An ominous assignment stands in the way of the Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi as the ruling Kenya Kwanza coalition prepares on to identify its candidate in the November 27 Malava parliamentary by-election.

All attention is now on Mudavadi and the ruling Kenya Kwanza Alliance where he is a key stakeholder as the outfit prepares to pick its candidate this Saturday.

Four UDA aspirants are seeking the party’s nod to run for the seat.

Attempts to get the quintet to reach consensus and rally behind one of them floundered after each of them stuck to their guns, leading to the weekend nomination following prolonged pussy-footing that yielded no results.

The by-election was occasioned by the death of area MP Moses Malulu Injendi on February 17 this year.

Malulu, a third-term Member of Parliament was re-elected in 2022 on Amani National Congress (ANC), a party then led by Mudavadi.

Save for UDA, all the other parties intent on taking part in the contest have already selected their contenders.

The adamant UDA aspirants are West Kabras Member of County Assembly (MCA) David Ndakwa, lawyer Leonard Shimaka, teacher Simon Kangwana and Malulu’s son, Ryan Injendi.

The fifth aspirant in the person of former Bungoma High School principal Dr. Enock Andanje died early last month.

Waiting in the Opposition wings for the UDA candidate are management consultant and former senior lecturer at the Kenya School of Government (KSG) Caleb Sunguti, lawyer Edgar Busiega Mwanga of the Democracy for the Citizens Party (DCP), fiery secretary-general of the Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) Seth Ambusini Panyako of the Democratic Alliance Party of Kenya (DAP-K), Dr. Enock Makanga of the Jubilee Party, Samuel Tsimbelwa Wesukarii of the United Democratic Party (UDP) and  Joab Manyasi of the Democratic National Alliance (DNA).

Mudavadi has for the last two months been pushing for the UDA case in Malava where he urges the aspirants to rally behind the one who will secure the ticket in order to earn the ruling party a landslide victory.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has set the deadline for party nominations on November 12 and the by-election date for November 27.

The UDA nominations have been reduced to a clan contest with Ndakwa and Shimaka fighting for the vote of the populous Abashuu clan they hail from while Ryan is banking on the support of the Abasonje clan, the second most populous ethnic composition among the Kabras sub-tribe.

DCPs Busiega also comes from the Basonje grouping.

Kangwana is from the Batali clan. Two other aspirants from that community have since fizzled out.

Even as the UDA nomination day approaches, all eyes are on Mudavadi to whom an enormous task has been placed in his native Western Kenya to deliver the Malava seat, given that besides the late Malulu having come from his ANC party, he is also the senior most State official from the region, ranking third in the pecking order after the President and the Deputy President.

Malava constituency has always had a soft spot for Mudavadi over the years, having given him the highest number of votes countrywide when he ran for the Presidency in 2013 and giving Kenya Kwanza Alliance and President William Ruto the highest number of votes in the 2022 General Election.

Mudavadi’s ANC has since folded and merged with Ruto’s UDA and it now remains to be seen as to whether he will still hold sway and deliver the seat to the ruling coalition.

Last weekend, National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula told a fundraiser for persons with disabilities that the Kenya Kwanza Alliance’s top leadership had reached consensus that since Malulu was a member of ANC, the coalition’s candidate in the forthcoming by-election should be a person with roots from the same ensemble.

Pundits now argue that in addition to clannism, the battle in UDA is basically between Ndakwa and Rhyan since the former was elected on an ANC ticket while the latter’s deceased father was also voted in on the same party, with the civic leader being tipped as the most placed to bag the parliamentary seat if handed the ticket.

The observers contend that apart from his experience as a second-term legislator at the county level, Ndakwa stands a better chance of rallying his populous Abashuu clan behind him before going to seek for votes elsewhere while on the other hand, Ryan would have to share his with Busiega, thus leaving UDA in a very vulnerable position.

Mudavadi who doubles up as the Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs is a close confidant of President Ruto.

He is considered as the leading political player from the Western region, having joined politics and the Cabinet in 1989 at the age of 29 . It is the reason much of the attention in the countdown to the by-election is now focused on him.

Since July, Mudavadi has been holding rallies and strategic meetings both in the constituency and at his offices in Nairobi to chart ways of securing the seat.

In those consultative meetings, he is usually accompanied by Higher Education Principal Secretary Dr. Beatrice Inyangala’ who hails from the area, his Chief of Protocol Joe Busiega who also is a native of Malava, Vihiga Woman Representative Dr Beatrice Adagala, Shinyalu Member of Parliament Fred Ikana and UDA vice-chairman Kelvin Lunani.

President William Ruto’s personal assistant Farouk Kibet has on the other hand been making frequent forays in the constituency, sometimes on his own while on other times accompanying Mudavadi, Wetang’ula or Bungoma Governor Ken Lusaka.