They say your enemy’s enemy is your friend. When Kiminini MP Chris Wamalwa last week proclaimed his unflinching support for William Ruto’s 2022 bid for the presidency, tongues were left wagging as to where his boss, Ford-Kenya leader Moses Wetang’ula’s loyalties lay in the Uhuru Kenyatta succession equation.
That the Bungoma senator has no immediate plans to vie for the presidency cannot be gainsaid. From the outset, the Nasa co-principal’s stake in the 2022 was rudely jolted by his controversial ouster as senate minority leader leading to his fallout with Raila Odinga.
Matters were complicated even further when Uhuru and Raila pulled a fast one on political protagonists with the Mach 9 2018 handshake that has since altered the political equation in the country.
The surprise handshake that left out key players across the political divide including Ruto, Kalonzo Musyoka, Musalia Mudavadi and Wetang’ula seemed to have disrupted various unwritten scripts for many years to come.
At some point in time, Wetang’ula offered to back Ruto’s 2022 plans only for the Ford-Kenya leader to beat a hasty retreat a few days on. With the much-touted ANC-Ford Kenya merger to offer the Western region a united platform towards 2022 a sheer pipe dream, observers say the vote-rich region could inevitably be staring at yet another scramble from ‘outsiders’.
As things stand, Mudavadi and Kakamega governor Wycliffe Oparanya have shown the clearest signs of gunning for the top seat, albeit with the latter eliciting a huge deal of suspicion over his intentions.