How MPs arm-twisted Uhuru to run for president in spite of Mudavadi pact

"Uhuru said his family's investment abroad was going to suffer if we won and the country is sanctioned because of the ICC cases. These people threatened him that even the export business of fruits, flowers, coffee, and tea, everything that matters to the Mt Kenya business elite, was going to be crippled. He is very afraid. He gave in," writes Defence Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale in his book, For The Record, which was launched on Thursday.

Flag bearer

With Ruto on his side, the two identified Mudavadi as the flag bearer and went ahead to sign a pact that came to the surprise of The National Alliance and United Republican Party which they had founded.

The two politically conjoined twins were trying to get out of the jaws of the ICC and the prospects of living a life of misery in foreign jails. Having a friendly president to help them fight the post-election violence cases before the ICC bound their political interests.

It is only through allies' pressure and veiled threats that Uhuru accepted to run and ultimately won the presidency in March 2013 ushering in a two-term presidency.

Kalonzo had been their first choice but a 'baffling' gaffe left them disoriented and put them in a political chess table that also thrust them to Mudavadi.

Mudavadi had been the pick of Kibaki advisers.

Their choice of Mudavadi was because the circle believed, they had a safe pair of hands, a malleable neutral leader, with a record as a Finance Minister in the Daniel arap Moi administration.

The Kibaki handlers believed that Mudavadi was appealing to the international community, as the country had repaired the relations, with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He had got the donors back, reformed the Central Bank, the banking laws and even set up the Kenya Revenue Authority to manage the country's taxes.

The handing over of the flag bearer ticket to Mudavadi, who was in the United Democratic Front (UDF), had been done in secrecy and before the agreement deal was promulgated at the Laico Hotel's Summit Club, a private members' club on the 13th floor, in front of lawyers from the trio and consummated at the lobby of the same hotel.

Ardent supporters

MPs and some ardent supporters of the three and a battery of journalists beaming the event to the world were also in attendance.

Former President Mwai Kibaki. [Mbugua Kibera, Standard]

Kibaki brief

"I am going to brief President Kibaki about the deal. He wants to sign off on it," he said, his tone resigned.

"You mean there's nothing we can do?" I asked, annoyed by his helplessness.

He shook his head.

"Aden, wait. Do this, let me go to Mombasa right now. I will be back on the eleven o'clock flight tomorrow. Don't say or do anything."

"The following day, Ruto spelled out the details of the deal. The government had been split into three, and now the three partners were each getting one-third,"

To scuttle the Mudavadi flag-bearer dream, a group of MPs allied to TNA and URP agreed to demand that the issues of the presidential ticket be determined at the National Delegates Conference comprising of TNA, URP, and UDF delegates at the Moi International Stadium in Kasarani by a vote and endorse a joint candidate.

Prior to becoming convinced of his possible candidature, Uhuru had kept TNA and URP MPs off his radar and had locked himself in his house for two days.

To them, they knew that they would use the opportunity to torpedo Mudavadi and bring back the Uhuru and Ruto candidature.

"We quickly got together and went to Uhuru's house next to the State House. We did not go past the gate. Uhuru does not like tough questions about his decisions. He does not like complications."

The MPs waited for about two hours and then left Uhuru's residence near the State House gate.

Unstoppable, some of the MPs went back for the second day, and after waiting for hours, threatening to stay there until he opened.

"Uhuru gave in. He curtly told them: "I have given up on this thing."

Frustrated by Uhuru's resigned fate, one of the MPs wondered.

Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto at the JKIA in December 2016. [File, Standard]

"Can Ruto do something? Can we push him to tell Uhuru to reconsider? You know our seats depend on his election," Duale writes.

Sensing a political danger, some of the MPs pulled histrionics by threatening to defect to ODM and support Raila's candidature.

"We said, if this was the case, we had to jump ship. We let Uhuru and Ruto know that Kabogo, Shebesh, Kareke, and I were going to ODM and decamp.

"They knew we were among the core workhorses of the campaign, a key part of the brain trust, and if we defected late in the game, the race was lost. Raila had already the backing of the Western world and the civil society," says Duale. As part of derailing the Mudavadi candidature, some TNA and URP MPs went for a rally in Narok.

Duale broke the news of the demand at the public rally.

"As soon as I made the statement, the journalists told their newsrooms about it, and it made it into breaking news. I got a news alert on my phone."

As part of their machinations, Uhuru allies on the TNA side including Kabogo, Justin Muturi, Naomi Shaaban, then Taveta MP, Jamleck Kamau, then Kigumo MP, and a few other TNA big shots had cornered Uhuru and insisted that the delegates conference was the way to go.

They even went ahead to give him the words for the task.

"When I sat with my people, they told me that they agreed with what I had done. However, they said a decision on who became the party's flag bearer was not mine. Such a decision was not to be made in a boardroom," he publicly explained, when he addressed a press conference and some of his supporters.

It is at this point that Uhuru also blamed the devil for his decision to hand over the presidential ticket to Mudavadi.

"Shetani ameshindwa kabisa," Uhuru announced. (The devil is defeated).