Details have emerged on why Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka failed to take President Uhuru Kenyatta’s international job offer.
Kalonzo was picked by the president to head the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission in South Sudan, days after the burial of his father on November 9, 2018.
However, Kalonzo’s name was rejected by the then Sudan President Omar El Bashir, who was recently toppled in a military coup, on grounds that he was not adequately consulted.
According to KTN News, sources within the diplomatic circle revealed that Bashir was vouching for former Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn Boshe to pick up the job.
Prior to the rejection, images had surfaced 24 hours after Kalonzo’s father’s burial showing the Wiper leader meeting South Sudan President Salva Kiir, in the company of Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma.
“When I was seen visiting President Salva Kiir, the media concluded that I already had the job. What they didn’t know was that this is a negotiating thing, you have to lobby countries of IGAD (The Intergovernmental Authority on Development). It is not a Kenyan job,” Kalonzo revealed in an interview with KTN News.
Kalonzo’s name was floated to all heads of states from all the eight member countries. Insiders say President Kenyatta had already lobbied for Kalonzo’s name among all regional governments, with foreign affairs ministry arranging for Kalonzo to meet most influential of the eight, among them Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni and South Sudan’s Salva Kiir.
Protocol dictates that the name of the person to take up the South Sudan job would have to be communicated to the African Union Commission by IGAD Chairperson. The current chairperson is Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, a fierce critic of Desalegn.
The job would to a large extent involve regular deliberation between the hostile neighbours Khartoum and Juba.
However, Kalonzo continues playing coy on the matter, insisting that the job is still on the plate, and that’s why he has taken a backward step over 2022 succession politics, despite having previously announced his intentions to vie.
“There has never been a sitting of the IGAD authority. I am sure when this happens, there will be a conclusion of this matter, one way or another. I think it is important for the country to know, so that they should not think one or two things happened,” Kalonzo defended.
