Will UDA overcome the strong tides of jostling for top positions?

Though some of the MPs fell short of saying that the Ruto will use the UDA ticket to contest the 2022 presidential election, the DP’s earlier remarks in Msambweni were tellingly. We are here to receive Mhesimiwa Fiesal Bader the first-born of the ‘hustler nation’ movement.

The recent media reports have indicated that all was not well in the newly unveiled United Democratic Alliance [UDA] which is associated with Deputy President [DP] William Ruto. The sharing of the top positions is at the core of infighting pitting the key allies of DP.

Though, for now, the war is confined in the boardroom, many believe it is only a matter of time before it spilled over to the public.

The unfolding developments started soon after more than forty members of parliament, who have been preaching the ‘gospel’ of DP, attended the launch of the party.

Though he had contested the by-election as an independent, the DP seemed to suggest he could not have won without his blessing.

But as we know, Bader was an active member of the ODM party for more than ten years. The leadership of the party, however, made a serious blunder when they failed to endorse him.

Having worked as a Personal Assistant [PA] to his nephew, the late Sulieman Dori of ODM, he was definitely the most popular candidate.

How come ODM did not see this? The speculations were rife that the Mombasa governor and deputy party leader Hassan Joho is the one who placed hurdles in his way. He ensured that he would not get the ticket. Reason? He feared that Bader would overshadow him if he wins the seat. This is because apart from being learned, he was an astute and a wealthy politician.

If that was true, Joho had been misled and ended up making the wrong calculations. His popularity rating could have gone up if he delivered the seat.

But all is not lost. Many people in the coast region still consider him to be their kingpin. The outcome of Msambweni vote taught him some lessons. Those challenges would be an eye-opener that would make him bounce back stronger.

Back to the goings-on in UDA, the jostling of positions would give a clear picture that the leaders were preaching water and drinking wine. If they truly believed in empowering the poor [hustlers], why make it look like a matter of do-or-die? This showed they have not changed the old way of thinking and would remind me; the monkeys are the same, it is only the forest that had changed.

It is unfortunate to note the politicians have been taking advantage of public ignorant and lack knowledge on political matters to push their selfish and personal agenda.

This is my message to them. These tricks will soon come to an end. Kenyans have in past gone through a lot of challenges and this taught many lessons. Today, many of them would make informed and well thought out arguments.

In UDA, reports have indicated the fight for the position of Secretary-General has roped in two diehards of DP drawn from North Rift. It is also said some of them were uncomfortable with former Senator Johnson Muthama being the chairman. This clearly shows a plot had been hatched to reduce UDA into a tribal party. Given this scenario, I laughed when I heard them calling Musalia Mudavadi’s ANC a village party.

Some days earlier, they lashed out at President Uhuru Kenyatta for suggesting that maybe a time has come for Kenyans to elect the president from outside the two communities that have dominated the leadership of this country since independence. To me, these attacks were baseless and unwarranted. The President had just expressed his opinion. He insisted the decision lies with the voter. The DP and his allies should first remove the log in their eye.