ODM leader Raila Odinga and Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka's political journey seems to be that of two people joined at the hip for the most part, if previously formed alliances are anything to go by.
Many times they have been at each other's political necks, with each vowing not to support the others' bid for the top seat, and as recently as 2018, trading accusations of betrayal.
Their political marriage began in the early 2000s, in the dying days of retired President Daniel Moi's rule, when they decamped from KANU.
With the country gearing up for a possible change in government after two decades under Moi, the country looked forward for change.
The head of state had already announced the then NDP leader, Odinga, had merged his political outfit with KANU, an act that left a bitter taste in the mouths of many frontrunners for the seat.
With the ruling party falling apart from within, Raila wrote that its members had decided to leave one after the other, with him leading the mass exodus. They formed an unofficial grouping that they referred to as the 'Rainbow Alliance'.
Raila wrote in his book, Flame of Freedom, that the move provoked debate amongst other opposition politicians who united against Moi's blue-eyed boy, Uhuru Kenyatta.
"The possibility of uniting the opposition parties in the Rainbow Alliance loomed and there was much public and media excitement. The thought of an opposition movement that was strong enough to dislodge the ruling party from power was finally a possibility," he wrote.
As one means of showing that the politicians were united with intent to defeat President Moi, Raila recalled that the members of the Rainbow Alliance reached a consensus that representatives of different ethnic blocks would announce their presidential ambitions in order to shake Moi's confidence.
"First to announce was Mudavadi, on July 27. I followed the next day. Two days later, Ngala made his declaration and we waited for Saitoti to make his," Odinga remembered.
Raila then, without consulting, addressed a press conference and announced that the opposition had consolidated and was hell-bent on picking a single candidate to run against Uhuru in the 2002 elections.
"It was a gamble because I was not at all sure how the alliance was going to work. Things were happenning too quickly and I had not had a chance to think everything through completely," he recollected.
When the news spread all over the country, Kalonzo Musyoka and Katana Ngala came to the fore to deny Raila's merger announcement.
"Musyoka and Ngala both issued statements claiming that they had no idea what I was talking about, and I had to move fast before the idea was dead before it even got to sail," Odinga wrote.
He quickly launched concerted efforts to convince the two leaders of their ambitions, where he was successful with Kalonzo, but not with Katana Ngala.
