Mudavadi, Ruto’s Mr fix-it towers over peers as he sells Raila to Africa, and Kenya to the whole world

BY BENSON KILONZI

Considered the first-among-equals in the Cabinet of President William Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua, Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavad has been tasked with the herculean mission of delivering former Prime Minister Raila Odinga as the next chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) when elections of the continental body are held on February 25, 2025.

The politics of Mudavadi and Raila are a somewhat tempestuous relationship.

Beneath the intermittent public charades and sideshows involving the duo, Mudavadi and Raila are deep bosom friends, political allies and strongly bound family friends to boot.

They are both currently in New York attending the UN General Assembly where Mudavadi is exploiting the global interactive fete to market Raila’s candidacy for the AUC chairmanship.

On Monday, September 23, Mudavadi – with Raila in tow – met a delegation of Algerian diplomats attending the UN meeting, at which function he endorsed Raila to the north African nation as the best bet for the coveted seat to replace the outgoing Chadian diplomat, H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat.

_{H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat.}

In the past two weeks, Mudavadi has carried Raila along with him to accompany President Ruto to State visits to China, Germany and now the United States.

In recent months, Mudavadi has also been to Austria, Namibia, Ethiopia and Zanzibar as President Ruto’s emissary to market the AUC candidature of Raila.

Realpolitik dictates that Raila’s ascendancy to the AUC perch is a boost to the two silent comrades-in-arms. Failure to achieve that feat is a massive gore to what has remained of their political careers.

Raila’s grabbing of the AUC seat is a major boost to Mudavad’s 2032 presidential bid, with both of them backing Ruto’s re-election in 2027. Which is why the son of Musa must deliver the son of Ajuma to the AUC helm.

In 2007, Mudavad was Raila’s running-mate in that year’s election in which – save for the then Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) chaired by former Parklands (now Westlands) MP and lawyer Samuel Kivuitu – majority of Kenyans believe Raila won with a landslide. Kivuiti has since passed away.

The political paths of the two titans have often crossed in an on-and-off engagement.

During the burial service of Mudavadi’s step-mother, Rosebellah, at their ancestral Mululu home in Vihiga county in 2021, Raila declared to the mourners in Swahili that: “Mimi najua kwamba hapo mbeleni mimi na Musalia tutakutana. Lazimia njia zetu zitapatana tena (I know that Musalia and I will meet again in days to come. Our paths will cross again).

_{Mudavadi in Berlin with Ruto and Raila.}

At that time, Raila had been identified as the presidential candidate of the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party cobbled by then outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta while Mudavadi was a co-principal of the opposing One Kenya Alliance (OKA) that also included Kanu national chairman Gideon Moi, former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, former Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo and the current Speaker of the National Assembly Moses Wetang’ula.

Speculation was rife that Raila and Mudavadi would team up in the 2022 General Election.

But that was not to be. Instead, Mudavadi was later to team up with then Deputy President William Ruto at a highly publicised event on January 23, 2022, dubbed ‘The Earthquake’ at the Bomas of Kenya, a political union that was to lay the foundation to Ruto’s victory in August of that year to the chagrin of the losing Raila.

However, as promised, their paths have met again. At the moment, both Mudavadi and Raila are in New York, the United States where they have accompanied President Ruto at the annual United Nation General Assembly where they have met many leaders including Heads of State.

Time and again, Mudavadi has maintained that the hunt for Raila’s post at the AUC is on course and that all efforts are being made to ensure that the former Lang’ata MP secures the coveted seat.

_{Mudavadi and Raila meet with Ahmed Attaf, Minister of Foreign Affairs and National Community Abroad of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria.}

Raila’s bid for the AUC post is facing opposition from candidates from Djibouti, Mauritius and Madagascar. Another earlier challenger from Somalia has since withdrawn in support of the former Kenyan premier.

Two months ago, Mudavadi was quoted as saying that religion is not one of the requirements for one to qualify for the continental assignment as some critics had been claiming.

Mudavadi said that Kenya’s campaign for Raila to become the next chairperson of AUC wass intact allaying any fears, insisting that Raila was best suited for the job among the rest of the contenders.

“We are focused on our mission to persuade as many countries as possible on the continent to back our candidate. But most importantly, religion is not one of the requirements for an applicant to qualify for the continental assignment.

_{Mudavadi, President Ruto and Raila during meeting with Kenyans currently employed at the UN.}

“The basic requirements are clearly stated by the AU Secretariat and I did not see religion listed anywhere among them.

“We from Kenya have presented a solid candidate whom we are very sure meets all the necessary qualifications for that position. It should also not be lost on Kenyans that the African Union has allowed the East African Community bloc to present the next chairperson of the African Union Commission and majority of the countries in the region have indicated that they will support our candidate with the Ugandan Head of State His Excellency Yoweri Museveni hinting that he would be the one to propose Raila Odinga’s name.

“At that point, we are sure of our strong candidature and are certain of attracting overwhelming majority around the continent even as we continue to pursue the matter by talking to more of our friends in Africa and beyond,” Mudavadi assured.

In spite of losing his Sabatia Parliamentary seat in 2002 and going down as Kenya’s shortest serving Vice-President after being in office for only three months and losing the 2013 presidential election in which he came third after the now retired President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila, Mudavadi has had an undisputed stellar political career so far.

_{Mudavadi during a meeting with the Austrian Federal Minister for European and International Affairs Alexander Schallenberg.}

He joined the Cabinet in 1989 at the age of 29 years after the demise of his father Moses Substone Budamba Mudavadi.

In the following three decades, apart from the Vice-President’s position, Mudavadi has served as Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Supplies and Marketing, Minister for Finance, Minister for Agriculture, Minister for Transport and Communications and Minister for Local Authorities.

Mudavadi understands Government very well. He is Government in every perspective.

He is now Ruto’s dependable envoy on the continent and beyond tasked with marketing and delivering Raila’s suitability and standpoints ahead of the Africa Union Commission’s chairperson vote by the Heads of State from constituent countries in February next year.

_{Mudavadi and his Singaporean counterpart, Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan.}

That single assignment will have to take him to the 55, save for case of the five who have been sanctioned as a result of entertaining military coups at home.

Mudavadi’s political career cannot be any brighter if he delivers Raila to the AUC apex.

Especially so, considering that Ruto’s Principal Assistant, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, has declared a no-holds-barred public and extremely embarrassing onslaught on his boss.

_{Mudavadi during a Ministerial meeting on building on progress to restore security in Haiti held in the US.}