Arap Moi appoints new VP
Nov 05, 2002
NAIROBI, Tuesday - President Daniel arap Moi, trying to shore up his power-base after key defections from his ruling party, made a youthful political ally his vice-president on Monday, replacing a colleague sacked for disloyalty
NAIROBI, Tuesday - President Daniel arap Moi, trying to shore up his power-base after key defections from his ruling party, made a youthful political ally his vice-president on Monday, replacing a colleague sacked for disloyalty.
Transport and communications minister Musalia Mudavadi, 42, replaces George Saitoti, unceremoniously dismissed in late August after serving Moi as vice-president for 13 years.
Saitoti, who had ambitions to succeed Moi, had been at the forefront of a rebellion last month in the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) over Moi’s preferred choice of KANU candidate at general elections scheduled for December 27.
Mudavadi, named vice-president by Moi’s presidential press service, initially joined the revolt, but later became reconciled with Moi and his preferred successor, political novice Uhuru Kenyatta, who is also 42.
Moi, 78, who has been in power for 24 years, is obliged by the constitution to step down at the polls.
Saitoti and several other former KANU bigwigs quit KANU and joined the opposition National Rainbow Coalition last month on the event of a rally that endorsed Kenyatta as KANU’s candidate for the polls.
The division in KANU, in power for nearly four decades, could boost the chances of a first election win for the opposition and a humiliating defeat for Moi, who took over on the death in 1978 of Jomo Kenyatta, Uhuru Kenyatta’s father.
Mudavadi has held various ministerial portfolios including finance, where he acquired reputation as a hard nosed technocrat. He trained as a land economist.
Former KANU leaders like Saitoti say Moi has chosen Kenyatta, a businessman with scant political experience, so he can manipulate him after retirement and use him as a shield against any attempt to prosecute him for corruption.
Moi denies opposition allegations of corruption.
Reuters
Transport and communications minister Musalia Mudavadi, 42, replaces George Saitoti, unceremoniously dismissed in late August after serving Moi as vice-president for 13 years.
Saitoti, who had ambitions to succeed Moi, had been at the forefront of a rebellion last month in the ruling Kenya African National Union (KANU) over Moi’s preferred choice of KANU candidate at general elections scheduled for December 27.
Mudavadi, named vice-president by Moi’s presidential press service, initially joined the revolt, but later became reconciled with Moi and his preferred successor, political novice Uhuru Kenyatta, who is also 42.
Moi, 78, who has been in power for 24 years, is obliged by the constitution to step down at the polls.
Saitoti and several other former KANU bigwigs quit KANU and joined the opposition National Rainbow Coalition last month on the event of a rally that endorsed Kenyatta as KANU’s candidate for the polls.
The division in KANU, in power for nearly four decades, could boost the chances of a first election win for the opposition and a humiliating defeat for Moi, who took over on the death in 1978 of Jomo Kenyatta, Uhuru Kenyatta’s father.
Mudavadi has held various ministerial portfolios including finance, where he acquired reputation as a hard nosed technocrat. He trained as a land economist.
Former KANU leaders like Saitoti say Moi has chosen Kenyatta, a businessman with scant political experience, so he can manipulate him after retirement and use him as a shield against any attempt to prosecute him for corruption.
Moi denies opposition allegations of corruption.
Reuters