Kalonzo And Mungatana Squirm At The Writing On The Wall
Kalonzo Musyoka and one Danston Mungatana are putting up a brave face but the writing is already on the wall, both gentleman are about to be shoved into political oblivion and when the new republic emerges, there will no longer be room for their brand of old style heckler politics.
Apparently the 50/50 sharing between PNU and ODM extends to parastatals and ambassadorial appointments and that must have a lot of people very worried and lacking in sleep at night.
It is already apparent that the slots have suddenly shrunk for PNU supporters so much so that there is talk now of having a colossal cabinet of at least 36, so as to squeeze in at least 18 ministers apiece (rather than just 16). Do the math and put some faces next to the names and you’ll suddenly realize that 18 cabinet positions are extremely few. There is no way they can go round PNU, Narc-Kenya and ODM-Kenya. It is safe to assume that most of the posts will remain within PNU and other affiliate parties will be extremely lucky to get even one. Based on this assumption it will be difficult for Kalonzo “sent hecklers to the funeral of a female colleague’s mother” Musyoka to retain the vice presidency.
But the LSK (Law Society of Kenya) chairman Kong’o Omogeni and the EALS (East African Law Society) President Tom Ojienda had a very clear message for Hon Musyoka yesterday. They told him that the current PNU and ODM agreement over rides any prior covenants that may have been made and Musyoka should take up the leadership of the opposition as the official leader of the opposition.
The lawyers, in a telephone interview with one of the dailies emphasized that a structured opposition was needed and the idea of having everybody in government should be discouraged. The lawyers further advised that those amending the constitution should put a clause allowing parties with less than 30 MPs to form the official opposition and should also be at liberty to form a coalition with other smaller political parties.
Their suggestion will fall in deaf ears because Kalonzo Musyoka’s brand of politics has no manual for operation in a minority weak back bench. Already the minister is squirming and doing everything possible behind the scenes to ensure that he retains the vice presidency. Actually most Kenyans do not realize how desperate the situation is for Mr Musyoka. You see there are a number of people who financed his presidential campaign and usually people with that kind of money do not “invest” where they can reap no returns. What this means is that without the vice presidency, it will not be possible to recover the investment. You see the vice presidency is where certain contracts and other “deals” can be influenced to bring in this return. So if Musyoka is dropped, then these rich gentlemen will be very upset indeed and chances are that they could ask Mr Musyoka himself to take up the burden of paying them back their cash. That is how serious things are.
But what poor Kalonzo Musyoka does not realize is that there are other stake holders who want to see him out of the vice presidency as soon as possible. These stakeholders are the vast majority of voters who voted ODM and consider Mr Musyoka a traitor. The VP has always brushed aside the criticism saying that this was just noise from the Luo supporters of Raila Odinga. However it is now clearly event that Mr Musyoka does not have support from virtually all provinces save half of his own Kamba community. Central supported him only for as long as he could help prop up the PNU government.
Mr Musyoka is known to be a very proud man, and therefore he should just save face early be resigning his position from the vice presidency and save himself the embarrassing situation of being dropped when President Kibaki announces his grand coalition government.
Things are not any better for Mungatana and his Narc-Kenya colleagues. Today they held a meeting to “re-position” themselves as a party and to remind the president that “Narc-Kenya is a very big party and the only party apart from KANU that has grassroots support countrywide.” Those are Mungatana’s words and not mine.
This is really just putting more pressure on President Kibaki for nothing because no matter what he does, there are only so many cabinet seats available.
Come to think of it, a Kalonzo/Mungatana team in the opposition would do just fine.
P.S.
Hundreds of youths held a strange demonstration in Nairobi CBD this morning demanding for the immediate release of suspected Mungiki leader John Maina Njenga who is serving a 5 year jail term for being caught in possession with illegal firearms. They were later dispersed by police and melted into downtown Nairobi where they fought running battles with police along Kirinyaga road and Globe Cinema roundabout.
This is a very worrying development and raises a number of questions. Was this demonstration to announce the resurgence of the group with the imminent ascension to power of Raila Odinga as the Prime Minister? It is difficult to imagine that there are no political interests supporting the Mungiki activities of this morning. While I already know that hardliners in President Kibaki’s inner cabinet are extremely annoyed at recent developments, I have been asking myself the question; what will the hardliners and radicals within PNU do next? It seems that even as I was preparing my piece posing that million shilling question, I have already received my answer. A rather chilling answer I must say.
