Big Two go for numbers, experience as rivals cast their lots with new faces

By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU ashiundu@ke.nationmedia.com  ( email the author)

Posted  Saturday, January 26  2013 at  00:30

In Summary

• Uhuru and Raila opt for experience as Karua, Mudavadi, Kenneth and Kiyiapi eye young voters

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UDF leader Musalia Mudavadi this week named his running mate, completing the list of the Number Twos of leading presidential contenders ahead of the March 4 General Election.

The Amani Coalition leader picked outgoing Ndaragwa MP Jeremiah Kioni as his running mate and warned his competitors to prepare for his presidency.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Jubilee leader Uhuru Kenyatta have appointed Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and former Eldoret North MP William Ruto as their deputies respectively.

Planning assistant minister Peter Kenneth of the Eagle Coalition has named former Safaricom manager Ronald Osumba while outgoing Gichugu MP Martha Karua has selected Mr Augustine Chemonges Lotodo.

Former Education permanent secretary James Ole Kiyiapi picked businesswoman Winnie Kaburu.

All the running mates are guarantee of becoming deputy presidents if their mates in State House race win the General Election.

An assessment of the reasons for the choice of running mates shows that the presidential contenders settled on their picks for political survival while others used the tribal arithmetic to attract a national following.

Political observers believe some of the contenders picked their running mates with their eyes firmly on the post-election deals.

While some hope there will be a run-off to seek post-election deals, others are in the race perhaps to raise their political profiles in readiness for the 2017 elections.

Analysts argues some presidential candidates picked their running mates purely because the individuals have the money or rich friends who can fund their campaign.

Undoubtedly, Mr Odinga settled on Mr Musyoka to give ODM a base in Eastern Province and also to reap some of the votes that the Vice-President harvested from the region when he vied for the top seat in the 2007 elections.

The leaders of the Coalition of Reform and Democracy (Cord) may also have wanted the political clout of their tenure in the coalition to get a boost for it to ride on the perceived legacy of infrastructure development that President Kibaki has left behind.

The choice of Mr Musyoka has also boosted the national appeal for Cord beyond its Western region.

However, Mr James Aggrey Mwamu, the president of the East African Law Society, argues “none of the presidential candidates has shared ideology” as the basis for picking the potential future Vice-President.

“It was all about tribal arithmetic,” he says. “It was about who will bring the numbers to the campaign. It is all a marriage of convenience. If you bring someone on board as a running mate, they must be able to add value to the campaign,” Mr Mwamu told the Saturday Nation.

He notes that the challenge was bigger for Mr Odinga because once Mr Ruto had teamed up with Mr Kenyatta, their formidable alliance could only be countered if someone with political clout got into Cord.

“It was a matter of political survival… if Mr Odinga and Mr Musyoka had vied separately, it would have been difficult to match the Kenyatta-Ruto ticket,” says Mr Mwamu.

He continues: “If The Hague issue was not there, I don’t think Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto would have come together.”

For Mr Kenneth, Ms Karua, Mr Mudavadi and Prof Kiyiapi, Mr Mwamu argues, they were forced to pick candidates just to fill the slots.

According to Mr Mwamu, Mr Osumba, Mr Lotodo, Mr Kioni and Ms Kaburu have not added any impetus to their respective campaigns.

Mr Kenneth sold Mr Osumba’s youth to appeal to the young voters.

“President Obama picked Joseph Biden because he (Obama) did not have much experience in foreign policy and government,” says Mr Mwamu.

Perhaps it is only Ms Karua who has issues at hand because she picked a person to stand for the minority whose issues have been neglected since independence, he argues.

Transparent process

Mr Cidi Otieno, the president of Bunge la Wananchi, notes that politicians ought to have explained to the people the process of picking running mates.

“Until our politics begin to tackle issues, the focus on tribal numbers will remain the basis of picking a running mate,” he says.

He continues: “So far, all these people appointed to the positions, apart from those picked by Mr Kenneth, Ms Karua and Prof Kiyiapi, none was picked because of their ideology.”

He argues that the problem is that the hurdle for the three is that their campaigns “lack the passion”.

“They are playing clean politics on a dirty political field,” Mr Otieno told the Saturday Nation.

Mr Otieno advises local presidential candidates to look at ideologies and issues before picking their running mates like in the US where aspirants for the top seat pick individuals to fill gaps in the campaigns.