Will the real Azimio One Kenya CEO please stand up?

Two photos taken before and after an Azimio Council meeting last week told a lot that is not being said about the hotchpotch coalition party.

The images thrust to the world for all to see showed a sullen, distant, hands-in-pockets and deep-thinking Mr Raila Odinga. In the first photograph released as the 11-member team waited for President Uhuru Kenyatta at the stairs to the entrance of the Kenyatta International Convention Centre, the politicians were chatting animatedly – but not Mr Odinga. He stood at a distance, looking straight ahead into City Hall and beyond, a man in deep thought.

In the second image, taken after the meeting followed by a press conference, the President is seen bidding bye to the members of the apex organ in the coalition with a long name, Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Council. The President bumps hands with Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka and chats briefly with Murang’a Woman Representative Sabina Chege and Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu, and lingers quite a bit at Narc-Kenya chief Martha Karua.

But again, Mr Odinga looks alone and lonely in that crowd. What could have been going on in his mind? Maybe it is worth pointing out that Mr Musyoka joined the meeting after the President had arrived and long after it started.

Those affiliated to Azimio pushed for changes to the Political Parties Act so that it could harness the close to 30 political parties into a juggernaut akin to the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) that won the then opposition victory and installed President Mwai Kibaki in State House 20 years ago in 2002.

Blood on the floor

But the amendments to the Act have not brought bacon home for Azimio. In 2002, the parties that formed Narc – Mr Kibaki’s Democratic Party, Mr Odinga’s Liberal Democratic Party, Mr Kijana Wamalwa’s Ford-Kenya and Ms Ngilu’s Social Democratic Party – all fielded candidates on the grand movement’s ticket. Yet for Azimio, each of the 30 political outfits is fending for itself in the counties, constituencies and wards save for Nairobi, where some arrangement – that has already spilt quite some blood on the floor – is being arranged.

At the press conference, it was announced that a committee would be appointed to advise on how to deal with the elephantine matter in the room – who will take the position of Mr Odinga’s running mate. It is, therefore, no rocket science that Azimio is a conglomeration of disparate groups that agree only on the captain and nothing more. The presidential candidate does not even have the latitude to pick his deputy; his number two will be picked for him.

At some point, it was whispered that Jubilee would pick the running mate. Then it was averred that the onerous task would be performed by the 11-member Azimio Council. But on Thursday afternoon, the names of the team that will help the coalition party identify who will fill the number two slot were made public.

Several issues arise out of this whole jigsaw. Clearly, the leadership and decision-making roles in Azimio are neither straightforward nor certain. Therefore, Mr Odinga, the man seeking the country’s presidency, is not in charge. He is in an outfit where he is grossly outnumbered. And the composition of the Azimio Council is a case in point.

Then the obvious questions would be: Who, then, is in charge? Is this merely a situation where the structures and lines of authority in the coalition party are blurred because the Head of State is actively involved? Or is it a bigger plot to stymie the presidential candidate, giving total credence – if any were required – that Mr Odinga is a head-and-toes state project?

And if the person Azimio is presenting to the people of Kenya is not in charge of the vehicle he is using to seek their mandate, what guarantee can Mr Odinga give that he would be in charge afterwards? In such circumstances, is the threadbare agenda he has been espousing worth a coin? Will the coalition party have a manifesto? Will the motley parties be bound by the document or will it bind the only man in Azimio as we speak?

Confusion

Kenyans are asking the real CEO in Azimio to stand up, the person whose word can be their bond. But the confusion so evident cannot be expected to yield a president capable enough to tackle the array of challenges that face the country.

It is impossible compare Azimio with the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) and Kenya Kwanza; you can only contrast them. Kenya Kwanza has a clear agenda, method and plan of what to do now and when the people of Kenya entrust them with the mandate to take the country to the next level; Azimio is confusion unadulterated.

Kenya Kwanza’s economic agenda has trumped, once and for all, the tibim casualness of yesteryears. Going by the overwhelming response from the population, the alliance’s pledge to democratise the economy is the essential part that has been missing in Kenya’s engine to prosperity and inclusion. On August 9, the choice has never been clearer.

The writer is in the William Ruto presidential campaign. [email protected]