RAILA DISMISSES UHURU KISUMU TOUR

Cord leader Raila Odinga says he is not threatened by President Uhuru Kenyatta’s forays into his strongholds, mostly in Western, Nyanza and Coast regions.

The President, who last week postponed a planned trip to Kisumu, has made frequent visits to areas perceived to be Mr Odinga’s strongholds in what Jubilee strategists have packaged as part of his efforts to demonstrate that he is committed to develop all parts of the country regardless of their political leaning.

However, Mr Odinga is dismissive of the idea that the President must tour a particular region for it to experience development, arguing that all Kenyans deserve a share of national resources.

He says that tying development to presidential visits was a “primitive political culture” that should have died with the end of the Kanu era.

According to Mr Odinga, Cord supporters cannot be swayed by “presidential motorcades”. He said that his political stronghold was “national”.

“Our support is not so cheap for people to change their stand because of a presidential motorcade,” he said. There have been suggestions that President Kenyatta’s planned visit to Kisumu was postponed to accommodate Mr Odinga who was out of the country but the former Prime Minister on Saturday indicated that State House had not contacted him over the trip, adding that such contact was unnecessary.

“The President is the leader of the whole country and he is free to visit any part of the nation. He is welcome to Kisumu and does not require my blessings to do so,” he said.

“Jubilee has an agenda though it has chosen to discriminate against other parts of the country. The President is free to sell himself politically and his agenda anywhere in the country and address problems facing the people.”

According to the ODM leader, the President had visited a number of his strongholds without much ado.

“He has been to Mombasa, Kakamega, Teso, Kilifi, Migori, Kisii, Nairobi and many other places which voted for me in the last election without my blessings,” he said.

“I am least perturbed about the visits. People from those regions pay taxes. They don’t need to support Jubilee or work with government for their areas to be developed.”

According to Mr Odinga, the constitution demands that national resources and state jobs be distributed equitably and development should not be marketed as “a favour” to the people by the ruling coalition.

The Cord principal also laughed off the recent decision by President Kenyatta to “hand over” power to his Deputy William Ruto ahead of his appearance at the International Criminal Court, saying it was “ridiculous” and the summoning of Parliament to make the announcement was a “waste of public resources”.

(READ: Ruto takes power as Uhuru heads to ICC - VIDEO)

“I was amused by the hullabaloo over the purported handover. Article 147 of the constitution makes it automatic for the Deputy President to act as Head of State in the absence of the President,” argued the Opposition leader who fought for the presidency against the two in the March 2013 General Election.

“Handing over a motorcade is not handing over power. If Uhuru was serious, he should have also given Mr Ruto the instruments of power such as the presidential sword.”

Mr Odinga is currently at the centre of a push for a constitutional referendum to increase allocation of resources to county governments, address issues of equity in sharing of public jobs, land and electoral reforms under the Okoa Kenya campaign also spearheaded by former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka.

President Kenyatta is leading the Jubilee brigade against the referendum campaign, saying it is diversionary, unnecessary, a waste of public resources and a strategy by the Cord leaders to rejuvenate their political careers. The Council of Governors is also rallying another referendum for more money to the counties through the Pesa Mashinani drive.

In the conversation yesterday, Mr Odinga revealed that the Okoa Kenya team had settled on three issues that will be the pillars of the debate: Devolution, land and electoral reforms.

REVIEW COLLECTED SIGNATURES

The ODM leader said the Okoa Kenya campaign had reduced its tempo to allow its committee of experts to verify the collected signatures, which he claimed were more than five million.

According to the former PM, Okoa Kenya is proposing increase of budgetary allocation to counties, devolution of aspects of security to ensure that Administration Police report to governors as well as devolution of education infrastructure.

On education, they want the national government to handle teachers and the curriculum while the sub-nationals will oversee development of classrooms and other infrastructure.

“We have dropped some of the issues after testing public opinion. Our team is verifying the signatures and we hope to move to the next step next month.”

To address issues of elections,  Mr Odinga, who led a team to monitor the just-concluded Mozambique elections, said that political parties should be allowed to nominate individuals to the electoral commission to ensure transparency and fairness.

According to Mr Odinga, the National Land Commission should be allowed to handle all public and community land issues in consultation with county governments while the national government deals with private land.

He accused the Jubilee Government of abetting corruption in the management of land and public resources.

At the same time, Mr Odinga challenged Mr Ruto to come clear on the source of money he has been dishing out in harambees.

“We suspect that the source is dubious. Where does he get Sh40 million every month yet his salary is Sh2 million? We know his business interests cannot generate the kind of money he has been dishing out every weekend.”

