Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka is a man walking on a tightrope along Kenya’s slippery politics, with the clock ticking fast towards the 2027 General Election.

He might have a chance to carefully tread this delicate walk by weighing in on the ongoing selection of new members of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and critical electoral reforms Kenyans are demanding before the polls.

And he has already seized the opportunity provided by the reconstitution of the IEBC to emerge from the larger-than-life shadow of the doyen of opposition politics, Raila Odinga, who has been at the centre of past shenanigans surrounding the IEBC.

As the de facto opposition leader – after his two-time 2022 presidential election running mate essentially abdicated that role by joining his arch-rival President William Ruto – Kalonzo is carrying a heavy burden on his shoulders.

Millions of Kenyans are looking for a new figure to wear Raila’s big shoes, and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader’s unexpected political swivelling pulled the rug from under Kalonzo’s feet.

For his past running mate loyalty and humility of deferring his personal political ambitions, Kalonzo and his allies naturally expected Raila to “pay back” the honoured favour and endorse his declared ambition for the top seat in 2027.

To his dismay and shock of many opposition diehards, there would be no such deal. What does one say when an intimate ally you faithfully served as partner in two gruelling presidential elections abandons you for the rival you have been jointly challenging?

After being denied a third opportunity as the 2022 running mate for Raila in preference for Martha Karua, the Wiper chief had to accept the political downgrading in the hope of a senior position in the anticipated Azimio la Umoja government that was never to be.

Ruto’s shock victory after a bitter campaign and the disputed election that ended up with a petition thrown out in the Supreme Court upended Kenyan politics and remains the subject of cries for electoral justice and IEBC reform.

Kalonzo’s predicament is complicated by a new entrant that has swiftly moved in alongside him to equally occupy the space left by Raila – the powerful Gen Z youth whose huge popular mass protests jolted Ruto’s government to the core.

Inasmuch as he says that he joined Ruto with key allies to steady the ship of national stability rocked by Gen Zs, and that part of his heart is still with Kenyans yearning for change from an unpopular government, many find it difficult to buy this argument.

The repercussions of the countrywide Gen Z movement protests are being felt to date, fuelled by the brutal human rights violations that accompanied them on top of the catalogue of ills the young protesters enumerated in taking their battle to Ruto.

Kalonzo’s dilemma is that the Gen Z and a fresh crop of pro-democracy and anti-establishment figures still lump him together with the “old school” politicians that millions of Kenyans are asking to exit the stage for the emerging “third liberation struggle”.

Kalonzo must therefore reinvent himself in these changing dynamics of Kenyan politics. His only path to relevance lies in robustly sustaining his recent piercing statement on the reconstitution of the IEBC.

That may serve the dual purpose of endearing him to the new political wave and also upstage the formidable Raila-Ruto “collabo”.

— The writer comments on political affairs; albertoleny@gmail.com-