A few months to the 2013 general election, Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa dumped President Uhuru Kenyatta and declared support for Amani National Congress (ANC) party leader Musalia Mudavadi.
Wamalwa was then serving as Justice Minister in the retired President Mwai Kibaki government and was also MP for Saboti Constituency.
He did not vie for any seat in that election and after Mudavadi lost to Uhuru, he was sent to political oblivion.
After about two years being out of political office, he approached the ANC boss and requested for favour.
Citing “increased distress in the cold”, Wamalwa requested the former Vice President to appeal to Uhuru to get him a job.
In his just-released autobiography, 'Soaring Above the Storms of Passion', Mudavadi writes following the request he planned for a meeting between him, Uhuru and Wamalwa.
It is during the meeting with the Uhuru that Wamalwa said: “You know Wycliffe (Mudavadi) … we have been in the cold for long, and now it is actually taking a toll on me.”
In “ensuing embarrassing hiatus”, Mudavadi writes, he turned to Uhuru: “Hey, Mr President, if you have a position, could you kindly grant it to my brother Eugene?”
On April 17 2015, Uhuru nominated Wamalwa as the Cabinet Secretary for Water and Irrigation Services.
After his reelection in the 2017 polls, the President transferred the former Saboti MP to the Devolution and ASALs Ministry.
Wamalwa is yet to declare his next political move upon Uhuru's retirement in 2022.