NASA co-principal Kalonzo Musyoka has divulged interesting details of the night President Uhuru Kenyatta angrily smoked at his Karen home.
As the political heat for the 2013 General Election heightened, Kalonzo who was in the same camp as Kenyatta and William Ruto narrates that the two decided to betray him during a dinner.
In his autobiography, Against All Odds, Kalonzo notes that the initial plan was he runs for the presidency with Kenyatta as his running mate or vice versa while Mr Ruto would be the Majority Leader in the National Assembly.
However, this never saw the light of day as the two leaders decided to turn against Kalonzo on the fateful night.
"Then on that night, Uhuru and Ruto arrived at my home in the company of Jimmy Wanjigi, a Nairobi businessman and political strategist. Mr Wanjigi is the son of former Kamukunji Member of Parliament and Moi era Cabinet minister, Maina Wanjigi. We walked down to the gazebo where dinner was to be served," Kalonzo records.
It was at this time that the unexpected was laid bare for Kalonzo.
"Ruto and Jimmy sat silently as Uhuru spoke: 'Stephen', We have decided that you should choose some other position, but not the presidency or deputy presidency." I was stunned. I did not know at what point the arrangement we had earlier, of me being on the presidential ticket, had been changed." the Wiper leader says in his book.
He adds: "There was silence in the gazebo. As tension rose, Uhuru suddenly stood up, pushed his seat back and stepped out of the sliding glass door. He walked five steps to the waterfall, removed a packet from his jacket pocket and pulled out a cigarette. Holding it in his left hand, he lit it with a lighter in his right hand and furiously puffed on it. Uhuru finished smoking. He threw the smouldering stub on the ground, stumped on it with his left foot and ground it into the green grass."
The former vice President mentions that Kenyatta threatened to quickly replace him with Charity Ngilu if he did not accept the offer given to him.
"If you do not take what you are being offered, Ngilu will take your place in our alliance," Uhuru told Kalonzo.
Mr Kalonzo highlights that this betrayal hit him hard as the former President Mwai Kibaki had earlier promised to support him in the 2013 Election, after his term was over.
"Kibaki made a stopover in Machakos town where he told a crowd that he had enjoyed working with me: sasa imebakia kumsaidia kusukuma ile ingine (What remains is for us to push him to the next level)," Kalonzo recounts.
It was this that forced him out of the G7 alliance and decided to join NASA leader Raila Odinga in his coalition.
He remarks that Kenyatta's change of heart had been influenced by tyranny of numbers after he compared the Kalenjin and Kamba votes.
