Kalonzo: I was to be Uhuru’s running mate but Ruto changed mind

PHOTO | FILE Former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka and Deputy President William Ruto at a past function.  NATION MEDIA GROUP

By ISAAC ONGIRI iongiri@ke.nationmedia.com, Saturday, August 3  2013

In Summary

• Ruto had voluntarily agreed to be the Leader of Majority party in Parliament but he went back on his word. This is what killed the G7 alliance, says Mr Musyoka

Former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka had accepted to become President Uhuru Kenyatta’s running mate in a tripartite pre-election deal, but walked out of the plan after Deputy President William Ruto changed his mind on a plan negotiated in Karen, Nairobi.

In a wide-ranging tell-all interview with the Sunday Nation on Saturday, Mr Musyoka said his team of negotiators and those from Mr Kenyatta’s and Mr Ruto’s camps had struck a deal in which he (Mr Musyoka) was to be the running mate after Mr Ruto voluntarily offered to be the Leader of Majority party in Parliament.

“I had accepted to be his (Mr Kenyatta’s) running mate because we had agreed with my supporters and elders from my side that a deal that would have offered us at least a status quo at the time was the best compromise. Ruto had agreed to be Majority Leader but he later changed his mind. That is what killed the G7 Alliance,” Mr Musyoka revealed.

Mr Musyoka, who gave the interview at his Karen home, said he lost hope about the G7 affair after an ethnic dimension crept into the talks. The initial offer (of deputy president) was relegated with supporters of the two leaders pushing him out citing political weakness of his Ukambani backyard.

Said Mr Musyoka: “In fact at a meeting around this place (Karen) ... that was the stroke that broke the camel’s back and the G7 crashed.”

After the change of positions by Mr Ruto, the former VP was offered the position of National Assembly Speaker or Majority Leader but he flatly rejected the two offers. The two slots finally went to Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto’s political confidants.

But Kericho Senator Charles Keter, who participated in the power-sharing talks, dismissed Mr Musyoka’s claims as “dishonest”, arguing that Mr Ruto remained focused on the G7 negotiations until the VP walked out on them.

“There was nothing like that. Kalonzo just ran away prematurely. He walked out on Ruto and Kenyatta because he was insisting on becoming president and nothing less. He should be honest because I was always there,” Mr Keter told the Sunday Nation on the phone.

The Kericho Senator said Mr Musyoka was unrealistic during the entire process, making it difficult for the group to reach a peacefully negotiated deal.

Revealing the behind-the-scenes manoeuvres that characterised the last three months to the presidential elections, Mr Musyoka said he quickly did the “unthinkable” and dispatched a team to engage Mr Raila Odinga, something he described as an “earth shaking decision” largely underestimated by his former allies and the State intelligence networks.

“The decision to join up with ODM was the most logical thing. You can understand the frustrations because they thought it was impossible for me to join up with Mr Odinga. What they didn’t know is that my team was negotiating with the PM’s, a decision was taken and now it was my choice  to work with him,” he said.

He added: “I can tell you that I campaigned for Mr Odinga like I have never done before. You know there are people who normally take election period to be business time but, for me, I unleashed my resources to campaign. In fact, I branded all those choppers you saw around and many more and I never asked my brother for a coin.”

The Wiper leader recalled that a day after the G7 fallout, he received a call from Mr Kenyatta. “After I differed with them Mr Kenyatta called me telling me ... oh Mr VP so that you don’t think we are not transparent, tomorrow at 9am we will have a meeting with the President of Burundi, Mr Piere Nkurunzinza, and Charity Ngilu will be present.”

He said he read Mr Kenyatta’s call as an attempt to blackmail him back to negotiations by passing a message that even if he stayed away, there was a standing alternative.

“How did the name Charity Ngilu come in? This indeed was a threat that if I didn’t budge, there was an alternative anyway. I hope that alternative has now served them right,” he stated.

The former VP also talked of how President Kibaki gave him a raw deal despite having mobilised his troops to help cushion his government from crumbling after what he termed “an election stolen from Mr Odinga” in 2007.

“My brother Raila Odinga, who is a now a comrade in the struggle, actually has a strong soul because he has had his election victory stolen from him twice. Actually the 2007 election was stolen from him,” Mr Musyoka said.

A special tribunal set up following the bitterly disputed elections and chaired by South African Judge Johanne Kriegler concluded that the poll was so flawed that it was difficult to tell who actually won

The former VP, who spent almost the entire life of the Grand Coalition government defending President Kibaki, described a deal between his party ODM-K and PNU, which saw him picked as VP and offered two additional Cabinet slots, a “very bad one”.

