By Shazia Majale,
NAIROBI, Kenya: Three years ago, the Amani National Congress party leader, Musalia Mudavadi, made an announcement that, according to his own standards, caused an earthquake in the political realms. An announcement to join Kenya Kwanza in his political aspirations. It was an inconsequential move back then, just as the purported “earthquake” that only served as a source for hilarious memes.
Mudavadi, as we’ve known him in the opposition, has had an air of calm about him. He was either criticizing the government of the day and that too in measured words and matters that really spoke to his heart. Not too quick to issue statements on every matter under the sun and being charismatic about it also.
Still, he identified with the opposition, and that alone comes with a certain kind of reputation, considering how the opposition has been known to conduct business in recent years.
When the Kenya Kwanza government entered the office with Mudavadi as the Prime Cabinet Secretary, it was unclear what his role would entail, and there were many speculations about it.
Mudavadi, now in government after some significant season of being in a political desert, has maintained a cool, calm, collected air about him and keeps on being charismatic in his role as the Prime CS.
The Kenya Kwanza government has some colorful characters within it even before it made it to the office. Fanatics who come out guns blazing to defend and sing its praises with and without reasonable doubts. The Kenya Kwanza government in itself can be described as colorful and animate.
It’s a government that loves to be on the press, with televised events all over and uncountable press briefings. It loves to show off and brag. Low profile and Kenya Kwanza can never belong in the same group.
The Prime CS, low-profiled and quiet as he is, makes for the man with the most. He minds his business dutifully, delivers on his expectations, speaks a little, and never loses sight of his position in the government. He might be the politician with the least number of appearances in the media, and when he does appear, it’s newsworthy.
For instance, when he chimed in during the Gen Z-led protests regarding the unpopular 2024-2025 Finance Bill, his insights were way sober and intuitive compared to those of his counterparts on the YES side of the bill.
In the government of the day, Mudavadi makes for the most valuable office in the country, if not an asset. When he is not an interim cabinet secretary in the vacant dockets, he is holding together the pieces falling apart with maturity, wisdom, conduct, and literally doing the work.
His wisdom and words in times of uncertainty sit pretty as the face of the government with direction and that which is not distracted and over-involved with sideshows that make for unclimaxed moments.
An unprecedented task that he himself probably never foresaw he would have, Musalia Mudavadi, armed with years of political servitude and experience from the very highs and really lows of governance since independence, knows enough to know when to talk, when to engage with the ever-changing bickering in politics, never to throw stones seeing as he resides in a glass house too. He knows when to give invaluable insights, and his office doesn’t make for scandalous stories either.
Inconsequential and underwhelming, the Prime Cabinet Secretary’s office might have been thought of as the occupier of the office. Musalia gives that office the character and occupation to hold this country down, even amidst all the backlash of it being an unconstitutional office.
