Deputy President William Ruto’s radio interview this week, in which he left the door open to working with ODM leader Raila Odinga, has set off a political chatter on the possibility of reuniting the 2007 elections team, when the two were on the same side.
The leaders are energetic campaigners and crowd-pullers. Among the crop of politicians, especially those eyeing the presidency in 2022, none can match their energy and charm.
“Some people think I have problems with Raila. I don’t,” Dr Ruto told Radio Citizen on Thursday.
“These differences are political. Raila is agreeable on the need to form national parties. He faces similar issues that I face. If anybody wants to partner with us to bring up the hustler, we have no problem. We will work together.”
Statements by ODM Chairman John Mbadi and Secretary-General Edwin Sifuna that the party was working on “a broader, better and bolder alliance that will shake the country and shape the politics of the land for years to come” came soon after and set off speculation, amid observations that the deputy president and his allies have lately gone slow on attacking Mr Odinga.
Building coalitions
“Our record of building coalitions, building bridges with perceived enemies and propping up younger and energetic leaders speaks for itself. We are working on one again,” said Mr Sifuna.
Before the recent statements, Mr Odinga’s brother, Dr Oburu Oginga earlier this month set off the discussion by saying that nothing stops ODM from working together with Dr Ruto to plot for 2022.
Though Dr Ruto and Mr Odinga have in the recent years been fierce political rivals with deep disdain for each other, they were once close political friends during and after 2007 presidential election.
Ahead of the 2007 General Election, Mr Odinga and Dr Ruto were on the same ticket: members of the ODM pentagon which vigorously campaigned to dislodge then President Mwai Kibaki from State House. When chaos broke out over the outcome of the 2007 presidential election, Mr Odinga appointed the then Eldoret North MP to represent ODM in the mediation talks at the Serena Hotel.
Though they often tried to hide their differences at the time, books written by those who were close to the talks tell stories of Mr Odinga having a direct channel with President Kibaki over and above their mediation teams, which was credited for breaking the stalemate and calming the tensions in the country after the disputed 2007 presidential election.
Grand coalition government
After the creation of the grand coalition government, Ruto would become the Minister for Agriculture and a prominent voice in ODM.
However, the relationship with Mr Odinga deteriorated over time and in his book Peeling Back the Mask: A Quest for Justice in Kenya, then Mr Odinga’s adviser Miguna Miguna recorded that Ruto started “political carpet-bombing” the ODM leader.
By the time the 2013 elections came, the two had split up and were fierce political opponents. Dr Ruto joined forces with Uhuru Kenyatta and rode on the anti-ICC wave to victory in the General Election.
Even after the 2013 elections, and with Dr Ruto now the deputy president, Mr Odinga was often his main focus in a political battle of wits.
In reality, the two political stalwarts have spent more time politically apart than together. Dr Ruto was for his formative political years a member of Kanu and a staunch defender of President Daniel Moi’s government.
When Mr Odinga’s NDP merged with Kanu in 2002 and he became the independent party’s secretary-general, Dr Ruto — then the Kanu director of elections — was scheming to upstage the new secretary-general by having a bigger office than Mr Odinga, as narrated by Mr Odinga in The Flame of Freedom. The merger did not last long: while Ruto remained in Kanu and supported Uhuru Kenyatta, President Moi’s handpicked successor, Mr Odinga left to join forces with opposition leaders to form the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) which trounced Kanu in the 2002 General Election. They only came together again ahead of the 2005 referendum to campaign against the proposed constitution.
Political mobilisers
The referendum campaigns birthed ODM and again Mr Odinga and Dr Ruto found themselves in the same party. A coming back together ahead of 2022 elections could bring two of the political heavyweights currently in the country and seasoned political mobilisers who enjoy unwavering support of their backyards.
In a statement, ODM Secretary-General Edwin Sifuna said they are done with their 2017 Nasa counterparts and they were looking for fresh alliances.
“As a party, we are done with the fading breed of tribal politicians whose singular focus over the years has been on what they can extract from our sweat, and from the country. We are focused on an alliance that adds to the national discourse not what it gets, a coalition that adds not takes away from us,” said Mr Sifuna.
Whether the two political leaders work together again remains to be seen though such an alliance could be a game changer ahead of the 2022 elections. BY DAILY NATION