Eyes on Musalia Mudavadi ahead of Ruto DP pick
BY BENSON KILONZI
Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi is considered the first-among-equals in the Cabinet of President William Ruto and his embattled deputy Rigathi Gachagua.
The tenure of Gachagua in the Cabinet is currently facing headwinds with indication that it could soon hit a cul-de-sac owing to his impeachment trial slated for Wednesday and Thursday in the Senate.
With the imminent exit of Gachagua from the Cabinet nearing each coming day, Mudavadi has emerged as the front-runner for the soon-to-be vacant post of Deputy President which the former Mathira MP has occupied for the last two years.
The position has been viewed as a preserve of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), the largest party in the Kenya Kwanza coalition and the Mt. Kenya region from where names of Interior Cabinet Secretary Prof Kithure Kindiki, Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru and Lands Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome have also been persistently linked to the Gachagua succession matrix.
However, it has emerged that experts within the security fraternity and senior diplomats accredited to Nairobi are vouching for Mudavadi as the most suitable person to replace Gachagua.
Diplomats from Western capitals and those from the East African region have reportedly been voicing their concerns about the stewardship of Gachagua as Ruto’s deputy, a personality they described as too abrasive and extremely polarising and therefore not fit for the coveted office.
Since the motion to impeach Gachagua was filed in the National Assembly early last week, the Nairobi -based diplomats as well as the local and foreign security experts have reportedly arrived at the conclusion that Mudavadi is the most qualified member of the Ruto Cabinet to replace the beleaguered Gachagua.
Mudavadi who has been handed the arduous task to market and deliver former Prime Minister Raila Odinga as the next chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) in February next year, is said to be highly rated within the diplomatic and security circles as a reticent avid worker with unwavering service delivery and loyalty credentials.
A recently retired military General from the north-eastern region of Kenya describes Mudavadi as “the best that Ruto can land his hands on.”
Said the General: “Mudavadi offers stability, continuity and tranquility. He brings experience and trust. He is undoubtedly the best one can get from Ruto’s basket of options. We in the security sector consider him as the only one who can enable Ruto to complete his term comfortably and inject fresh hope in Government and offer the President realistic chances of being re-elected in 2027.”
The Mt. Kenya region is a populous vote basket which every presidential candidate craves.
In 2022, the region threw its weight behind Ruto to enable him trounce Raila Odinga of the Azimio coalition.
Ruto handsomely rewarded it’s electorate by handing its sons and daughters with plum Cabinet and Principal Secretary positions, among them Interior, Lands, Water, Treasury (until June this year) and Agriculture (until June this year), in addition to the Deputy President’s seat.
It is against that background that opinion shapers from there maintain that Ruto should pick Gachagua’s successor from the same stable should the impeachment of the former provincial administrator succeed.
However, observers from other quarters argue that even though the Mt Kenya region voted for Ruto overwhelmingly during the last elections, the electorate has since shifted its allegiance and picking Gachagua’s replacement from the area would not change their political resolve at all.
They are of the view that Ruto needs to cast his net beyond the Mt Kenya region in his search for Gachagua’s replacement, with Mudavadi being viewed as the most appropriate candidate.
Political analyst Joseph Kimau says Ruto stands to gain more both politically and on the international scene were he to settle on Mudavadi as his next Deputy President.
Kimau observes: “President Ruto has achieved a lot on the global arena, partly through Mudavadi’s efforts. He needs a man of Mudavadi’s experience and stature for him to continue with efforts flawlessly. The last thing Ruto needs is a garrulous and noisy deputy who will not accord him the time and space to execute his constitutional mandate. At the moment, Mudavadi remains the perfect bet for Ruto.”
In 2007, Mudavad was Raila’s presidential running-mate. In 2013, he ran for Presidency and came third after Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila.
In 2017, he backed Raila Odinga’s presidential bid on the National Super Alliance (Nasa) ticket on which they lost to Uhuru.
Come 2022 and Mudavadi was to team up with then Deputy President William Ruto at a highly publicised event on January 23, dubbed ‘The Earthquake’ at the Bomas of Kenya, a political union that was to lay the foundation to the latter’s victory in August of that year after beating Raila of Azimio, a coalition cobbled by immediate former Head of State Uhuru Kenyatta.
In spite of losing his Sabatia parliamentary seat in 2002 and losing the 2013 presidential election, Mudavadi has had an undisputed stellar political career.
He joined the Cabinet in 1989 at the age of 29 when he succeeded his deceased father Moses Budamba Mudavadi as Sabatia MP.
In three decades since then, Mudavadi has served as Vice-President, 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, 63, is the longest serving and most experienced Minister in the Ruto Cabinet.
In the past two years, he has come out as one of the best performing, loyal, scandal-free and the most travelled Minister, thanks to his foreign affairs docket.
He has emerged as President Ruto’s most trusted lieutenant. Ruto handed Mudavadi responsibilities that have placed him at the fulcrum of the Kenya Kwanza administration as the third most influential player in the pecking order after the President and his deputy.
In his position as Prime Cabinet Secretary, he assists the President and Deputy President in the co-ordination and supervision of government ministries and State departments.
In liaison with the Ministry of Interior and National Administration, Mudavadi also oversees the implementation of national government policies, programmes and projects, facilitates 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.
He also acts as the centre and linkage between the Executive and the Legislature to ensure that the policies of the Ruto regime are realised fully, 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
When he was Finance Minister, Mudavadi endeared himself to the Bretton Woods institutions (World Bank and International Monetary Fund – IMF) and the western capitals through what was viewed as his prudent management of the country’s economy that led to the successful negotiations of the resumption of the hitherto suspended development aid to Kenya and the stoppage to the coffers-draining Goldenberg scandal.
