‘Its too late to apologise’, Jumwa snubs Raila’s second chance

Malindi MP Aisha Jumwa has turned down ODM leader Raila Odinga who said she would be spared expulsion if she apologised to the party for being disloyal.

The second-term MP intimated that she had already tendered her apology when she appeared before the Party’s National Executive Council meeting when she and her Mswambweni counterpart Suleiman Dori were summoned to respond to allegations of undermining the party by appearing to publicly back Deputy President William Ruto’s 2022 presidential bid.

“Between February 2 and March 1, I personally pleaded and begged for an opportunity to explain myself and apologise but I was told that there is no room until the National Governing Council sits and deliberates on the matter.”

She recalled how ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna rubbished a request by her lawyer Kipchumba Murkomen, in which he sought to represent Jumwa and Dori as they appealed the NEC decision recommending their expulsion on grounds they did not get a fair hearing.

“I have questioned the process from the word go because it was flawed, but no one listened. As things stand today, Aisha Jumwa has been expelled from the party but what astonishes me more is that my party leader Raila Odinga was present when the NGC resolution to pardon Dori but expel Jumwa was being read. The other day, Kilifi Governor Kingi gave a chronological account of how Raila failed to live up to his word to block Jumwa’s expulsion.”

“I have also met Mzee, not once but on more than three occasions and each time he pledged that the process will not go on if Jumwa apologised to the Disciplinary Committee, not thump her chest and the rebellion matter would go away,” she told a news conference at Parliament Buildings.

Kilifi North MP Owen Baya who is also a member of the NEC called for the party organ to be reconvened and reconsider Jumwa’s matter.

“I do not think that the NEC leadership briefed the party leader well, because what Dori said in that meeting is what Aisha said, but in this case Dori was pardoned but Aisha was not. I would request that NEC reconvenes taking cue from what the party leader has said.”

“In the spirit of what Raila Odinga said, I don’t think that he wanted a public apology in the media. I think he wants the due process of the party to be followed and I think that is what we will do,” said the Kilifi North Legislator.

Jumwa remained adamant that she would not follow in the footsteps of Dori who survived expulsion after he apologised for his “misdeeds” against the party.

This comes as the Political Party Disputes Tribunal extended orders barring the Orange party from executing the expulsion order until May 7. 

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