Westlands MP Tim Wanyonyi Wetangula, is leading other ODM legislators in campaigning for the Party’s candidate in Embakasi South by-elections.
The campaigns for April 5 by-elections in Embakasi South and Ugenya constituencies have begun in earnest with ODM ruling out any coalition arrangements before the 2022 general elections as it seeks to reassert itself.
The two parliamentary seats fell vacant after the Supreme Court on December 21, 2018, nullified the August 8, 2017 election of MPs Christopher Karan (Ugenya) and Julius Mawathe (Embakasi South) on grounds that they were not validly elected.
Speaking at a Church in Nairobi’s Embakasi South constituency yesterday, Tim Wanyonyi, who led seven ODM MPs in a campaign for former MP Irshad Sumra, dismissed the existence of the Nasa coalition, saying that it died on January 30 when Mr Odinga was crowned the people’s president in a mock swearing ceremony at Nairobi’s Uhuru Park.
The ‘swearing-in’ ceremony was boycotted by other Nasa leaders; Amani National Congress (ANC) leader Musalia Mudavadi, Kalonzo Musyoka of Wiper and Ford Kenya’s Moses Wetang’ula, who supported Mr Odinga’s presidential bid in the August 8, 2017 election.
“Nasa coalition died on January 30, 2018. If we have to make any coalition, it must be after the general election in 2022. We must assert ourselves as a party,” Mr Wanyonyi spoke at Christ Cornerstone Church in Mukuru Kwa Reuben.