How ‘Earthquake’ ANC wind-up bound Mudavadi and Ruto

From Friday last week to Tuesday this week, President William Ruto tagged along Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi during his 10-day political sojourn of the North Rift region.

It is not uncommon to see the two leaders in each other’s company, whether on home soil or abroad, in recent times.

The duo has been a familiar sight in tow before the eyes of Kenyans for slightly over one year now, raising repeated questions over their rapprochement.

President Ruto’s remarks a few months to the last General-Election and Mudavadi’s action two years after that poll seem to point at the genesis of their unswerving trust and camaraderie.

“We owe you a debt of gratitude” is how then overjoyed Deputy President Ruto concluded his speech while embracing the new-found alignment of his political party and that of the former Vice-President.

That statement by Ruto would strike a deep political relationship and strong working bond between the two that still run and raise eyebrows today.

It was on the afternoon of January 23, 2022, at the Bomas of Kenya, just seven months to the General-Election.

The occasion was the National Delegates Convention (NDC) of the Amani National Congress (ANC), a political party led by Mudavadi.

Ruto and his United Democratic Alliance (UDA) were among the scores of dignitaries invited to attend the event.

At the time, Ruto who had declared his intention to vie for the Presidency led a renegade band of parliamentarians operating under the sobriquet ‘Tanga Tanga’ and had a very frosty relationship with his boss, Uhuru Kenyatta.

Ruto’s arrival at Bomas of Kenya on that afternoon precipitated the sudden departure of some of the prominent invited guests, among them former Vice-President Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, Kanu chairman Gideon Moi and Safina Party Leader Jimi Wanjigi.

Mudavadi’s function, however, went on without a hitch and at the end of his speech – in a move that has since been dabbed ‘The Earthquake’ announced that ANC would henceforth work together with UDA and face the impending election as one entity under the aegis of Kenya Kwanza Alliance.

After his speech, Mudavadi who hitherto was in an Opposition outfit known as One Kenya Alliance (OKA) together with Kalonzo, Gideon, National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula and the late former Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo, invited his Chief Guest Ruto to make his remarks.

It was during his long speech that Ruto pledged to treat his host with respect and reward him reasonably if they won the August 9 elections. Which they did.

Mudavadi’s bold move was totally unexpected and shook the political ground heavily as it opened the floodgates for other political parties to openly come out and team up with Ruto in Kenya Kwanza, among them Wetangula’s Ford Kenya, Pan-African Alliance (PAA) of Senate Speaker Amason Kingi, Democratic Party of former National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi and Maendeleo Chap Chap of Labour Cabinet Secretary Dr. Alfred Nganga Mutua.

To date, a majority of pundits and commentators maintain that Mudavadi’s Earthquake was the single most game changer that paved the way for Ruto’s 2022 election victory.

Two years after the formation of the Kenya Kwanza administration, Mudavadi led his ANC lieutenants in folding the outfit and merge it with Ruto’s UDA.

During a pact-signing ceremony at State House, Nairobi, in 2024, Ruto reiterated his “debt of gratitude” promise and heaped praises on Mudavadi whom he extolled as a patriotic gentleman, a respectful team player whose sense of humility allows him to cope with people of diverse backgrounds and accomodate all shades of opinion.

Ruto stated that he highly respected Mudavadi on the grounds that though the Prime Cabinet Secretary and Minister for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs was his senior both in age and politics, he had been humble enough to shelve his presidential ambition in favour of the then Deputy President and for the sake of the country.

Months after the UDA-ANC deal, Mudavadi told a Sunday service in Kakamega County, which was attended by Ruto, that he had taken the decision to wind up his party to allow the Head of State sufficient space to execute his constitutional mandate.

Said he: “I did not want the President to be looking back behind his shoulder wondering what is happening there. We wanted the President to fully concentrate on his work and succeed without having to worry about those behind him. “

Now, with only 10 months to the next General -Election, Mudavadi is increasingly the focus of much attention even as it emerges that he is one of the most dependable, loyal and efficient bureaucrats in the Ruto regime.

It is no secret that Ruto has a soft spot for himi. Observers posit that the respect Ruto has for Mudavadi today stems from the two memorable events, the Earthquake at Bomas of Kenya and the winding up of his party to merge with UDA.

Retrospectively,vith the populous Kikuyu community which voted heavily for Ruto in 2022 having drifted it’s support from him, the President now has to cast his net wider in regions he performed poorly in the last election, especially in the former Western, Nyanza, Coast and North Eastern provinces.

In addition to Wetangula and Co-operatives Minister Wycliffe Oparanya, Mudavadi remains one of the most prominent and recognisable politician from the Western region in the Ruto regime whom the President will be relying on to deliver the vote-rich basket to his fold.

Mudavadi is, no doubt, the most experienced member of the Ruto Cabinet.
Apart from Vice-President, he has also served previously as Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister, Minister for Transport and Communications, Minister for Local Government, Minister for Supplies and Marketing and Minister for Agriculture.

As if to demonstrate his confidence in Mudavadi, Ruto appointed him – at the height of the Gen-Z protests in June 2024 – to act for two weeks as Cabinet Secretary in all the other 21 ministries after the Head of State fired the entire Cabinet in response to pressure from the demonstrators.

Both Ruto and Mudavadi are founder-members of the now shaky Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), a party headed by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga until his death in October last year.

The two were also members of the 2007 ODM top decision-making organ known as the Pentagon, together with former Tourism Minister Najib Balala, Raila and the late former Co-operatives Minister Joe Nyagah.

Had ODM formed the Government after the 2007 General -Election, Mudavadi had been designated as Raila’s Vice-President and Ruto as the Prime Minister.

That was not to be. Raila lost to the Party of National Unity (PNU) candidate Mwai Kibaki, in an election widely believed to have been rigged in favour of the long-serving Othaya Member of Parliament.