Ford Kenya boss Moses Wetang'ula and his ANC counterpart Musalia
Mudavadi address the press in Bungoma town on March 25, 2018. PHOTO |
JARED NYATAYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
By WYCLIFF KIPSANG
Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula on Sunday gave up the fight to
retain Senate minority leader’s
position, but promised his opponents in the House as well as Orange Democratic Movement leader Raila Odinga a bruising political battle.
position, but promised his opponents in the House as well as Orange Democratic Movement leader Raila Odinga a bruising political battle.
The Ford-Kenya leader was
last week ousted as minority leader by National Super Alliance senators
in favour of his Siaya counterpart, Mr James Orengo of ODM.
During
a news conference in Bungoma town on Sunday — attended by, among
others, Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi — Mr Wetang'ula
said he would not attend the coalition retreat called by Mr Odinga to
iron out the differences that led to his removal.
IRREVERSIBLE
“What is there to be discussed?” he asked.
“I will not participate in the retreat because it will be like a goat subjecting itself to a court of hyenas.”
On the Senate seat, he declared: “Wakae nayo, ahsante. (Let them keep the seat, thanks.) We shall give them small but lethal doses.”
On
Saturday, Senate Minority Whip Mutula Kilonzo Jnr told the Nasa
leadership to keep off the affairs of the coalition’s senators, and
declared that Mr Wetang’ula’s removal was irreversible and it was “not
the worst thing” that has ever happened to the opposition alliance.
UNREPENTANT
The
mood within the coalition seems to have left the Bungoma senator with
no option other than to throw in the towel before he is humiliated for
the second time should the retreat take place.
He,
however, remains unrepentant, and was categorical on Sunday that he did
not beg for the Senate minority seat in the first place.
The
decision to give him the position, he pointed out, was made by his Nasa
co-principals as one of the ways to maintain the synergy of the
opposition in the House.
BARKING DOGS
When
voting out Mr Wetang’ula on Tuesday, Nasa senators said he had a
condescending attitude, and that he had described their attempts to
impeach him as “the barking of dogs” yet he could engage with “the owner
of the dogs”, apparently referring to Mr Odinga.
“We
put all our resources and energies to this enterprise but we’ve nothing
to show as the mulembe nation,” he said during a press conference at
Bungoma Club, using the opportunity to attract the sympathies of the
western voters by castigating Nasa.
“I’ve been branded as an embattled leader. Let me declare here and now that I’m very much at peace with myself.”
REHEARSED
He termed the Nasa summit in which the efforts to reconcile him with the senators flopped a talk shop.
“I
thought the status quo would be reaffirmed but was subjected to name
calling and humiliation. The statements made in the meeting seem to have
been cleverly rehearsed to embarrass me,” Mr Wetang'ula said.
Besides
fellow Nasa principal Mudavadi, others at the briefing were Bungoma
Governor Wycliffe Wangamati, former Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale, MPs
Wafula Wamunyinyi (Kanduyi), Eseli Simiyu (Tongaren) and Ayub Savula
(Lugari).
SIDELINED
Mr
Mudavadi faulted talks between Mr Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta
for sidelining other Nasa co-principals, saying the country needed “a
constructive, broad-based, all-inclusive dialogue”.
Nobody has exclusive rights to negotiate,” he said.
“Canaan yetu si Harambee House, bado tunaendelea mbele (the Canaan we promised Kenya is not Harambee House; we are still soldiering on.”
In
Machakos County, Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka preached unity, saying it
was possible to register Nasa as a political party without the
constituent outfits losing their identity.
FRIVOLOUS
“Time
has come to register Nasa as a party without dissolving Wiper, ODM, ANC
and Ford-Kenya,” he said on Saturday during a thanksgiving ceremony in
honour of Machakos Woman Representative Joyce Kamene.
Had
Nasa been registered as a party, Mr Wetang’ula would not have been
ousted, Mr Musyoka said, adding that the reasons advanced for the
removal of the Bungoma senator were frivolous.
He admitted the coalition was experiencing internal problems but expressed optimism that all would be okay.
PARTIES MERGER
“I
know there is a lot of bitterness and a lot of suspicion but I will do
as much as I can to hold us together,” Mr Musyoka said, adding like Mr
Wetang’ula and Mr Mudavadi, that dialogue should be all-inclusive and
not a Raila-Uhuru affair.
But as Mr Musyoka was talking
of registering Nasa as a party, Mr Mudavadi was hinting at plans for
western Kenya parties to merge and form a formidable political outfit
ahead of 2022 elections.
“Other regions have done it. I don’t see the reason we should not do it,” he said.
“We, as western leaders, stand with Mr Wetang’ula.”
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