Seasons of Hope, a new book by former powerful Defense Minister, David Musila gives a rare insight into the intrigues and drama that took place following the ‘Kibaki Tosha’ announcement in 2002.
In a section of his book published in the Daily Nation, the former Kitui Central Senator revealed a surprising occasion during which president-elect Mwai Kibaki sneaked out of State House despite knowing that Raila Odinga had been waiting on him.
“George Saitoti, who was the new Minister for Education, had been to see the President on a routine visit and on his way out he found Raila at the gate and asked him what he was doing there yet the President had already left,” stated a section of the book.
Raila was reportedly gone at State House to confront Kibaki over his decision to shun away the very people that had secured his victory in the 2002 General Election.
According to Mr Musila, Kibaki was not part of the initial coalition team that had congregated at Serena Hotel, Nairobi on September 22, 2002, to plot the ousting of President Daniel Moi and his preferred candidate Uhuru Kenyatta.
Mr Kibaki is said to have waylaid the coalition team on their way to Uhuru Park and asked to be included in the movement that included the likes of Raila Odinga, Simeon Nyachae, Kalonzo Musyoka, Charity Ngilu among many other political heavyweights.
A few hours later, Raila made the famous "Kibaki Tosha" remark thereby securing the presidential nomination as well as a victory for him.
However, things took a turn for the worse as soon as Kibaki won, with Mr Musila claiming that the president-elect was suddenly unreachable.
Mr Musila and other Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) members who had been instrumental in the swooping election victory provided a list of proposed cabinet ministers which Kibaki completely disregarded and replaced with ‘his’ allies.
“To our utter disbelief, Kibaki discarded our list and inserted on the LDP side the names of people who had not worked with us during the campaigns. These included Raphael Tuju and Linah Jebii Kilimo,” revealed Musila in his new book.
Raila, therefore, took it upon himself to confront the president in order to come to some sort of understanding, only to learn that President Kibaki had sneaked away to his Muthaiga home despite knowing that Raila had been waiting on him for 2 hours.
In his intriguing book, Mr Musila also revealed that Kibaki had turned away an entire LDP delegation that had gone to see him. He allegedly authorized that the gates at State House remain shut.
These events symbolized the start of internal discord in the Rainbow Coalition even before Kibaki’s official inauguration.
