Nakuru county today plays host to high-octane political events, with ODM leader Raila Odinga meeting his close allies as OKA principals separately converge to hammer a coalition deal.
Raila will be in Nakuru town in a strategy meeting with select troops drawn from the Orange party and the President's ruling Jubilee.
Jubilee secretary general Raphael Tuju, ODM chairman John Mbadi, Junet Mohamed (Suna East), Kanini Kega (Kieni), Maina Kamanda (nominated), former presidential candidate Peter Kenneth and Jubilee vice chairman David Murathe are among those expected at the invite-only meeting.
Those invited were told details of the Jubilee-ODM meeting will be provided at the venue.
"We have our meeting in Nakuru. It is a closely guarded meeting; few people are invited," one of those invited to the meeting told the Star.
"We were told the details will be provided at the meeting," another source intimated.
It is, however, the inclusion of Jubilee members that suggests a possible announcement of a coalition deal between the two parties.
Jubilee and ODM have been working on a pre-election coalition deal that will see the two dominant parties back one presidential candidate in next year's polls.
The ODM boss is expected to address a press conference after the meeting.
About 70 kilometres away, OKA principals will be receiving a technical team’s report on how the outfit should pick its candidate for the 2022 election.
Initially, there were reports Raila will attend the OKA retreat, but his allies clarified that he will not.
"No, he is not attending."
The Naivasha meeting, coming days after President Uhuru Kenyatta told the OKA chiefs to back Raila, will be significant for the future of the outfit which broke away from the National Super Alliance.
The report viewed as the defining moment for the six-month-old alliance will be presented to Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper), Musalia Mudavadi (ANC), Moses Wetang’ula (Ford Kenya) and Gideon Moi (Kanu) during today’s retreat.
MPs and governors allied to the four OKA parties convened in Naivasha yesterday to attend the two-day retreat.
The Star has established that how to choose their presidential candidate will be top on the agenda. There were no major discussions yesterday as most politicians allied to the alliance just checked in.
ANC deputy party leader Ayub Savula said party MPs will push to have Mudavadi as the OKA flagbearer.
“We will not change our position that Musalia Mudavadi should be the flagbearer. Whatever happens, Musalia will be on the ballot. We do not have plan B and have no intentions of backing another person,” he said.
The Lugari MP further said ANC intends to stick to the resolutions of the Amani Council, the party's top decision-making organ.
“We are sticking to the resolutions of the Amani Council, which we deposited with the Registrar of Political Parties. The resolutions clearly state that the ANC party leader is the automatic presidential candidate. We will not go against the resolutions of the Amani Council,” he said.
Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala said the technical committee has come up with the formula on how the OKA presidential candidate will be picked.
The eight-member committee chaired by Karanja Maina will present its report during today’s retreat and which will form part of the deliberation of the two-day event.
All four parties have two representatives on the committee.
“The technical team has prepared the formula and it is going to make a presentation to us and then we will pick up from there. We will see if that formula will take time to implement,” Malala said on the phone.
“They have a report and in the report, we believe it has a formula.”
The Star has established that the committee had been working on its report for the last one month and was in Naivasha ahead of today’s meeting to put the final touches on its report.
Even as the committee gets ready to present its report, allies of the Wiper leader and his ANC counterpart were yesterday adamant that they will not play second fiddle to anyone.
Makueni MP Dan Maanzo—a close confidant of Kalonzo—said the Wiper boss will not support anyone even it means pushing the country to a run-off. He said Wiper will only negotiate in case none of the candidates manage to get 50 per cent-plus-one votes required to avoid a run-off.
“We are going to end up on the ballot box. If Raila or Mudavadi want to go to the ballot, why not? It will definitely mean that there will be no 50 per cent plus one,” Maanzo said on the phone.
Khwisero MP Christopher Aseka said yesterday's meeting was also convened to give Ford Kenya, Wiper, Kanu and ANC lawmakers the opportunity to bond and get to know the aspirations of each party.
Aseka said they expect to be told how the flagbearer would be picked and if there would be a need for coalition building.
“We are expecting to be told if we will have a coalition agreement. We need to know how we will get into a pre-election coalition or a post-election coalition because there is the need to look beyond the elections,” he added.
Aseka, however, said ANC legislators would also be marketing Mudavadi as the most suitable person to be the alliance's flagbearer.
“Having Musalia be the flagbearer is our intention,” he reiterated.
In its previous presentations, the technical team requested the four main principals to bring on board other politicians who would be beneficial to the alliance.
The team said new partners have to be brought into the team to increase the vote count in their basket.
Malala, on the other hand, said they will first wait and see the options the technical committee presents before announcing the next course of action.
“We shall agree on the best way forward. Let’s see the report we don’t want to speculate. Let’s cross the bridge when we reach the river,” Malala said.
