NEWS ANALYSIS
By Martin Masai
Johnson Muthama’s latest message after a meeting with Wiper Patriotic Front leader Kalonzo Musyoka may be more revealing for what he did not say than for what he said.
The former Machakos Senator and founding chairman of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) met Kalonzo Musyoka privately on October 1.
The meeting is a follow-up of another meeting with Muthama convened by Jamleck Kamau in the company former Minister Gedion Ndambuki and former Kitui East MP Ambassador Kiema Kilonzo.
Sources tell The Anchor that the Muthama- Kalonzo came after the former demanded a face to face meeting with Kalonzo to the exclusion of the previous attendees.
Muthama has since rightly insisted that the meeting was simply a conversation between two old political friends.
But his subsequent remarks have done little to quiet speculation about what the two men discussed.Indeed, they may have done the opposite.
Speaking this week, Muthama said he and Kalonzo had sat together and taken tea.”People who are brothers share stories among themselves”, he said.
He then delivered a warning that has inevitably attracted attention.”Let them be told that what is terrifying them is on the way coming.”
Muthama was even more deliberate about the secrecy surrounding the deliberations.
“What we spoke about, only Kalonzo and Muthama know—the two of us,” he said.
“And you do not know what we asked each other”- meaning the meeting may have been a face off of some sorts.
He challenged journalists to report only what was known: That Muthama had met Kalonzo, that the two had talked “like brothers” about their families, personal affairs and matters affecting Kenya, and that neither had disclosed the substance of the conversation.
But then came the phrase that gives the meeting a historical resonance.Muthama said: “Pray… and keep praying for your children, myself being one of them so that Kweekwa aali, twiikwa aali nikana kwikwe aali.” This loosely translated to ” When something is done, we shall do something so that something is done”.
It underlines the frame of mind of a person who is unwilling or afraid to say what it is that is likely to be done( happen), when and by whom- and has the effect of creating confusion among the population.
For those familiar with Kamba political history, the phrase is not innocuous.Muthama famously used similar words more than a decade ago during the political turbulence surrounding the International Criminal Court cases against Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto.
At the time, Uhuru and Ruto were facing proceedings at The Hague over charges arising from the 2007-08 post-election violence. The ICC eventually withdrew the case against Uhuru, with proceedings against him terminated in 2015.
Kalonzo, then a senior political player and a supporter of the two, was viewed as one of the politicians who could potentially benefit from a dramatic alteration of the political field.
It was against that background that Muthama’s cryptic language acquired political meaning.
His words…”Kweekwa Aali, Kukeekwa aali nikana twike aali”-were interpreted as suggesting that something was being contemplated behind the scenes and that political circumstances could produce an unexpected outcome in favour of Kalonzo.
That history makes his decision to return to essentially the same political vocabulary now particularly intriguing.
The circumstances, however, have changed dramatically.Muthama is no longer Kalonzo’s political lieutenant. He became one of the leading figures in the formation and expansion of UDA and served as its chairman before being appointed to the Parliamentary Service Commission.
Parliament formally approved his appointment as a PSC commissioner in February 2023, after he had served as UDA chairman.
Kalonzo, meanwhile, remains the leader of Wiper and an important figure in the opposition political equation.
The two men have had a long and sometimes turbulent political relationship.There was a time when Muthama was regarded as one of Kalonzo’s closest political allies.
Muthama himself has claimed that he played a central role in negotiations that resulted in Kalonzo becoming President Mwai Kibaki’s Vice-President after the 2007 elections.
Their relationship subsequently deteriorated, with the two men exchanging some of the harshest political words in their careers.
Yet the relationship has never entirely disappeared.
In 2021, the two publicly embraced and reconciled at a burial ceremony in Mwingi, with Muthama describing Kalonzo as his brother.Now, five years later, they have held another private meeting at a particularly sensitive moment in Kenyan politics.
That is why the October 1 encounter cannot easily be divorced from the politics of 2027.
One possible interpretation is that Muthama is opening a channel between Kalonzo and the Ruto camp.
Muthama remains associated with the political establishment that propelled President William Ruto to power.
His proximity to the President’s political camp gives him a different significance from that of an ordinary former Wiper politician.
If Kalonzo is considering any form of political engagement with Ruto, Muthama would be an obvious person with whom to test the political terrain.
But that is only one possibility.
There is another equally important interpretation: Muthama could be helping to rebuild bridges within the fractured Wiper political family.
The meeting was reportedly convened by Wiper chairman Jamleck Kamau as part of efforts to bring Muthama back into the opposition fold.
That possibility would place the meeting in an entirely different context.
It is highly unlikely that Muthama can jettison his influential role in the PSC and gamble with a man seeking power.
For years, Ukambani politics has been marked by competing political loyalties, with some of the region’s influential figures moving in and out of Kalonzo’s political orbit.
Among them is former Kitui Senator David Musila, who, like Muthama, has been associated with Ruto’s political camp.
A reconciliation involving Kalonzo, Muthama and other former Wiper allies would therefore have implications beyond the personal relationship between the two men.
It would reopen questions about whether the political divisions that weakened Kalonzo’s regional base can be bridged before the 2027 contest.
But there is a third possibility.Kalonzo may simply be keeping his political options open.
The renewed speculation about his possible engagement with Ruto gives him an incentive to maintain communication with people who have direct access to the President’s political establishment, while retaining his own political independence.
A private conversation with Muthama could therefore be exploratory rather than conclusive.There is, in fact, no public evidence that Kalonzo has agreed to join Ruto, nor has Muthama announced any new political alliance arising from the meeting.
Muthama himself has said that the two discussed national issues and matters affecting their people but has not disclosed any political agreement.
This is where Muthama’s language becomes more intriguing than the meeting itself.
He could have dismissed the speculation.He did not.Instead, he said those speculating did not know what had happened because they were not in the room.
“What we spoke about, only Kalonzo and Muthama know,” he said.
Then he added the line that has ensured the speculation will continue:”Let them be told that what is terrifying them is on the way coming.”
That is not confirmation of a political deal. But neither is it the language of someone trying to close down political speculation altogether.
It leaves all possibilities open.
The most consequential question may therefore be: Is Kalonzo joining Ruto? That would certainly be a terrifying political development in Kenya.
It would be more consequential than if Muthama is joining Wiper- after all not many would be terrified by that eventuality.
It may be alright for the two old political allies to create a new political equation in which their respective relationships with different sides of the political divide become assets rather than obstacles.
Muthama has previously occupied the role of Kalonzo’s political ally. He later became one of the most prominent figures in Ruto’s political camp. Kalonzo has spent much of his political career negotiating alliances across competing political formations.
Their renewed conversation therefore brings together two politicians with unusually long knowledge of each other’s political calculations.
For now, however, the substance remains private.And that may be precisely how Muthama wants it.His final invocation of the old Kamba phrase leaves the audience waiting for events to reveal what the two men chose not to say.
The real political story, therefore, may not be that Muthama met Kalonzo.It may be what happens after Muthama met Kalonzo. Watch this space.
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