The shifting focus to the 2022 election even before the planned
swearing-in and setting up of the Peoples Assemblies could prove to be
an expensive distraction to the National Super Alliance (Nasa).
Despite
current engagements to come up with a foolproof plan to install the
People’s Assemblies across the country and swear-in its leaders — Mr
Raila Odinga and Mr Kalonzo Musyoka — affiliate parties appear to have
started strategising for the next elections.
Nasa is
made up of Mr Odinga’s ODM, Mr Musyoka’s Wiper Party, Mr Musalia
Mudavadi’s ANC and Mr Moses Wetang’ula’s Ford Kenya.
With
the former Prime Minister expected not to vie for presidency in 2022,
as per a 2017 pre-election pact with fellow Nasa co-principals, each of
the principals appears keen to position themselves for the top seat.
Nasa’s
main headache is, therefore, how to tame these individual political
ambitions by encouraging players to focus on the quest for electoral
justice through putting pressure on the Jubilee government.
However, this has not been easy with some coalition partners attacking each other.
PARTY INTERESTS
Terming
them “petty party interests”, one member of Nasa’s technical team, who
spoke in confidence, expressed his displeasure at instances where
officials of member parties were making an individual ambitions in house
committees “a major coalition issue” thereby frustrating Nasa’s main
agenda and unity of purpose.
Mr
Odinga aptly captured these concerns on Friday in Machakos, when he told
the coalition’s supporters to stop putting pressure on Mr Musyoka over
2022 elections.
“Let us first focus on the animal we hunted down in 2017 and thereafter help Mr Musyoka in the 2022 hunt,” he said.
He
was responding to pleas by Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana to hand
over Nasa flag-bearer’s baton to Mr Musyoka, Mr Odinga’s running mate in
2013 and 2017.
Of the three
possible successors of Mr Odinga in Nasa, the two former vice presidents
— Mr Musyoka and Mr Mudavadi — appear to have upped their game in a
quiet scramble for the ticket with their parties holding meetings that
had 2022 on the agenda.
Observers
within Nasa point out that the two are steadily courting the ODM party
leader and are guarded in openly contradicting him.
Mr
Odinga, who has vied for presidency four times, enjoys solid political
support from his Nyanza region rural backyard and across the country in
coast, western, and Nairobi. Parts of the Rift Valley and North Eastern
regions have also remained loyal to him, summing up an impressive vote
basket.
The opposition has also been
preoccupied with remaining intact amid fears of Jubilee luring some
members. The most recent move involves asking legislators to sign an
affidavit in support of the swearing-in.
NEW PARTNERSHIPS
Dubbing “Tangaza Msimamo”
(Declare your stand), Kakamega senator Cleophas Malala (ANC), Nominated
MP Godfrey Osotsi (ANC), Makueni MP Daniel Maanzo (Wiper) and Opiyo
Wandayi (ODM) of Ugunja, say they are targeting Nasa lawmakers to commit
their support for the January 30 swearing-in.
“Some
Nasa leaders and politicians are seemingly not willing to sign our
affidavit but it is coming and they must sign so that we can be able to
separate the chaff from wheat,” says Mr Malala.
Apparently,
Mr Wetangula’s Ford-Kenya is not too enthusiastic about the
Kalonzo-Mudavadi moves for endorsement by the Odinga party. In fact,
deputy party leader Boni Khalwale hints at a possible disengagement from
Nasa altogether “sometime before 2022.”
“First and
foremost, the history of political coalitions in our country is such
that they keep reinventing themselves by joining new partnerships ahead
of the next polls. Similarly I do not see the possibility of Nasa
participating in the 2022 elections in its current formation and with
the same name,” Dr Khalwale told the Nation.
The
former Kakamega senator further maintains that contrary to public
pronouncements by some Nasa principals, the issues of dialogue with
Jubilee Party and the swearing-in of Mr Odinga and Mr Musyoka have not
been conclusively addressed and unanimously agreed upon.
DIALOGUE
“My
position is that dialogue is better than the swearing-in option. And
remember the Jubilee administration has not said ‘no’ to dialogue but
rather there are those among us (Nasa) who are saying they do not want
dialogue,” says Dr Khalwale.
The
sentiments by Dr Khalwale come at the end of a week of multiple meetings
by Nasa principals and denials of divisions in the coalition. Indeed,
some Ford Kenya politicians have in recent weeks attracted scrutiny.
“Look,
who is dilly-dallying on the swearing-in issue and which MPs from our
coalition have openly declared their allegiance to Jubilee?” said a
second-term MP from Nyanza region, who did wish to be named for fear of
being accused of fuelling animosity within.
LOYALTY TEST
The
MP was referring to Ford-Kenya allied legislators from Gusii region,
Richard Onyonka (Kitutu Chache South) and Vincent Kemosi (West
Mugirango), who have said they will work with President Uhuru Kenyatta’s
government.
However, ODM’s Sylvanus
Osoro (South Mugirango) and Wiper’s Ben Momanyi (Borabu) are similarly
opposed to the idea of swearing-in Mr Odinga on grounds that it could
destabilise the country.
Mr Odinga’s
ODM party has also come under sharp criticism from Nasa member parties
for claiming the lion’s share in Parliamentary house committees.
While
the National Assembly’s Leader of Minority, John Mbadi tried to justify
this action by stating that the Orange party accounts for over
two-thirds of the Nasa-allied MPs, there are still murmurs — even within
ODM.
During a recent interview with the Voice of America, Mr Odinga likened the complaints over sharing positions to the scramble for space in a large family.
But
the place of the giant ODM party in the wider Nasa family – with or
without Mr Odinga – is something that will remain contentious in Nasa.
As
long as it continues to enjoy popular support and draw more
legislators, the Orange party will demand to enjoy a relatively bigger
say and share of power.
POPULAR SUPPORT
The
2017 pre-election pact among Nasa parties indicates that other party
members, except ODM, will produce the coalition’s flag bearer in 2022.
In
the meantime, the coalition partners hope to keep the political fire
burning by sticking together using strategies like the “loyalty test” of
signing an affidavit, which partly reads: “I recognise …Raila and
Kalonzo as the President of the People’s Republic of Kenya having been
duly elected by the people of Kenya in exercise of their sovereign power
granted under the Constitution of Kenya (2010)”.
Nasa
strategist, Dr David Ndii, is similarly hopeful that the planned
swearing-in of the coalition’s leaders will help reclaim “Nasa’s
presidential election victory of August 8, 2017, which he claimed the
Supreme Court validated by annulling Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory.
However,
Dr Khalwale’s prayer is that a middle ground shall be arrived at: “When
some of us express our reservations over the swearing-in idea, it is
not that we are traitors but rather we are seeking a middle ground that
is good for us as Nasa and our country.”
No comments :
Post a Comment