Khalwale Speaks His Mind For many years, you’ve never played politics in Raila’s camp; what has changed? Bonny Khalwale: Nothing has really changed. Sometimes we don’t keep a good record of the things of yesteryears. I worked with him on the same side on the great occasion of elections of 2002 when we were all supporting President Kibaki under NARC. The second time I had a privilege of working with him was in the referendum of 2010 when we all supported the Yes side of the process. Raila stood a good chance in the 2013 polls. You played in Mudavadi’s camp and managed to divide the Luhya vote. Do you look back and regret? Yes. I regret that the kind of brief my party leader, Musalia Mudavadi, gave me was hardly adequate for an informed decision. I needed more information. But if what people are saying is true, that this was a deliberate ploy by the Uhuru Kenyatta camp to divide us, then he did it so well. After Mudavadi approached Soita Shitanda (former MP Malava) and I for support, I was faced with some reality. The first one is that the last time our community had had a presidential candidate was in 1997. And now, we were having an offer for a presidential candidate. I had also been going round the community telling it that in the event one of us stepped forward and asked for a presidential vote, I would support them. Mudavadi had done exactly just that. He had not been my best political friend. So I was in Catch 22. Had I not supported him, people would have said that I am not a team player; that I was against the will of the community. I believed what Mudavadi had told us was actually the whole truth. In hindsight, it wasn’t the entire truth because one, when Uhuru disappointed us on the December 4, 2012, it was so serious that one would have expected Mudavadi, even if he was not going to speak, but to have the body language of somebody who is disappointed. But shortly after he was dumped, he then surprised all. He, without consultation, named someone who was not going to bring us any votes whatsoever. The thinking in the coalition had been that it was going to be Gideon Moi. And indeed had he chosen Gideon Moi as the running mate, he would have divided the Rift Valley vote and Uhuru Kenyatta wouldn’t have gotten the 50% plus 1. Would Gideon Moi have played along? What made me persuaded at that time that Gideon Moi was going to play along is, the choppers we were using belonged to him. I knew he was committed to the campaign. But if he was also being used by the system to further make us believe, then they succeeded in doing that. What has made me, with the benefit of hindsight to agree that Mudavadi was not committed is; immediately we conceded defeat he went into an alliance with Jubilee without consulting any of us. Surely, the ce. If I made a difference, that was seen by Kalonzo, my brother Wetangula and by Raila. The stage having been set, the issue of the recent national dialogue rallies has emerged. I would like to allay the fears of all the people out there; I am not in Cord to settle scores with Uhuru for what he did to us. I am not in Cord to outshine Mudavadi within UDF. I am in Cord because I believe we are like-minded and I am aware that we are stronger if we move together than if we move separately. I am moving with them not for the purposes of upstaging or outshining any one of them but for purposes of bringing Kenya back on track. How has the Jubilee government failed? It has failed the test of governance of fighting corruption. It paid the Anglo Leasing Sh1.4 billion and Uhuru Kenyatta decided to take personal blame by telling people “I was failed by my State Law Office”. In spite of the credible queries on the Standard Gauge Railway that deserved answers, he refused and said that anybody opposing the project should ask State House. The laptops’ project has collapsed right at his doorstep. He has failed in responding and embracing the provisions of the Constitution that demand that any organ of government must be seen to have the face of Kenya, such that no ethnic community, region should feel excluded. Uhuru has failed miserably. If you take the National Security Advisory Council, it has got nine members out of whom only one is a Kalenjin; the rest (eight) are Kikuyu. I would like to be told how it amounts to hate speech when I comment on these statistics. This is not Kikuyu bashing. We are telling the President Kenya has got 41 other communities. Even with Kalenjins, things are not as rosy as people want to think. Recently they removed Kiplimo Rugut, a former provincial commissioner from the Rift Valley region trained in national security to be in charge of NYS and replaced him with Nelson Githinji, whose background is in marketing. What has Marketing got to do with a disciplined force? It would appear the system is only comfortable with a homeboy. Probability of Cord succeeding in 2017? We are going to succeed on the Referendum. The Constitution has got three articles on amendment; Articles 255, 256 and 257. Because of the so-called “tyranny of numbers”, people do not know the prescription of the Constitution in Article 257. It contemplated a situation whereby a House of Parliament is hostile and therefore it has a clear route, which is called amendment by popular initiative. It is the one we are using. There is no way the National Assembly will frustrate us because that route is very clear, it leaves the role of the National Assembly irrelevant, so to speak. We shall win the Referendum because the issues we are raising are real and are resonating with the populace. People are frustrated; they want county governments to function. But because of the attitude of the National Assembly, governors are starved of funds Some of the funds, which were returned back as unspent by county governments is because they were being released in the last week of the financial year. It is because of the arrogance of the National Assembly. This question of Devolution is going to galvanize the whole country including Central and Rift Valley. So the referendum will go through and the momentum that we are going to pick as the opposition from then on will be unstoppable up to 2017. Cord has got a big chance. Senator Wetangula and I will be commanding the biggest votes into that coalition because we intend to put all the Luhya votes into one basket and we know we shall succeed. We are quietly working on the issue of voter registration. We want to make sure this time round our numbers can now be able to count. Why is Luhya unity elusive, what is the problem? I want to debunk the myth that Luhyas do not vote as a block. Luhyas voted as a block and sustained Moi in power. Luhyas voted for Kibaki (in 2002) as a block. Luhyas have twice voted for Raila as a block. The one that spills out is in the minority. All that it requires is to polish it so that the fall out is not that too bad. What they have not been tested on is whether they can vote as a block for a Luhya Presidential candidate. They failed to demonstrate it on Michael Wamalwa in 1997 and failed to demonstrate on Mudavadi in 2013. I believe the reason why Luhyas have not demonstrated cohesiveness in voting for their own is because we are, unknown to others because of our poverty, one of the most educated communities in Kenya. Educated people interrogate issues. They looked at Wamalwa Kijana in 1997 and they clearly saw he had no chance. So they decided to offer their support to Moi. In 2013, they also saw the blunders in respect of Mudavadi and they chose to support Raila. Where in Luhyaland does CORD draw its support? All the MPs of Busia County, other than the two of Teso North and Teso South, are firmly in Cord. Budalangi, Funyula, Matayos, Nambale and Butula are intact in Cord. Kakamega has got 12 constituencies, only four are making noise; UDF’s Ayub Savula of Lugari, Bernard Shinali of Ikolomani, David Were of Matungu and Ben Washiali of Mumias East. We will help them to see the light so that we move as a team. There was an element of Eugene Wamalwa in Bungoma. He looked presidential for a short while. But as the Americans say, he has already enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame. Right now I am sure the biggest concern to Wamalwa is which seat, Governor or Senator or MP for Saboati he will be running for. The three seats he got as New Ford Kenya out of nine, he got courtesy of that illusion. It is gone. We tested this during the by election of Moses Wetangula. The only Opposition in Vihiga is UDF and out of the five Constituencies, only two, Sabatia and Vihiga are the ones that are against Cord. Trans Nzoia is cosmopolitan. Again, it is our county. Surprisingly the Wamalwa effect was not in Trans Nzoia. In fact the Governor of Trans Nzoia, Patrick Khaemba is Ford Kenya. We are solid. We have numbers of the leadership and voters behind us. We shall ensure that we level the playing ground during the nomination exercises of the parties within Cord. The bullfighter you are tackles hard. To what extent will you risk your life to playing the political hardball? I am alive to that fact. The risk is real. I have come to terms with myself that what I am fighting for is right and I would not be the first politician to meet that undesirable fate for claiming which is right. That risk is there but I have told my sons that they have to know that they are comfortable because they are my children. But there are other children who are smarter than them but don’t have what my sons have. They are the ones that I wake up every morning, taking this risk for. My strength is in the message that I am carrying, that I am fighting for the people. Anybody who is convinced that there’s no fight that requires some of us should just go to Mombasa and walk into the airport; it is a ghost. Twenty-two five star hotels have been closed, over 4,000 jobs lost. Imperial Bank in Diani recently closed down its branch and sent away workers on indefinite leave because there is no business. My children, if anything was to happen to me, would know that their father was lucky in his life, he broke through poverty, got a good education but never lost sight of where he came from. His life had a meaning. I want to conclude by requesting my party leader (Musalia Mudavadi) that the same tolerance that he has exercised in spite of the disappointments that Uhuru made him go through, he should exercise it in joining Wetangula and I, by allowing all of us to subject ourselves to Kenyans to decide who is best- placed to lead the Opposition against Uhuru. That it looks obvious that it cannot be him should not make him feel jealousy. He played his cards badly in 2002. He played his cards horribly in 2013. Ends
Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 01:02:58 +0000
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