2013 MoU between Raila and Kalonzo no longer binding, says Orengo

Members of NASA Technical Committee tasked with naming a joint presidential candidate by the Opposition led by co-chairs, Siaya Senator James Orengo (centre), Nambale MP Sakwa Bunyasi (left) and Elvis Abaka (member) address a press conference in Nairobi on March 16 2107 alongside other officials to update on progress made in picking a presidential candidate.The team announced talks are in progress and soon a suitable candidate will be unveiled.[PHOTO DAVID NJAAGA/STANDARD}

The Memorandum of Understanding between ODM leader Raila Odinga and Wiper’s Kalonzo Musyoka in 2013 was never deposited with the Registrar of Political Parties.

National Super Alliance (NASA) coordinating committee co-chairman James Orengo yesterday said the document, which held that Raila was to govern for only one term and allow Kalonzo to fly the flag in 2017, was now water under the bridge.

Mr Orengo, who drafted the document, was categorical that it’s only him and the two co-principals who knew the contents of the MoU.

“The document was never deposited with the Registrar of Political parties. If it was, then it could be a public document that anyone can request and get,” he said.

TORCH BEARER

Yesterday evening, Orengo and his co-chair Sakwa Bunyasi (Nambale), representing Amani National Congress (ANC) in the committee, maintained that the committee would soon pick the coalition’s flag bearer.

Just hours after Kalonzo delivered his nomination papers as the Wiper flag bearer, Orengo and Bunyasi moved to assure their supporters that all was well and  every candidate was positioning himself.

According to Orengo, the national coordinating committee is the only organ mandated to brief principals and the public on the progress of the team and anybody else making comments are only doing so at a personal level.

“We are on course with the work of the committee and any other person out there making comments is only expressing their own opinion,” said Orengo.

Bunyasi, an ally of Mudavadi, said the committee was working on a winning formula and that all the preliminaries of the coalition agreements had been finalised.

Although Bunyasi and Orengo failed to disclose the modalities they were looking at, the duo insisted that there was no pressure to name the candidate since no one had handed in his papers to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

“What we should do is to have a winning formula. There are modalities we are working on,” said Bunyasi.

He added that NASA had planned a political rally in Kitengela this Sunday that would bring together Mudavadi, Kalonzo Wetang’ula (Ford Kenya). Raila is out of the country and is expected back later in the week.

Report by Rawlings Otieno, Thandiwe Yego and Hillary Orinde