Whenever you hear a leader is having a meeting with the President Uhuru right now the first thing that comes in the mind is soliciting for a job. But this has always been the case with even with no doubt.
The handshake between the opposition leader Raila Amollo Odinga and the President has even made things easier,everyone wants to join the band wagon.
The fruits of the handshake are evident. They also seem to taste sweeter. Raila himself through the handshake has gained an endorsement. Not just an ordinary endorsement but the African Envoy for Infrastructure Development by the African Union. Kalonzo is now leading a peace convoy in South Sudan.
Musalia is seemingly in for an eternal share. Musalia has declared his quest to be in the state house in 2022. The meeting with Uhuru’s right man Murathe 2022 was the top agenda.
The meeting came a week after it was reported that the ANC leader was shopping for a running mate from central Kenya in his bid to succeed Kenyatta who is constitutionally ineligible to run again.
Murathe is no ordinary central Kenya politician. He is Uhuru’s close ally and confidant, having played a major role in his presidential campaigns in 2013 and 2017.
He was at the forefront in the formation of TNA party and later transforming the Jubilee Coalition into Jubilee Alliance Party, the precursor to the current Jubilee Party.
Murathe is also well known to Mudavadi since their days at St Mary’s School, which President Kenyatta also attended.
The meeting comes barely two weeks after President Kenyatta told a gathering of Nyeri leaders that he will shock them with his preference for successor. His statement, made against the backdrop of divided opinion in central Kenya over his successor within the Kikuyu community and support for the 2022 Presidential election sent tongues wagging. Some have interpreted it to mean Deputy President William Ruto is not guaranteed of his — and by extension the central Kenya — backing while others say it was directed at pouring cold water on the premature 2022 election campaigns.
Murathe has in the past openly differed with Ruto’s allies who have accused him and others around the President of trying to undermine the DP’s bid. But the former Gatanga MP has dismissed those claims, telling the Star in a past interview that it was in the interest of Ruto for Jubilee to stay intact and his allies should not cause a split.
Since his re-election, Uhuru has avoided making any direct endorsement of Ruto’s presidential bid despite their Jubilee pact.
His November 3 declaration that his choice in the 2022 succession politics would be a shocker to many was the closest he had come to commenting on the controversy.
During the same meeting, Uhuru told MPs from Mt Kenya region MPs to spearhead development and avoid succession talk and ‘loitering’.
The remarks surprised MPs who have been aggressively marketing Ruto’s presidential bid in the populous region despite the President’s repeated cease-and-desist warnings against 2022 politicking. They saw it as the clearest indication that Uhuru may renege on his pre-election promise to back Ruto for the country’s top job.
DO YOU THINK MUSALIA MUDAVADI WILL WIN BIG?