With the 2018 truce between President Uhuru Kenyatta and rival Mr Raila Odinga providing a strong political foundation, talks to create a broader unity pact with various parties and leaders continue.

With 77 MPs in the National Assembly and 20 senators, seven of who are nominated, the ODM party leader has played a central role in driving the President’s agenda in Parliament, including the ongoing purge in the Senate leadership whose latest casualty is Kindiki Kithure, who was ousted last Friday as the deputy speaker.

Noting his party leader and the President “are buddies”, Mr Mudavadi’s aide claims those who want him to join the “lynch mob” fear the ex-VP will spoil the party from outside, “hence the spirited dirty attempts to soil his relationship with the President”.

With 14 MPs in the National Assembly affiliated to his party – 13 elected and one nominated – and three others in Senate, Mr Mudavadi remains a crucial player in the President’s succession matrix including pushing through his agenda in Parliament.

Since his declaration in November 2018 during his father’s funeral that he was ready to be President Kenyatta’s “mtu wa mkono (errand boy)”, the former VP has moved with speed to formalise his working relations with the Jubilee Party leader.