Stressing that he was not opposed to harambees, Mr Odinga said he was concerned that they may be used as an avenue for misuse of public funds and demanded greater transparency.

PANIC AS UHURU DRAWS CABINET SHUFFLE SHOCKER

President Uhuru Kenyatta is said to be preparing to give Kenyans a gift of the year, a Christmas-cum-New Year surprise goodies that he hopes will impact on his presidential bid all the way to 2017.

Aware of this, panic has gripped the cabinet and other government institutions as they wait anxiously to see who has satisfied Uhuru and who has not, and hence who will bid bye to the coveted offices. Sources say that appointments are to be made in parastatals with even word that a report by a taskforce appointed to streamline their operations is to be implemented. Corruption and failure to perform will determine who goes and who remains.

Several factors are at play, including the elephant currently in the room of Kenyan international relations – the judgment any day now by the ICC judges on Uhuru’s crimes against humanity case at The Hague, Netherlands.

Whichever way the judges move, ranging from indefinite postponement to citing him and Kenya before the Rome Statute’s Assembly of States Parties, or terminating the case and severely reprimanding the prosecution, Uhuru’s topmost team of strategists, which includes both Kenyans and foreign political advisers have told him to stamp his authority dramatically and forcefully on the political and administrative scene at home.

Uhuru’s advisers look covetously at Rwandese President Paul Kagame’s periodic displays of executive authority and Rwandese sovereignty that include cutting ties with France, introducing English as a new national language alongside French and, just last week, banning the British Broadcasting Corporation from Rwanda. They wish their boss could flex his presidential muscle like Kagame.

The reshuffle is part of the continuing process to rebrand Uhuru after his appearance at the ICC as a private citizen taking care of personal challenges to the extent that he handed over power to Deputy President William Ruto for two days. It was the first such appearance by a head of state.

The other major factor is the three-way national referendum campaign – the opposition Cord Okoa Kenya fronted by Raila Odinga, the Pesa Mashinani fronted by Council of Governors’ chairman Isaac Rutto, whose political standpoint is as the deputy president’s nemesis, and the Jubilee administration’s own strategy which is to forestall the referendum until the 2017 general election.

If the devolution referendum is embedded in the 2017 general election as the seventh vote, the plot is to allow Cord to win the public vote but again lose the secret ballot and remain out of State House and even more of a minority in both parliament and the senate than is the case now. Caught in such this awkward corner of a win-lose situation, the opposition will be completely out of steam for years.

If he, indeed, stands for a fourth time for the presidency, Raila will have the near-meaningless consolation prize of winning the referendum, but Uhuru would retain State House and secure the crucial second term that is widely viewed as the legacy-building term.

The next gameplan from there will be the battle for the Uhuru succession 2022.

To address all these factors, plus the constant background and headache of Kenya’s political class – mega corruption at the heart of both government and opposition taking the centrestage - the president is planning an earthquake of a reshuffle as Kenyans enter the 2014 festive mood.

According to impeccable insider sources, in one believed to be a deft move by the president, he is likely to accept the resignation of at least one cabinet secretary and enlarge the cabinet to its constitutionally mandated maximum of 22 slots.

Kenyans are waiting to see if Devolution and National Planning CS Anne Waiguru will be moved. Cabinet secretaries Joseph ole Lenku (Interior) and Michael Kamau (Transport), who are otherwise considered powerful and having the president’s ear had completely surrendered themselves to parliament’s summonses when the president  summoned speaker Justin Muturi and others. The two ministers fled from the precincts of parliament just a jump ahead of their date with MPs in the then envisaged grilling.

Kamau is also said to be on his way out as his ministry as it continues to witness tender fraud in the ministry. It is claimed that cases of tenders fraudulently being awarded to the correct few has doubled in comparison to the Kibaki era. It is said he has done  next to nothing to improve the transport sector.

Perhaps, worst affected by the power play games behind the scenes was Lands secretary Charity Ngilu who actually appeared before MPs and put them in their place.

The greatest losers in the shuffle could all be women, Raychelle Omamo at Defence and Foreign Affairs Amina Mohammed. Insider sources indicate Amina could find herself at Industrialisation, replacing Aden Mohammed, who can not wait to leave the cabinet and return to the private sector.

Omamo, who was previously Kenya’s ambassador to France, could find herself at Foreign Affairs while a brand new minister, a man, is dispatched to Defence portfolio.

Education’s CS Jacob Kaimenyi and his counterpart at Labour Kazungu Kambi could easily be the biggest losers as the plot is to drop them and blame them for the laptop project’s failure, poor state of industrial relations, particularly with regard to teachers’ perennial ruckus. Kaimenyi and Kambi will also be pointed at by the Jubilee administration as proof positive that the regime does not condone incompetence and corruption in the cabinet.

