Kalonzo Muyoka new twist on the Azimio DP race is actually funny. We should give the guy some credit. His argument now is that those choosing the DP who do not want Raila to win are the ones who will try to pick somebody else for the job rather than him.
“If I am not picked, it’s obvious that all the votes due unto me may troop to Ruto’s direction, is that what they want? It’s rather obvious,” he said.
He says the moment Raila sidesteps him, it will be crystal clear to him that some people are determined to botch his presidential ticket. He said if this happens, Raila may never become a president in his lifetime.
“Either the devils are walking among them, or they do not want him to become President. In fact, the moment they don’t pick me, it will confirm to me that some people do not want Raila to ever become a president in his life,” he said.
One would have thought that by now Kalonzo Musyoka knows what he has done in the last five days has been perfect act of self sabotage which ensures that he simply cannot be picked as the Azimio DP candidate. It is particularly embarrassing to have a senior politician like the Wiper leader sitting on the shoulders of Mike Sonko taking him around to help his DP campaign.
Kalonzo for days now has held Azimio principals and DP panel hostage in a building locked the doors from outside and has been banging the door with a sledgehammer yelling at the principals and the panel to pick him up as DP or he blows up the building. How on earth can one expect that as a winning strategy. It is a classic losing strategy.
We can say two things about the Kalonzo evolving political total fail project. One is that Mr. Musyoka genuinely and passionately wants the DP’s job. He would love to have that job and there is no doubt that should he be picked he would launch himself fully and relentlessly in the campaign and could very well help Azimio to victory on August 9, 2022.
The other fact is that Mr. Musyoka has also done a perfect job in ensuring that he will not be picked for the job. Blackmail, threats, and holding everybody hostage are just bad things to do and they can never get you anywhere.
So what happens after the DP is picked in a few days’ time. If Kalonzo is picked for the job he will be very happy and will probably try to make up with other principals over his aggressive and sad strategies to get the job. I don’t think Kalonzo would go there as a bully and throw all the other principals under the bus ordering everybody in the coalition to bend their knees to the “three-legged stool”.
He knows that his behavior has created the sense of someone who thinks only Uhuru and Raila are his equals in the coalition and the rest are just part of the escort team. Everybody in Azimio including Mr. Musyoka is going to deal with the reality that Azimio is more of a ten-legged stool because that is the way it has been built.
Read: Kalonzo flips again, currently at Serena for Azimio’s DP vetting
If Kalonzo is not picked, he may actually surprise a lot of people by embracing the Azimio team and being very supportive of whoever gets the job to be Raila Odinga’s running mate.
He may be satisfied in the fact that he threw everything at it and that was not enough. Kalonzo could start by initiating joint campaign moves with the DP candidate and other principals to chart a new path to victory for Azimio.
The bigger issue for Kalonzo here is that his focus is going to be primarily in the 2027 elections and he knows it would be political suicide to go to war against Azimio now when he will desperately need that voting block to support any presidential runs he could make in 2027 or 2032 whenever the office becomes available.
Kalonzo knows that the Ruto supporters would never be on his side whether Azimio wins in 2022 or not. Plus Alfred Mutua already moved to the Ruto camp and he is not following him there after fighting so hard to marginalize him in Azimio. He cannot go there to chase Mutua back to Azimio. Talk about the revolving doors. Even they have to open at some point to be useful.
The interesting thing here is that this turmoil and internally inflicted damages to Azimio could be a huge blessing to the team. This could very well help the team learn that while you are in your house with security outside making sure nobody sets your house on fire it might be more important to ensure nobody burns the house from inside.
Azimio may have learnt that the real dangers they face to win the elections is from within not from UDA. If they put that fire off and keep building the cohesive vibrant movement they had, they are in a very safe place. If Kalonzo has helped them to figure that out it is a lesson they have to take very seriously. Just say thank you to Kalonzo and move on because you have only 90 days to the election day.
The events in Azimio in the last month may be the medicine the coalition needed to understand that team building is the only path to victory. You do that you will win the August 9, 2022 elections hands down.
Adongo Ogony is a Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada
