Wycliffe Musalia Mudavadi is a household name in Kenya. His rise is seen by many as sheer luck, having inherited his father's parliamentary seat and thrust into the limelight before hitting 30 years.
Born in September 1960, Mudavadi has been in active politics for the last 33 years, after making his debut in 1989 when he was elected unopposed in a by-election in Sabatia Constituency following the death of his father, Moses Mudavadi.
After winning the election, Mudavadi was appointed by the late President Daniel Arap Moi, a close family friend, as the Minister of Supplies, serving from 1989 to 1992.
Mudavadi further went on to successfully defend his seat in the 1992 general election before he was elevated to Treasury as the Minister of Finance from 1993 to 1997.
While at the Treasury, Mudavadi is remembered for his steadfast leadership at Treasury when he convinced donors to resume foreign aid to Kenya after they had slapped Moi's government with sanctions over massive corruption and violation of human rights.
He was reelected in 1997 by the people of Sabatia before President Moi appointed him as the Agriculture Minister from 1997 to 1999.
Moi later moved Mudavadi to the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information for two years from 2000 to 2002.
Vice President
He was appointed VP in 2002 to replace the late George Saitoti, who Moi had sacked in a succession war after he chose former President Uhuru Kenyatta as his successor.
However, his stint was short-lived as Mudavadi became the shortest-serving Vice President.
After Moi anointed Uhuru Kenyatta as his successor, Uhuru chose Mudavadi as his running mate. However, the Kenyatta - Mudavadi ticket which was termed as Moi’s project was defeated by the Mwai Kibaki and Kijana Wamalwa ticket who had the backing of Raila Odinga.
The last position Mudavadi held in government was that of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Government between 2008 to 2013 in the Grand Coalition Government during late President Mwai Kibaki’s tenure and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
Mudavadi who was an ODM member sought the nomination in 2012 to fly the ODM Presidential ticket in the 2013 General election.
He later decamped from ODM sighting the lack of political freedom in the party after he was technically locked out of the nomination through a party constitution clause that gave the party leader a direct nomination as the Presidential candidate.
Musalia later took over the United Democratic Front Party (UDF) and became its flag-bearer for the presidential election.
He joined Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto to form the Jubilee Coalition bringing different parties together. However, Mudavadi left the coalition after a breach of contract which had stated that Uhuru Kenyatta would step down in his favour as the presidential flag-bearer.
Mudavadi made a solo run on UDF in the 2013 Elections and came a distance third for top leadership in the country in that election.
In July 2015 Mudavadi abandoned UDF, which was later dissolved and decided to form the Amani National Congress (ANC) that would take him to the presidential race come 2017.
In the 2017 election he formed the National Super Alliance Coalition (NASA) where he later invited Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka together with National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula.
However, in a turn of events, NASA settled on Raila Odinga as its presidential candidate leaving Mudavadi to settle as the NASA campaign chairman.
In the August 9 General election, Mudavadi backed the candidature of President William Ruto who won the August General elections. Mudavadi is now poised to be Prime Cabinet Secretary according to the Kenya Kwanza Coalition agreement.
