How Kalonzo goof cost him the presidency

Wiper Democratic Movement Leader Kalonzo Musyoka during an interview with The Standard on January 4, 2023. [Edward Kiplimo, Standard] Like a device with a self-detonating mechanism, Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka wasted probably his best chance ever to become Kenya's president in 2013. In the run-up to the presidential campaign, Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto were desperately fighting to break from the yoke of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that was hanging like a sword of Damocles on their political future. They were also facing lengthy jail terms in a foreign land if convicted of crimes against humanity charges. The two politicians were among six others that had been named by ICC Prosecutor Moreno Ocampa as the people who bore the greatest responsibility in the 2007/2008 post-election violence. And since the self-propelling mechanism proposed by Judge Philip Waki in his commission of inquiry for the formation of country's tribunal court was over, they had to face the ICC. Faced with this harsh reality, Ruto and Uhuru needed a president that would protect them. According to Defence Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale in his explosive autobiography, For The Record, the duo drove to Kalonzo's residence to gift him the presidential ticket and be their saviour. "Ruto told me that initially, they had entertained Kalonzo's idea of being president, with Uhuru as deputy and Ruto as majority leader. To clarify that deal, they drove to Kalonzo's home in Karen in Ruto's car." Ruto was the driver and Uhuru was on the left side. "Do you know what Kalonzo said?" Ruto posed when he updated me about the meeting. Ruto told Duale his confidant: "The man looked at us, and said, You guys, leave the presidency to me. I have looked at the charges you are facing and as a senior lawyer, my advice to you is, just go to the ICC. You will be jailed for a maximum of ten years. When you come back, I will leave the seat to you. I will hand it over to you." "My mouth fell open." Ruto shook his head and said: "Can you believe it?" Uhuru looked at Kalonzo, then left the gazebo. He had no words for the then Vice President. Ruto looked at Kalonzo, and mumbled, "Is that so?" Kalonzo was dead serious. That was his offer. Ruto followed Uhuru out of the gazebo. They chatted. They now knew Kalonzo believed they were guilty of the allegations at the ICC. He wanted them in jail. If he got to the presidency, they were headed to jail. "You have the numbers. I have the numbers. We have the resources. Why do we need him?" Ruto asked. Uhuru nodded. When they returned to the gazebo, they said, they had decided to go it alone. To fight off the charges against the ICC, Ruto, and Uhuru needed the levers of power, and control over all State organs. They had to form the next government. "Uhuru told Kalonzo that they had changed their mind. They were offering him a majority leader. Kalonzo rejected the offer. They left. Kalonzo did not realise his gaffe." Impatient to leave, Uhuru told Ruto, "William, you are driving bwana, let us go." According to events of the day, as narrated to Duale by Ruto, both did not look back at Kalonzo as they drove off. Duale claims they later found that during Kalonzo's shuttle diplomacy, he had been selling himself to foreign governments as the man they would be dealing with. Initially, both Ruto and Uhuru the two were pursuing different parts for their survival. Uhuru had been negotiating for a political deal with the then Internal Security Minister George Saitoti, and Kalonzo and they had a private meeting for the building of the alliance at Diani, in Kwale. Together with Duale who had put pressure on the two to begin the prayer meetings across the country to ward off the ICC by showing that the two warring communities were engaging each other, they approached Uhuru who was initially hesitant. As Uhuru was having political dalliance with Saitoti and Kalonzo, and agreed that one of them would be the presidential candidate, Ruto was considering a possible second support on the Raila candidature. "Yes, Raila and Ruto had split, but writing to the UN security council was too low an action. It was the final blow. Before that point, Ruto could have worked with Raila in the Kibaki succession. But after that, it was impossible," says Duale. "When after a meeting with Ruto, Uhuru went back to Kalonzo and Saitoti and broached the issue of bringing Ruto into their alliance, the two protested loudly. Saitoti said if Ruto joined, the alliance is dead. There was no way Kalonzo and Saitoti would compete, their political base was tiny and ambiguous. Ruto was at the time the defacto kingmaker in the Kibaki succession," claims Duale. "This is politics. We had to fight it politically," Ruto told one other strategy meeting. Duale writes that Ruto started started to look for Uhuru and told him that they had to deal with the ICC matter politically and not legally. "Uhuru was hesitant about the ICC as a political case, not legal. His family had investments and interests in Europe. What if he was slapped with sanctions," Duale writes. "They began their prayer meetings with Ruto in Kapsabet. They then went to Eldoret and other towns, then Uhuru overcame his fears and joined the prayers and 'even brought his mother Mama Ngina Kenyatta to the rally we held in Gatundu. We felt unstoppable," says Duale. Much later, the late Saitoti would repeat Kalonzo's gaffe. In a meeting with Duale, Saitoti repeated it, almost word for word: "You know, when Uhuru and Ruto are charged and convicted at The Hague, they will be barred from running for office. I am the best bet for you people." "How?" Duale retorted, shocked: "I am a pastoralist. I am widely accepted in the Maa community. Your party is a party for pastoralists. Ruto's political constituency will easily identify with me. Even you pastoralists from North Eastern... I am also called Muthengi, which is a Kikuyu name, and that makes me acceptable in Central Kenya." Duale says it later turned out that Saitoti, a key member of the Cabinet's ICC sub-committee, had been steering conversations towards the jailing of Ruto and Uhuru.

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