In an autobiography talking of a three-and-a-half hour lecture by Sudan’s Hassan al Turabi and his PS Sally Kosgei almost choking on a meal in Mobutu Sese Seko’s palace, former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka bares it all.
The memoir also includes details of how Kalonzo was mugged on a street in Buenos Aires, Argentina during an official visit and an infamous incident ‘Bull of Auckland’ in which a senior member of the Kenyan delegation to the 1995 Commonwealth meeting was accused of attempting to rape a hotel maid.
Titled Against All Odds, the memoir which will be launched in Nairobi on Wednesday also shows details of behind-the-scenes manoeuvres in Kenya’s political scenes.
In the book serialised by the Nation, Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka tells how he was denied the presidential ticket he had been guaranteed of after he was backed by the then president Mwai Kibaki in 2013.
In the book, Kalonzo narrates how Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto who were then running for the presidency dramatically dropped him. This is after giving him hopes that he would be the government-backed candidate.
“Energised after beating back the feeble Musalia effort, Uhuru and Ruto turned on me. Things started from the day they returned from the status hearing conference at The Hague and started using the ICC cases to position themselves politically,’’ the Nation quotes.
He says Ruto and Uhuru agreed on a line up for the elections in which Uhuru and Kalonzo would be on the presidential ticket while Ruto was to be the Majority Leader in the National Assembly.
Kalonzo speaks of a tension-gripped night meeting in his Karen home also attended by a Nairobi businessman and political strategist where Uhuru and Ruto dropped the bombshell.
“I clearly remember the night I felt betrayed by Uhuru and Ruto. This was the night our alliance died. We had agreed with Ruto that I would be on the presidential ticket, with Uhuru as my running mate or vice versa. Ruto was to be the Majority Leader.”
Then, things started falling apart and the relationship started disintegrating.
“On that night, Uhuru and Ruto arrived at my home in the company of Jimmy Wanjigi, a Nairobi businessman and political strategist. We walked down to the gazebo where dinner was to be served.”
Kalonzo says that this is when he realised that things had changed and it was not business as usual.
“Ruto and Jimmy sat silently as Uhuru spoke: “Stephen,” he said, “We have decided that you should choose some other position, but not the presidency or deputy presidency.’’ I was stunned. I did not know at what point the arrangement we had earlier, of me being on the presidential ticket, had been changed.”
The former VP says: “There was silence in the gazebo. As tension rose, Uhuru suddenly stood up, pushed his seat back and stepped out of the sliding glass door. He walked five steps to the waterfall, removed a packet from his jacket pocket and pulled out a cigarette. Holding it in his left hand, he lit it with a lighter in his right hand and furiously puffed on it. Uhuru finished smoking. He threw the smouldering stub on the ground, stumped on it with his left foot and ground it into the green grass.”
In the book, Kalonzo also ropes in ODM leader Raila Odinga, Musalia Mudavadi and several other political players after the 2007 election.
The book written by former Nation journalist Caleb Atemi traces Kalonzo’s journey from Tseikuru in Kitui where he was born to his thwarted ambition for the presidency in 2002, 2007 and 2013.