Musalia Mudavadi: The engine of President Ruto’s govt and most trusted lieutenant

By Benson Kilonzi.

Next month, October 2024, will mark two years since President William Ruto was was sworn into office as Kenya’s 5th Head of State and barely two months since his second Cabinet was sworn into office. As that time nears, all eyes are on one member of that Cabinet.

Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affair’s Musalia Mudavadi is undoubtedly the least talkative and least controversial member of President William Ruto’s Cabinet.

On the other hand, he is the longest serving and most experienced Minister.

He also comes out as one of the best performing, loyal, scandal-free and the most travelled Minister, thanks to his foreign affairs docket.

Two years since assuming his position in Government, Mudavadi has emerged as the most effective and trusted lieutenant of President Ruto who left the country last Friday for New York to attend the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), just a day after his Foreign Affairs Minister.

Ahead of the opening ceremony of the UNGA meeting, Ruto – accompanied by Mudavadi – visited the strife-torn Caribbean nation of Haiti where Kenyan police officers are keeping vigil through a UN-backed initiative.

Nowadays, it has become commonplace to watch Mudavadi beside Kenya’s 5th President, whether abroad or on home soil especially at a time when Ruto’s own deputy Rigathi Gachagua has noisily come out hammer-and-tongs to publicly lacerate his boss at every corner of their tumultuous joint political journey.

Two months ago, as if to demonstrate his confidence in Mudavadi, President Ruto dismissed his entire Cabinet at the height of the so-called Gen-Z protests, save for Mudavadi whom he not only spared the sack but tasked him to run 21 other ministries as their Acting Cabinet Secretary for the three weeks the Cabinet stood dissolved.

Before leaving for New York on Thursday night, Mudavadi had joined Ruto at the swearing in ceremony of the new Inspector -General of Police Douglas Kanja, only hours after he had jetted into the country from Vienna, Austria, where he had represented the Head of State at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), on his way from Germany where he had accompanied Ruto on a bilateral diplomatic mission.

As Ruto left for New York on Friday, September 20 evening, his Principal Assistant, Gachagua, was on live television spewing all manner of lamentations about, and throwing a barrage of brickbats at, his boss whom he accused of inconsistency, dishonesty and betrayal.

Mudavadi is largely credited for being the person who laid the foundation to President William Ruto’s election victory in August 2022 after he, in January of that year, led his Amani National Congress (ANC) party – through what later came to be known as the Earthquake, – to team up with Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) and deliver Victory for then then Deputy President to occupy State House. 

It was after Mudavadi’s bold move at the Bomas of Kenya that other political parties started to join and support Ruto’s presidential bid.

Mudavadi is an old hand in politics, having joined Parliament in 1989 following the death of his father, Moses Substone Budamba Mudavadi.

Today, the former vice-president is undoubtedly the most experienced Minister. Throughout his career, loyalty to his bosses has been one of his defining streaks.

It should not therefore surprise one and all that he is now the person President William Ruto prefers to have around him most of the time, be it in private or public. He is a trusted lieutenant whom Ruto does not need to be looking behind his back when in his company, as he does some of his most senior ministers.

Speaking during an interview on a national television last month, former Public Service Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria said Mudavadi is a person who knows his lane in public affairs and therefore not one to be found in confrontations.

‘That man harmless. How can you be in conflict with him. It is not possible to have fights with Mudavadi. That gentleman is cool-headed,” said Kuria while refuting claims that he and the former Deputy Prime Minister had had a tiff over office space.

President Ruto himself has had positive words to say about Mudavadi.

During his speech in a Kakamega church last year, Ruto heaped praise on the Prime Cabinet Secretary, stating: “We all agree that in Mudvadi we have a best diplomat. In fact, in some of these countries (where I am invited) they tell me that if I cannot make it myself, tafadhali tutumie huyo (please send us that one” in reference to Mudavadi.

Early this year, Mudavadi was cited as reminiscing on the earthquake moment which he termed as a historical milestone in Kenya’s history.

“We were very deliberate in what we did. We sought and succeeded in changing the destiny of this country. Kenya was headed in a very, very wrong direction. Impunity, arrogance, borrowing and shameless looting of public funds were the order of the day. We had to stop that. That hubris was too much for Kenyans to bear. I am happy that we managed to uproot the bad manners from our political space. Our eventual victory at the General-Election is an indelible mark in the history of this country. Kenya will never be the same again,” Mudavadi was quoted as stating. 

This Sunday marks two years since Mudavadi was sworn into office as the Prime Minister and the third most powerful member of the Executive after the President and the Deputy.

Mudavadi returned to the government with a bang after 10 years.

Save for position of President and Commander-in-Chief of he Defence Forces, Mudavadi has held every position of note in Government.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister and Vice-President a side, Mudavadi has been Minister Finance, Minister for Local Government, Minister for Transport and Communications, Minister for Agriculture and Minister for Supplies and Marketing.

With Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua having declared war against the Head of State, it is in the minds of many in the Kenya Kwanza fold that Mudavadi is the person literally piecing together and helping Ruto to drive his Government’s agenda.

In the assignments tasked by the President to his Cabinet, Mudavadi was deployed to, in liaison with the Ministry of Interior and National Administration, oversee the implementation of national government policies, programmes and projects, facilitate inter-ministerial co-ordination of cross-functional initiatives and programmes and also be in charge of co-ordination and supervision of the technical monitoring and evaluation of government policies, programmes and projects across ministries.

Through his position Mudavadi acts as the centre and linkage between the Executive and the Legislature to ensure that the policies of the Ruto regime are realised wholesome, given the added duties the President bestowed on him to chair and co-ordinate the national government’s legislative agenda across all ministries and State departments in consultation with and for transmission to the party or coalition leaders in Parliament.

At a State House function in July this year, at a merger brainstorming session between Mudavadi’s ANC and Ruto’s UDA, the President made a rare admission to those present.

The Head of State observed: “I owe Musalia Mudavad a debt of gratitude. As you all know, Musalia my senior: He is older than me, he joined politics earlier than me, he had been a Vice-President and a Deputy Prime Minister before me. It was therefore very humbling when my senior brother voluntarily offered to shelve his presidential ambition and instead support me. I do not take that for granted. It was very humbling. I will forever thank him.”

There is no doubt Mudavadi is today an influential and trusted functionary in the Ruto regime. The darts and antics of the Deputy President and his brazen onslaught against the President of the Republic are only helping Mudavadi to widen his scope of influence and earn trust from the larger Kenya Kwanza fraternity.