Although Mr Musyoka said there was no formal agreement between him and President Kibaki on how to handle his succession to pay him back for “salvaging” his presidency, the latter mentioned during the negotiations that he would support his VP to succeed him.

Mr Musyoka recalled: “I remember during the negotiations one Wiper MP Mohammed Affey asked President Kibaki … now that we are willing to help you stabilise the country, will you be willing to support our candidate Kalonzo to succeed you in the 2012 elections? And Kibaki answered…. Oh yes of course … ”

The deal was later consummated at State House after negotiators agreed on the Framework Coalition Document signed by President Kibaki and Mr Musyoka.

“In fact this matter led to a lot of wrangles in ODM-K as some of our members felt cheated,” the former VP stated.

Some ODM-K MPs, including former Yatta MP Charles Kilonzo and his former Mutito counterpart Kiema Kilonzo, rebelled after they were left out of Cabinet appointments.

The two lost out in the last elections although Charles had crossed back to Mr Musyoka’s side days before the elections.
Former Cabinet ministers Amos Kimunya and the late John Michuki led the Kibaki team that negotiated with ODM-K’s David Musila and Samuel Poghisio, leading to the formation of the first 17-member Cabinet in January 2008.

In the deal, Mr Poghisio and former Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo became ministers with only two additional assistant ministerial positions available to ODM-K.

Recalling the controversies surrounding a similar document in 2002, Mr Musyoka said that had Kibaki honoured a deal he signed with the Liberal Democratic Party in the run-up to the 2002 General Election, his second term bid would have sailed through with ease.

“If Kibaki stuck to the deal we signed in 2002 between NAK and LDP even the International Criminal Court cases we are facing now would not have been there,” he said.

He revealed that the country avoided a similar situation in the last elections despite what he termed open “rigging”.

“Last time we said we cannot sit and watch this country go down the drain again. We decided to follow the right channels.”

During the interview, Mr Musyoka emerged from his usual diplomatic mien to attack the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and the Judiciary, arguing that they presided over an outright theft of the Kenyan election and called for an overhaul of the commission before the 2017 polls.

Mr Musyoka, who has embarked on a personal rebranding, has taken an unusual bare-knuckled approach against the government since his last intriguing speech at the Nyayo Stadium on the last day of campaigns on March 2 in which he openly and fiercely attacked the Kenyatta campaign.

“People had thought that I am a coward and called me names. But now I just want to be myself. Those who know me well understand exactly who I am.”

The former VP then turned against the IEBC, declaring it  solely responsible for the Cord loss, adding that it is unfair for anyone to blame the coalition’s presidential secretariat for the unfortunate electoral “miscarriage” .

“There were things that could have been done better. But in fact Cord won the elections. Let me tell you these people were even planning to rig the Makueni by-election. If it was not for certain conditions set by Safaricom which we know, that plan would have succeeded,” Mr Musyoka claimed.

“This IEBC cannot manage the next elections. It will be a disaster for this country if they try to stick with it. It will be taking this country backwards. In fact I want to ask them to just pack and go because they will not be allowed to handle those elections,” he added.

The former VP sensationally claimed that billions of shillings may have been used to compromise the March elections.

“We know that billions of shillings were used to compromise certain individuals and that the money was paid through foreign accounts in the Seychelles. We know that,” the former VP claimed without offering further details of the transactions he was referring to.

Mr Musyoka also accused the Judiciary of not being fair, adding that the country’s hope that the collapse at the judiciary had been fixed is slowly dying.

“What we are seeing in the Judiciary is very sad. It is discouraging that we are slowly on our way to where we were several years ago,” he said.

Mr Musyoka also spoke about the recent order by the government to have him and Raila return government cars previously allocated to them, adding that it was actually an onslaught targeted at him.

“These people are actually targeting me, not Raila. They appear so bitter with me and that is why they employed every trick in the book in their attempt to capture Makueni, including harassing an innocent Kethi Kilonzo,” he said.

The former VP said that apart from security and government cars, he and the former PM should be entitled to medical cover and other entitlements.

“What is in it for just two or 10 cars for me and the former PM when the former President has over 25 cars yet the former PM was his co-principal really?” he asked.

The government’s decision to withdraw part of their security, Mr Musyoka said, was part of a wider plot by the Jubilee government to keep them harassed and intimidated.

He said some of their allies are also targeted for political intimidation by government operatives taking orders from above.
He asked the President and his Deputy to desist from humiliating and harassing him and the former PM.