Former running mate to Mudavadi: Don’t fall for Ruto’s seduction

Ndaragwa MP Jeremiah Kioni and ANC Party leader Musalia Mudavadi in a past function. [Courtesy]

 

In the 2013 General Election, Jeremiah Kioni was on the ballot paper as Musalia Mudavadi’s running mate in the presidential polls.

 

Fast forward to eight years later, the two are pulling in opposite directions, with Mudavadi vowing to run for president for a second time in 2022, while Kioni is rooting for a Raila Odinga presidency.

A key political player in Western Kenya, Mudavadi appears to attract attention from the 2022 presidential contest perceived frontrunners, Deputy President William Ruto and Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader Raila Odinga.

On December 19, 2021, at the burial of Mudavadi’s step-mother, Rosebella Jerono Mudavadi, which was held at Budira Village in Vihiga County, Odinga said he was sure he and Mudavadi will be on the same political side come 2022.

“Mudavadi and I go back a long way. We have been friends since [the days that] we were in opposition. In 2013 he took a different path, and you know what happened. In 2017, we went to hunt together, aimed at the animal but unfortunately, it disappeared into the forest and was devoured by hyenas. I had nothing left to share,” Odinga told mourners.

Nearly two weeks later, on December 31, 2021, Deputy President William Ruto, during a surprise stop-over in Kakamega when Senator Cleophas Malala hosted a football tournament in Mumias, said he was ready to have Mudavadi on his side come 2022.

“You, the people of Kakamega, I have heard you clearly. You’ve told me to go and speak with Musalia Mudavadi, right? You’ve also told me to go and speak with Moses Wetang’ula. Would you like Mudavadi to work with me, the hustler, or Raila Odinga? Would you like Wetang’ula to work with me, or Raila Odinga?” he posed.

“I will speak with Mudavadi so that we can form the next government come 2022,” said the deputy president.

Being the hotcake that he is, his former running mate in the 2013 presidential race, Jeremiah Kioni, who is the Member of Parliament for Ndaragwa Constituency, now urges Mudavadi to team up with Odinga, and not fall for Ruto’s seduction.

Kioni says Mudavadi’s chances of surviving politically are higher if he joins hands with Odinga.

“One of the things that he can do is to go into any coalition (once the Political Parties Amendment Bill becomes law),” Kioni said on KTN News on Monday, January 3.

“But if he is swallowed by [Ruto’s] Tanga Tanga [team], then he’d go into political oblivion, he’d get into a difficult political position. His side should be Azimio la Umoja,” the MP said on Press Review show hosted by Debarl Inea.

Kioni said Mudavadi’s time to successfully run for president will come after Odinga’s possible victory in 2022.

“He is a president Kenya will have one day. He can manage our affairs well. Besides Raila Odinga, the other political leader we are looking up to is Musalia Mudavadi. [If he really wants to occupy the presidential seat], he must now play his cards very well,” said Kioni.

“If he goes to that other side (Ruto’s faction), then he will be very far behind come 2027 or 2032.”

Kioni said Mudavadi blew his chance of showing his political might when he skipped the Bukhungu II convention on December 31, 2021.

“If I were him, I would have gone there and stormed the event with my pack (of supporters).

“Raila [Odinga] did it (in 1992) when they were splitting Ford-Kenya with Kijana Wamalwa.  If he had not gone to Thika, perhaps we wouldn’t have the Raila that we see today,” said Kioni.

According to the legislator, Mudavadi’s “decent’ character makes him an appropriate material for presidency.

“Even when people went around the country saying that I never voted for him [in the 2013 General Election], he never bought that line. He stood with me, and I respect him for that,” he said.