In the 2013 Kenyan presidential elections, Musalia Mudavadi believed — or was made to believe — that he was the heir-apparent of President Mwai Kibaki. The Kibaki deep state was backing him. The Kibaki deep state would handle Mt. Kenya for him. And he needed Mt. Kenya, in its entirety, to win.
This belief was not far-fetched, if anything, the deep state what the deep state does to those the deep desires to rule. He was increasingly representing Kibaki in state events. He was reading his speeches, sometimes with Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka in attendance.
When he finally bolted out of ODM, he found ready party, United Democratic Front (UDF), waiting to make him party leader and presidential candidate.
He never built UDF.
He never knew UDF’s ideologies before he jumped on it.
He didn’t have to.
The deep state had everything taken care of, or so he thought.
In a sense, he was right. In many instances, the deep state propelled him forward. Several fringe parties backed him in a deliberate choreography, giving his bid the veneer of a political coalition venture.
He was no longer running on UDF ticket only, but now under the banner of Amani National Coalition (ANC). Amani, which is swahili for “peace” was an obsession in the 2013 elections. The fearmongers of 2007 post-poll violence led by peaceprenuering NGOs and Civil Society groups turned the election into a peace pageantry.
Desperate to have a platform to lurch his candidacy, Mudavadi embraced a new role as a peace candidate — and he believed Mt. Kenya, which acted as the main victims of 2007 post-poll skirmishes, would back him to the last man. It was a grand delusion.
When the votes of that election was tallied, Mudavadi came third with less than half a million votes. He lost Mt. Kenya to Uhuru Kenyatta, and every other county in the Republic of Kenya to either Uhuru Kenyatta or Raila Odinga, save for his home county of Vihiga.
It was a thrashing. It was thorough thrashing. If he learnt anything, it seems the vicissitudes of time has blurred the lessons.
As we head to another election, Mudavadi is back to his 2013 delusions of grandeur. He believes, using his own imagination, and the pious ululations of the likes of Ayub Savula and Barack Muluka, that he is more popular in Mt. Kenya than all the presumptive 2022 presidential candidates.
Once again, his groupies tell everyone who cares to listen that the “deep state” is backing him.
Once again, we hear that Mt. Kenya will vote for him.
We’ve been here before, and, they may not, again!
