Ford Kenya leaders want party leader Moses Wetangula to cut links with ODM leader Raila Odinga. Ford Kenya leaders accused ODM of belittling their boss following attacks on Wetangula by ODM MPs led by minority leader John Mbadi.
Led by Emmanuel Waswa, Trans-Nzoia County assembly minority leader, they claimed ODM leadership has turned heat on Wetangula after the recent handshake between the Bungoma senator and Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa.
“We are asking our party leader to cut links with ODM leadership. Raila should forget about Western vote because he has no respect to our leader,” said Waswa. They told off Mbadi and his group, accusing the ODM leadership of betraying the political course of the opposition.
“Raila and his soldiers should stop attacking Wetangula. It is the ODM leadership that betrayed NASA’s political course and not Wetangula,” said Daniel Kaburu, MCA for Sinyerere ward. They accused ODM of betraying other parties in NASA, calling on ODM MPs to stop the excitement following the handshake between Raila Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta.
They accused Raila of disowning and humiliating Wetangula despite the latter’s support in last year’s general election. “Raila and his allies have decided to underrate Wetangula. Our party leader has sacrificed for the sake of Raila quest for power and it is regrettable that the latter is not appreciative,” said Motosiet MCA Bernard Muganda.
National Super Alliance (NASA) legislators have cautioned Ford-Kenya leader Moses Wetang’ula against linking Opposition chief Raila Odinga to his ouster as Senate minority leader. They termed his sustained attacks on Raila unwarranted.
Subsequently, the legislators have issued a 48-hour notice to all Ford-Kenya leaders holding House positions to dissociate themselves with Wetang’ula’s claims or face the coalition’s wrath. Led by National Assembly Minority Leader John Mbadi (Suba South), Minority Whip Junet Mohammed (Suna East) and Senate Deputy Minority Leader Cleophas Malala (Kakamega), the leaders faulted Wetang’ula for allegedly using any forum available to disparage and undermine Raila.
“Senator Wetang’ula’s leadership was rejected by colleagues. He threatened that the divorce was going to be messy, noisy and chaotic. Let me ask Kenyans, did you hear any noise or see chaos? This is a classic example of someone talking to himself,” said Mr Junet.
He scoffed at claims by Wetang’ula that the latter was a principal when he could not secure even a vote from the 29 senators to defend his seat. Mr Mbadi dismissed allegation by Wetang’ula that Raila was not a team player. “We know Wetang’ula is very annoyed after he lost the (Senate) minority leader’s seat. He is throwing tantrums.
He should accept and move on. He is a person on the path of emotional destruction by the day,” said Mbadi. Speaking at Parliament Buildings, with a number of MPs from Wetang’ula’s backyard, the leaders said the senator should be the last person to talk about betrayal. ”If Wetang’ula leaves NASA, the Western region will remain intact. NASA is an idea, not individual which decides whether it exits or not,” said Malala.
Malala made reference to leaders like Edwin Sifuna (ODM secretary), Godfrey Osotsi (nominated), Justus Kizito (Shinyalu) and Raphael Wanjala (Budalang’i), who, he said, still carried the NASA mantle. He laughed off recent handshake between Wetang’ula and Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa as synonymous with a “marriage of two men that cannot bear children”.
Mr Wanjala, Senator Beatrice Kwamboka (nominated) and Mr Osotsi dared Wetang’ula to leave NASA. Osotsi accused Wetang’ula of not being a team player and claimed he was opposed to the formation of NASA and inclusion of ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi. “He fought the formation. Raila had to talk to him before he could agree.
Now he is pretending to be more NASA than us,” said the MP. Wetang’ula has lately accused three “prominent” Kenyan families of monopolising the country’s leadership. During an interview with a local TV station on Tuesday night, Wetang’ula was asked why he chose to exit NASA, to which he responded: “Certain communities think that leadership should oscillate and rotate around them. Everyone knows that there are families; the Mois, Odingas and Kenyattas, who must be at the centre of everything. There are some of us capable of running this country”. His remarks follow a pronouncement he made in Machakos last week that the coalition, of which his party is a member, was moribund.