Raila’s critics say all this manouvering will end in tears for Mudavadi. They insist the PM’s past actions reveal he is a dishonest politician determined to "steamroll" anyone standing in his path to personal glory.
Ikolomani MP Bonny Khalwale says the ‘Kibaki Tosha’ declaration Raila made in 2007 broke a pact he had struck days earlier with Ford People’s Simeon Nyachae. This, Khalwale says, is not Raila’s only betrayal.
"Upon Jaramogi’s death in 1994, Raila attempted to wrestle the chairmanship of Ford Kenya from Kijana Wamalwa, who had stood by his father," Khalwale recalls. "He abandoned Wamalwa after a bitter fight."
Raila then formed NDP, which entered into co-operation with Kanu, "a once cohesive party that he ripped apart after then President Moi sidelined him for Uhuru in 2002."
Khalwale says Raila also used unorthodox means in 2007 to elbow out Kalonzo Musyoka, his main challenger for the ODM-Kenya presidential nomination ticket. His informal leadership grouping with those leaders he took with him, the ODM ‘Pentagon’, has since collapsed.
Looking at the onslaught facing Raila, Khalwale says he is only receiving what he has dished out before.
"He is being paid in the same coin," he says. "Raila only works for himself. It can’t be that he is more sinned against than sinning. He is very cunning and behaves like the proverbial hare."
I did not say thatBy inference, the man is all that Mr Phantom is not: an untrustworthy radical, divisive, too many enemies, a dictator, and a persistent liar...Gaitho dialogues.