In one of the oriental philosophies, the life of a man under the sun is locked in one full cycle comprising four distinct ages.
In his political voyage, former Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale appears to have gone through the full cycle of iron, copper, silver and golden ages. And if recent pronouncements attributed to him are anything to go by, he is still spinning the discus of political self-realisation. From Narc in 2002 to New Ford Kenya in 2007 and from UDF in 2013 to Ford Kenya in 2017, the “bull fighter”, as he is commonly known, has gone full cycle.
Perhaps his political golden age was the 2002-2007 period when he romped into Parliament after many years of political activism, first as a student leader in the ‘80s and later as National Convention Executive Council (NCEC) coordinator while in private medical practice in Western.
Winners punished
During this age of full glamour, he cast his lot with President Mwai Kibaki’s side when he battled with his erstwhile friend Raila Odinga for control of government. It is the age when losers were rewarded and winners punished.
For failing to secure his Banana side in the 2005 referendum, Khalwale was rewarded with assistant ministerial position when the winners were booted from government. For the next two years, he would be riding high as a top ranking government official. In 2007, his political silver age of lesser glamour set in. First, and swimming against the tide, he narrowly retained the Ikolomani parliamentary seat on a New Ford Kenya ticket against ODM candidate Bernard Shinali. Second, the dominant parties of the time formed a grand coalition government to further constrict his political pace.
To his credit, Khalalwe turned around his misfortune.
He transformed himself into the foremost public defender at the time both opposition and government had closed ranks.
As the 10th Parliament’s chair of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), he took his job with gusto and staged one of the most captivating shows of the last few decades when he moved the famous censure motion against Cabinet Minister Amos Kimunya:
“To stop corruption at the Treasury, Kimunya must go; to repossess the Grand Regency Hotel, Kimunya must go; to assure members of the public who were misdirected into buying Safaricom shares without adequate information, Kimunya must go.”
Once again, he was riding high, until his election was overturned and he shifted focus to a by-election in 2011. Once again, and riding on his public interest defence credentials, he won against ODM. In 2013 and like most political leaders at the time, he misread the political order and settled for Senate position in place of governor. His political copper age was in the offing -- dreary, dull, drab. Voted in on UDF ticket, he spent the next five years in a dull Senate, which had been outfoxed of its glamour by an assertive National Assembly. Despite attempting to pull it off the 10th Parliament way, very few remember his actual contribution at the Senate. And then in 2017, he sought to correct the 2013 mess by going for the governor seat on a Ford Kenya ticket.
For the first time since his political odyssey began, he was handed a cold defeat and with it, his political iron age unfolded. Consigned to political cold for the first time, Khalwale took consolation in political talk shows and commentary until Deputy President William Ruto came calling and found him “already too willing” to cut a deal.
When we caught up with him this week, he struck a guilty tenor on the phone. He was a little dodgy at first, giggled deliriously at the queries but later steadied for the conversation.
“People should not read too much into my pronouncements. The fact of the matter is that the country is shaping up to the 2022 elections and if I were a presidential candidate, I would be very worried right now,” he said. I asked him why: “Because it is shaping up as a two-horse race. And If I am not one of the two horses, I would not let that happen. I would insist on being part of the narrative that shapes up any conversation leading up to 2022.”
But Khalwale is not a presidential candidate. If anything, he assured, he was only interested in “mambo madogo madogo” which I later affirmed to be the governor’s seat. So why would he take unusual interest in a presidential contest when he has his own race to run?
I stopped beating about the bush and went more direct: “So of the horses shaping up, who are you casting your lot with?” He reciprocated: “William Samoei arap Ruto, so that Kenyans can have a fresh breath, and because he does not come from any dynasty, we will cast our lot with him.”
It could not get clearer than that. The bull-fighter is gone! He had more psalms for the man he fought in the Banana Vs Oranges referendum campaigns of 2005.
“My honest assessment is that Ruto, whether he is good or bad, is way much ahead of the rest. He starts the race with 16 counties on his side when some of them like Raila have four, Kalonzo three, Mudavadi zero and my party leader two as at the present standing.”
The bull-fighter is gone! He told me he was not bought for 30 pieces of silver. He was not bought at all. He was convinced of Samoei’s credentials.
nmusau@standardmedia.co.ke