Another targetted is minister is Hassan Wario of Sports, Culture and Arts. Sources say he is being accused of being sucked into local football controversies including poor performance by Harambee Stars. 

Others likely to face the whip for poor performance are Judy Wakhungu of Environment, Water and Natural Resources and Felix Kosgei of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries. Another CS set to get the boot is Davis Chirchir of Energy and Petroleum who has failed to impress.  Information, Communication and Technology CS Fred Matiang’i is also a marked man and could find himself jobless after Uhuru’s re-arrangement of his government.  

Uhuru will be shuffling his deck of cabinet cards with a number of other complex dynamics in mind. For instance, when he recently met a number of Western region MPs who are finally ready to throw in their lot with him, Uhuru responded heatedly to their request that he gives Musalia Mudavadi, Eugene Wamalwa and other Luhyas “something to do” including parastatal and cabinet slots.

According to a participant at the talks, a highly charged Uhuru banged the table and the arm of the chair he was seated on as he responded, telling the MPs to forget someone who has flown a flag for as long as Mudavadi (who joined the cabinet in 1989) without adding much value. “Show me a project to do in Western instead,” the president thundered.

It is because of Uhuru’s reaction which many say was meant not to antagonise his deputy William Ruto, a sworn enemy of Mudavadi that Luhya MPs have a soft spot for Uhuru. Talk has been that UDF MPs have a working relationship with Ruto’s URP. In fact, the said State House meeting with the MPs was brokered by Ruto.

The president is certainly thinking big, and viewing the country region by region, wanting to leave no one behind, especially those who voted against him. The president’s biggest disappointment of recent times was not even his trip to The Hague on October 8, it was the indefinite postponement of his hastily planned three-day tour of Kisumu county.

A busy schedule of events had been organised that were designed to project the president as a progenitor of development and infrastructure projects even to apparently hostile regions. Kisumu State Lodge was quickly cleaned up and refurbished ahead of an unprecedented cabinet meeting that was to be part of the tour. Prisoners from GK Prison Kodiaga were rushed to the State Lodge under heavy security to prepare the gardens and flowerbeds.

But then a number of top bureaucrats at the office of the president, including the police chiefs, met a number of Kisumu elected leaders and advised the president against the tour on both political and security grounds.

The coming shuffle will almost certainly see a number of the securocrats and political advisers moved or their powers sharply reduced. Presidential political advisers Joshua Kuttuny and Nancy Gitau are particularly exposed and vulnerable.

The man going to be spared the sack is Treasury CS Henry Rotich who is said to have performed well. The successful floating of the Eurobond earned him huge marks. Sources say Rotich is now Jubilee’s top performing CS in government.

Also likely to survive the chop is Tourism and Regional Trade minister Phylis Kandie who despite the challenges posed to tourism by terrorism, she has managed to stabilise the ministry. This she has done by deftly working to retain the traditional market of Europe and America while at the same time venturing into new markets in UAE, China and India to make up for the numbers. At the same time, she has been reaching out to the traditional markets which saw Germany downgrade its travel advisories to Kenya.

Her biggest achievement so far however is the introduction of a single tourists visa for the East African region whereby tourists now need only one visa to tour East Africa. Kandie whose docket covers regional commerce has also managed to launch and sign the East African Community-European Union economic partnership agreement talks which is now waiting ratification by the partner states  parliaments.

On the commerce side, her ministry has been spearheading marketing of Kenya to attract direct foreign investment which economists say is having a positive impact. She is the chairperson of the council of ministers of EAC while Uhuru is the chair of the EAC heads of state summit.

Mining CS Najib Balala is also safe and could even land a more powerful ministry. There have been reports that he could be the new Lands cabinet secretary and swap positions with Ngilu.

It is also whispered that following the MoU, Ngilu and Balala had with jubilee, they can only be shuffled but cannot be sacked.

Word going round is that although Uhuru has a lean cabinet of only 18 CSs, the shock is that even at school, students can hardly name half the cabinet off head. There have been complaints that most of the CSs are colourless and rarely appear in public to officiate functions in their dockets. Instead, they prefer to spend their time in their offices and five-star hotels in Mombasa and Nairobi.

SECRET KALONZO ORDERS EXPOSED AFTER WIPER NEC MEETING

Even as Kalonzo Musyoka breathed fire at Wiper NEC on the so-called party malcontents, details are emerging of how the party leader has been issuing secret orders on the MCAs that the MCAs say sit in conflict with the picture Kalonzo painted at the NEC. A seemingly worked-up Kalonzo shocked the reps when he apparently turned against them and laid the blame of the impeachment of Kivutha Kibwana of Muungano on them yet some say it was the former VP himself who allegedly directed them on phone from South Africa to take the course they took in Makueni.

