NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 1 – President Uhuru Kenyatta has alluded to a possible presidential election victory by his handshake alliance partner Raila Odinga saying he could win the 2022 “marathon”.
President Kenyatta who has been working closely with the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Party Leader since their truce in March 2018 after a presidential election contested by Odinga suggested Deputy President William Ruto, who he had declared on numerous occasions prior to 2018 as his preferred successor, could lose the race.
Speaking from the City of Nakuru on Wednesday, Kenyatta who went full throttle to describe what it takes to be a leader said rising to the top takes time. In a thinly veiled reference to Ruto, he described the DP’s campaign as a sprint.
“Leadership is not a sprint, it is a marathon, you will be busy running fast and by the time you are done you run out of breath but mzee (loosely translated as an old person) who has been walking slowly by slowly comes and passes you and wins the race. Go slowly,” said Kenyatta.
Kenyatta said some political leaders are too engrained to rise to higher positions to an extent that they are not ready to work with their political foes.
“I know it is very easy to be excited when someone is telling you they will do this and that when they get to leadership. They tell you who they do not want and who they want. I keep being blamed for reaching out to my brother Odinga we talk but we agreed to maintain peace in our country and that is what has helped us get through difficult challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic,” Kenyatta said.
“There is no hurry to leadership. Go slowly and you will get there. Stop rushing yourself until you start blaming your opponents and saying you cannot work with them.”
Kenyatta urged the youth who tend to be used by politicians during elections to cause chaos to be wary of selfish people who would do anything for their own political mileage.
President Kenyatta’s relationship with his deputy has hit rock bottom with the collapse of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) constitutional review process, which Kenyatta champions with Odinga, further deepening differences between the country’s top leaders.
On June 15, Kenyatta challenged former National Super Alliance (NASA) principals who abandoned Odinga to form One Kenya Alliance (OKA) to unite to enhance their chances of forming the next government after he retires.
Musalia Mudavadi (ANC), Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper) Moses Wetangula (Ford Kenya) joined KANU party leader Gideon Moi to form OKA after ending an alliance with Odinga under NASA.
Ruto on the other hand has been popularizing his United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party, a Jubilee coalition partner which rebranded from initially called Party of Development and Reforms ostensibly to offer the DP who had been isolated within the governing party a chance to build a 2022 political vehicle.
He has been using UDA to popularize his bottom-up economic restructuring approach.
DP Ruto has time and again said that Kenyatta does not owe him support just because he supported him in 2013 and 2017.
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