is ultimately the only authority that approves expenditure.

Mudavadi ditched ODM and resigned as its deputy party leader and Minister of Local Government in the grand coalition government to join United Democratic Forum (UDF) in May this year. This was to be his reincarnation politically speaking, but his public motive for leaving ODM was a lack of democracy in the party.

He repeatedly insisted that he wanted to be ODM’s presidential candidate but his agenda was thwarted by party loyalists who preferred a direct endorsement for Raila Odinga. In his own words internal democracy in political parties was as important as the practice of democratic governance in government.

UDF has a national outlook, similar to the one enjoyed by ODM and Narc Kenya but its declaration that it is championing for a departure from personality politics might have been neutralized for good the day Mudavadi was chosen to be its flag bearer. In truth, Mudavadi is a strong personality embodiment of Kenya’s politics, same as Raila Odinga, Martha Karua, William Ruto, Kalonzo Musyoka and Uhuru Kenyatta.

However, of all his colleagues, Mudavadi is widely considered to be the mild one or more sober minded by virtue of his demeanor. According to political commentators, this was one of the key reasons ODM selected him to represent it in the Panel of eminent persons during the 2008 Serena talks. He was supposed to complement the combative James Orengo, diplomatic Sally Kosgey and tough talking William Ruto during the delicate peace talks.

There have been talks of the government prepping Mudavadi to succeed Mwai Kibaki in the next presidential election, claims which he sneeringly dismisses. He says he wants to create a better Kenya through his party UDF and that political busybodies were hard at work to stop his agenda.

His UDF party is founded on the basis of issue deliberating politics. According to the party’s website, it is creating a fundamental restructuring of Kenya’s political economy, to make it relevant to the needs of all 40 million people.

His party’s manifesto is based on seven of his own areas of focus regarding things to implement should he be elected by the people as their president. Jobs and the economy, education, the youth, devolution, healthcare, infrastructure and corruption are things he hopes to do differently from what Kibaki managed in his ten year stint as the country’s president. If mildness of character and fortitude won Kibaki two terms of presidency, Musalia must hope he doesn’t do everything differently from his predecessor.