Mudavadi fury with Uhuru over defections

By MOSES NJAGIH

A war of words erupted between Musalia Mudavadi’s United Democratic Forum and Uhuru Kenyatta’s The National Alliance after a defection bid turned sour.

A group of UDF councillors from Vihiga County travelled to Nairobi to defect to TNA, but their bid was scuttled after they failed to meet Uhuru.

News of the planned defection sparked an exchange between the two parties with UDF accusing TNA of throwing money at its supporters to win them over, a claim TNA promptly denied.

Mudavadi is aspiring for the presidency under UDF while Uhuru is TNA’s frontrunner in the race to State House.

UDF did not take well what it saw as an effort by TNA to undermine Mudavadi politically right in his home county and its response revealed a strained relationship between the two parties.

According to the script from UDF sources, Uhuru was on Wednesday allegedly scheduled to meet the councillors and other aspirants from Vihiga County only for the planned meeting to abort.

Some of the councillors in the group were still stranded in Nairobi on Thursday, while others had to travel back after the DPM failed to meet them

Although TNA refuted the claims the councillors had an appointment with Uhuru, the civic leaders insisted they took the long journey from Western Province to TNA’s citadel only after they were assured Uhuru would meet them.

Interestingly, TNA officials warned Mudavadi it would not stop seeking supporters from any quarters and advised him not to panic, as he was free to do the same.

The coordinator of the defection mission, Mr Peter Achila claimed TNA Secretary General Onyango Oloo personally confirmed the appointment and urged him to supervise the leaders’ journey.

“It was on the strength of the promise that we travelled. We waited for almost the whole day, without attention only for Oloo to show up at 3pm to tell us Uhuru could not meet us as he was meeting Ruto (William),” said Achila.

Achila claimed Oloo urged them to return back to Vihiga on the promise he would schedule another appointment for them with Uhuru but did not offer to reimburse them the cost of their journey back.

By Thursday some of the councilors who could not raise fare for the return trip after their aborted mission were still stranded in Nairobi.

But Oloo denied Achila’s claims, insisting he was not even aware the councillors were coming to the TNA offices.

“I was involved in other activities at the Registrar of Political Parties when I was told the councillors were in the office. I was told they wanted to defect to TNA,” said Oloo

“They did not have an appointment, and if they did, it was not done through my office,” insisted Oloo.

The incident drew criticism from Mudavadi’s campaign team who accused TNA and Uhuru of “attempting to steal from a friend” and using their financial muscle to play unorthodox political games.

Mudavadi’s Director of Communication Mr Kibisu Kabatesi complained TNA was engaging in mischief by trying to raid Mudavadi’s turf, through their power of money, but said the move would fail.

“TNA must not imagine that money will buy them support. For every unorthodox action there surely will be a chain reaction and regrets. You cannot steal from a friend,” said Kabatesi.

But TNA dismissed Kabatesi and urged him not to panic because Uhuru’s team intends to raid the strongholds of rival presidential aspirants as well.

“We are not sparing any area in our campaigns and our competitors, be they friendly parties or not, should brace for our onslaught,” said Oloo.

The TNA official said UDF should outlive the “ancient politics” where some areas were considered no-go zones for their rivals.

“We have much respect for other leaders, but we will visit even their homes to seek support. Nobody should feel threatened by that,” said Oloo.

He said it was ironical for UDF to accuse Uhuru of raiding Mudavadi’s turf, yet TNA has campaigned in regions perceived as strongholds of other presidential aspirants without complaints.