A surprise meeting between former President Mwai Kibaki and Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka at a billionaire's home days to the disputed 2007 presidential election set the stage for the latter's appointment as Vice President.
Kalonzo in his book ‘Against All Odds’, writes that he was under pressure to work with Kibaki in 2007.
The Wiper leader in his book writes that Kibaki’s allies pleaded with him to abandon the 2007 presidential race.
“Efforts by Kibaki and his allies to get me on his side had been going on for months even before the disputed presidential election,” Kalonzo writes.
Kalonzo says he rejected Kibaki’s political advances, contested for the presidential seat and emerged third in the polls.
The former VP in his memoir names Nairobi business tycoon Chris Kirubi, Equity Bank CEO James Mwangi and Stanley Murage, Kibaki’s strategic advisor as emissaries that were often sent to pursued him not to work with the former president in 2007.
Kalonzo writes that one evening before the 2007 presidential election, he was invited to a dinner meeting by Narendra Raval Guru, the chairman of Devki Group of companies in Runda estate.
“I arrived at Guru's home and we had a brief talk, I was surprised to see Kibaki walk into the room in the company of his advisor Stanley Murage,” Kalonzo writes.
Kalonzo writes that Kibaki kept quiet in the meeting as Murage persuaded him to drop out of the presidential race.
The Wiper leader says he rejected Kibaki’s proposal noting that he would have disappointed his supporters and Kenyans if he withdrew from the 2007 presidential race.
“I told Kibaki that if I win the election, I would happily invite him to be part of my government and that if he won, he could also invite me to his government,” Kalonzo writes in his memoir.
After the December 2007 presidential election, Kibaki was declared the winner in the tightly contested poll.
Raila Odinga, his close challenger disputed the election leading to violence that killed over 1,000 Kenyans and displaced communities.
Kalonzo writes that it was at the heart of the post-poll chaos that Kibaki’s men contacted him with a request to accept the Vice President's position.
He says Kibaki then appointed him as the Vice President days later.
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