Everybody and certainly any politician worth his salt and Kalonzo Musyoka is one such politician knows that you don’t negotiate anything worth a dime in the media. The whole world understands that the media is not there to facilitate negotiations certainly not between political parties striving to achieve something together.
So why on earth has Kalonzo Musyoka insisted on negotiating with his Azimio Coalition counterparts with endless media blitzes where he issues several demands before joining hands with Azimio Coalition?
Is Kalonzo looking for publicity that can be very cheap to get in Kenya? Is he looking for a specific spot to be allocated to him in the Azimio Coalition? Or even more bluntly is he hoping to undermine and derail the Azimio Coalition for whatever reasons and personal interests?
Those are fair questions to ask at this stage because the demands Kalonzo is making on Azimio Coalition are becoming more and more bizarre by the minute.
The latest demands and claims by Kalonzo are just outrageous. Kalonzo produced a document which he referred to as a secret deal between him and Raila Odinga, signed in 2017 in which Raila allegedly promised to let him take the next shot at the presidency in the 2022 General Elections.
Kalonzo now wants Raila to follow that deal to the letter and nobody knows whether that is for the 2022 presidential elections or the next one. Whatever it is Kalonzo, a lawyer himself, forgot one huge fact which is a big elephant in the room and he can’t see it.
Read: Kalonzo not joining Azimio won’t stop our win, Otiende Amollo says
That secret deal which obviously is no longer secret was signed between the two of them when both were members of NASA running for elections in 2017.
NASA died a long time ago and maybe Kalonzo should have raised those concerns at the grand funeral of the late NASA. In any event, a lawyer like Kalonzo knows that he cannot bring a deal signed between him and his buddies in an organization that doesn’t exist anymore to a new group that has nothing to do with that now-defunct organization. That is simple law that you don’t need to go to Law School to figure out.
The Azimio Coalition cannot in any way shape or form be held hostage by some secret deal signed 5 years ago that they have nothing to do with. Azimio Coalition certainly cannot fulfill agreements they never signed.
Secondly, most of us thought that Kalonzo was coming in with a new organization called OKA. Has that changed? Otherwise, what do the other parties to OKA like Narc Kenya led by Martha Karua, KANU led by Gideon Moi have to do with Kalonzo’s 2017 secret deal? Are they also party to the Kalonzo demands or will Kalonzo make his own Wiper demands and just join Azimio Coalition as Wiper Party, not as part of OKA?
Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka has said that he is ready to work with ODM leader Raila Odinga again.
The Wiper leader stirred the political scene, insisting he now wants Raila to honour a 2017 pre-election deal with him.
Speaking on Tuesday at the Kalonzo Musyoka Command Centre, Kalonzo said that this time, however, negotiations must be structured.
“As we begin the fresh round of political negotiation in our country, I have been compelled to release this document due to the often said statement that I am an indecisive kingmaker and that I would be a fool to support Raila Odinga for the third time,” he said.
Kalonzo also dispelled reports that there is tension between him and ODM leader Raila Odinga.
‘There is no tension between me and my brother Raila Odinga,” he said.
At the same time, Kalonzo said President Uhuru Kenyatta should lead the talks between him and Raila.
“He (Uhuru) has a sense of authority and he is a sitting president and holds great sway,” he said.
“This was a secret agreement but the person who was to release it is already in breach of it.”
The other big agenda item Kalonzo came with is that Raila Odinga owes him 62 million based on his own calculation with his buddy Mutula Kilonzo of moneys that are allocated to political parties from the Kenyan exchequer.
It is complicated math so we are not going to entangle ourselves with that and ODM Secretary Edwin Sifuna has addressed that issue. But all that is neither here nor there as far as Azimio Coalition is concerned.
If Raila personally or ODM owes money to Kalonzo then meheshimiwa please take them to court. As a matter of fact Chief Justice Martha Koome has just set up Small Claims Court in Machakos and Makueni. Run there and be the first to launch a case. Let the judges figure that out and leave Azimio Coalition alone to do what is important to them and to Kenyans who support them and want them to succeed.
The one thing that needs to be sorted out immediately is that Azimio Coalition needs to get back to is focused and mature political work that has been going on for months now to win the next elections not for personal satisfaction of any particular individuals but for the good of the whole country.
Here is what Kalonzo wants from Azimio Coalition so far. To me, it looks more like a headache than anything else. I could be wrong.
Let Kalonzo make his decisions and choose where he wants to be politically in the 2022 elections and for the love of God stop holding Azimio Coalition hostage to your political whims. That is not fair to the millions of Kenyans who support the Azimio Coalition.
Read: God Bless Rigathi: Ruto steps out and Gachagua opens their dirty box
There are a lot of desperate forces out there praying and hoping for turmoil in Azimio Coalition as they deal with their total chaos of infighting. Why the heck would Azimio Coalition give their rivals that gift?
Tomorrow Azimio launches its campaigns starting in Nakuru let them all meet there and give the hotels and press conferences a break for the next two weeks. That could work wonders.
In a positive twist that hopefully continues and bares fruits for the team Kalonzo now says he is ready to move on and get to work with Azimio Coalition minus the 2017 deal demands. That is great.
The former vice president says the willingness of his party and the One Kenya Alliance at large to partner with Azimio la Umoja ahead of the August polls has boxed him in a situation that he won’t evade working with Raila.
“After deep consultations with my own party and the One Kenya Alliance, we have said we are ready to work within a grand coalition of Azimio and OKA. The party leader of Jubilee has come out to pronounce on that formation. That is a bigger consideration. Within that bigger framework, we have no option but to work with Raila Odinga,” Kalonzo told NTV on Tuesday evening.
Adongo Ogony is a Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada
