By THEDISPATCH.DIGITAL REPORTER
Nominated MP and ODM Chairman Joh Mbadi was on Sunday in a lifetime fight to get a seat in the embattled William Ruto administration as party moderates urged Party Leader Raila Odinga to slow down on embracing the beleaguered President. For the first time, Mbadi reveled himself as one of the prominent ODM politicians who have been pushing Raila, against the counsel of other members, to accept an invitation to join the government of William Ruto and rescue it from collapse.
Mabdi, who had modelled himself as a critic of the Ruto regime but mostly following a script intended to attract the attentions of Raila, belittled and criticised Ruto’s Cabinet appointments,. but now appears to have not just mellowed down but become a lover of Ruto, going down on both knees to beg for a place in the Cabinet.
Sources in ODM revealed that Mbadi and former Kakamega Governor and ODM Deputy Party Leader Wycliffe Oparanya have been embroiled in a vicious fight for the position of CS Treasury, which was allegedly promised to Raila in a Government of National Unity. Ali Hassan Joho of Mombasa was also fighting for a place in the Ruto regime after his hopes were dampened when Ruto gave the ministry he coveted, that of Land and Housing, to his longtime ally and former CS Alice Wahome
Another hopeful, mostly driven by business interests, Suna East MP and Raila sidekick Junet Sheikh Mohammed has also been said to be angling for a Cabinet appointment so as to be able to dith his constituency responsibilities, which he sees as a distraction and waste of time. According to a source in ODM, the politicians chasing jobs in Ruto’s Cabinet are not concerned with good governance but with satisfying their own interests, at whatever cost, which includes pushing Raila to accept deals with Ruto at the expense of his legacy, which has been threatened if he goes a head and agrees to support the embattled Ruto regime.
Indeed the Raila hangers-on were agitated and angry at his decision last weekend to delay joining the government until he received sufficient intelligence on what its impact would be on his reputation and party. Raila had been expected to personally deliver to Ruto his recommended names for appointment to the Cabinet and then stand by his side at Statehouse as he made the announcement. However, at the last minute, after growing cold feet following threats and insults from his followers online, Raila is said to have switched off his phone and become unavailable even as Ruto waited for him after scheduling a press conference at 4pm on Friday. To save face, Ruto decided to go ahead and announce eleven names from his side, leaving out four others to give he impression he was giving the Opposition half the government while at the end he intended tp fill the slots with his own loyalists.
Speaking in his rural Suba North constituency over the weekend, Mbadi ranted at Siaya Governor James Orengo, whom he accused of trying to prevent talks between ODM and Ruto, which could give him a Cabinet appointment. Mbadi argued that as a party, ODM had a right to speak with Ruto. But while his real interest was in getting onto government, Mbadi also used Deputy President Rigathi Gacagua as a bogeyman to threaten his audience with the specter of tribal annihilation or exclusion based on the DP’s earlier statement that the UDA government was made of shareholders and those who wee not shareholders would not benefit from it.
Referring to Siaya Governor James Orengo’s recent advise to ODM to listen to the voice of the public and avoid rushing to join the UDA government, Mbadi said, “I am in total disagreement with Jim Aggrey Orengo. He’s my senior, he’s my friend but where he’s wrong I will tell him, ‘you’re wrong.’ you cannot tell us that we cannot dialogue, that we cannot talk with Ruto, that we cannot talk as Kenyans. What is the alternative? We cannot play politics of populism. We cannot play politics of theory. We have bene playing politics of theory since independence that’s why we have got this thing wrong. Where are you taking us? We cannot follow Kalonzo because we don’t know where he’s going. I am not persuaded that Kapnzo is taking us anywhere. And am not persuaded that Uhuru means well for us now. If he wanted to give us leadership he would have given us leadership in 2022. Some of us today we would be Cabinet Ministers, I would not e a nominated Member of Parliament.”
But observers were quick to point out that Mbadi’s posturing arose from personal disappointment that he would not be a minister any time soon as he thought earlier since Raila will not be on the ballot at the next elections and he did not stand a chance anywhere else without Raila holding his hand.