During the party’s NEC meeting held at the party’s headquarters, a resolution was passed to recall Machakos leader of majority Joshua Mwonga and his Makueni counterpart Francis Mutuku. Mutuku was accused of being behind the impeachment of Kibwana. To the ordinary Kenyan observing the NEC from afar, Kalonzo was siding with Kibwana. To those in the know however, that can never be further from the truth. On being informed of what had transpired at the Wiper NEC, Kibwana reportedly shook his head for a whole 30 minutes and when he finally found words, he said that he will never trust the word of a fellow human being until his last moment on this earth.

According to Kibwana, it was none other than Kalonzo himself who engineered his fall. Kibwana cited a conversation he had with a Wiper nominated woman rep from Kaiti a one Kavasania who is his great friend and whom, on the day of his impeachment, he had asked whether she was also going to betray him being such a good friend. To his shock, Kibwana says, Kavasania told him that she had orders from the party leader whom she owed her post, to vote against Kibwana. It is against this background that Kibwana dismisses as petty theatre the so-called dressingdown of reps by Kalonzo at the NEC.

It is imperative to note that 22 Wiper reps voted for the impeachment of Kibwana even as Kalonzo loudly publicly warned against impeaching Kibwana which raised queries as to whether it was a case of rebellion or their were other directives issued secretly and the public exhortations were simply a smokescreen. Those of the view that there were other orders cite the fact that Kalonzo at the NEC said that all illiterate nominated Wiper reps will be degazetted which was seen by Kavasania and her ilk who are illiterate as dumping after being used.

Also raising queries was why Wiper reps were being threatened with expulsion for impeaching Kibwana yet Kibwana is not from Wiper. The reps now say that it is actually Kalonzo who should be deemed to have defected because he is openly campaigning for a Muungano party governor when he is in Wiper which is against the political parties Act.

Also warned during the meeting were MPs Regina Ndambuki of Kilome, Kisoi Munyao of Mbooni, Joe Mutambu of Mwingi Central and John Munuve of Mwingi North who are perceived as Jubilee sympathisers in Wiper. Wiper nominated MP Bishop Mutemi whom Kalonzo has reportedly engineered a case in court to remove through one of the Wiper party youths a one David Ndwiga from Embu. According to Kalonzo, when Cord lost in the last general elections, all party parliamentary nominees were supposed to turn down their nominations until the party was asked to nominate somebody. It is said that after denominating Mutemi, Kalonzo will take the seat by having the others whose names Wiper forwarded to IEBC for nomination before the elections forgo the chance until the party is told to bring a fresh list. Mutemi represents the physically challenged and as such Kenyans wonder why Kalonzo is not sensitive to the disabled of Ukambani. Why take a crippled and a physically challenged person to court to snatch a parliamentary seat from him? Kambas ask. 

The case number is 497 at Milimani Law Court. Kamba community elders are said to be unhappy with the Mutemi case which they say can bring a curse on the community for many years to come if the community supports it. Reports from Wiper secretariat are that Kalonzo ordered that the case should be kept secret. Kalonzo has stopped the secretariat from sending its lawyers to defend Mutemi. This as reports have it, starting this week, elders and christians from Ukambani will start prayers for divine intervention to save Mutemi. But why has Kalonzo started showing another side of him that Kenyans all this time never knew?

The answer, it is said, lies in the woes Okoa Kenya led by Raila Odinga is suffering across Ukambani where OK materials have been set on fire. This has put Kalonzo in a panic as he fears that should the trend continue, he will lose grip of the community that he hopes to use as a bargain with either Raila or Uhuru Kenyatta. A loss in referendum, Kalonzo also fears would justify the calls for his exit from politics to pave way for fresh development-oriented leaders in Ukambani. Ironically, the reason Okoa Kenya is not catching in Ukambani is because those opposed to it are accusing its proponents of being experts in barren politics and cite Kalonzo’s 30 years in government as proof.

In Yatta, the Okoa materials were recently burned to protest Kalonzo’s expected presence in a fundraiser at Kithendu Secondary School where he did not turn up. Back to the NEC meeting that those in attendance said resembled the old Kanu disciplinary meetings where people were tried without being allowed to defend themselves, matters are said to have taken another dimension in Ukambani with area Wiper MPs and reps saying that they will look for other parties when the time comes because they can not live on their knees just to please a party leader and his financier.