Quit if you want, Mudavadi tells NASA leaders

Amani National Congress (ANC) leader Musalia Mudavadi has dared his Opposition co-principals to go it alone if they want.

Mr Mudavadi said the National Super Alliance (NASA) ticket was a collective one through which he was seeking an opportunity to harness the fertile talent and experience within its leadership to make Kenya better.

Mudavadi insisted that NASA was united and none of the four co-principals was contemplating abandoning ship at this critical hour with the August polls beckoning.

"NASA is a people's movement. It is not built on personalities. We may symbolise NASA but we aren't NASA. Anyone who wants to go it alone will truly go alone because that move will not break NASA," he said.

PRESIDENTIAL TICKET

Mudavadi's sentiments come amid fears of rifts over the presidential ticket within the Opposition coalition.

The former deputy premier also said public officers would have to declare their wealth as part of a lifestyle audit should he become President.

"It will be a condition upon assumption of office that we all publicly declare our wealth so the public can continuously audit us throughout our term in office," he said during a morning TV show yesterday.

Mudavadi said he would never "let the eye off the ball on corruption matters" the way President Kenyatta has done.

"We will change the current safeguards that allow archiving of wealth declarations. The public will have access to this information on request," he said, adding this was part of the strength that would ensure that he got the NASA ticket because he offered "trust, honesty and integrity" in leadership.

"Kenya must change from the bad manners of leaders. I offer trust and honesty as a virtue in tackling corruption," said Mudavadi.

He said if experience was the way to win the NASA ticket, then he had it in the bag.

The former Sabatia MP also said sorting out economic problems as Finance minister in the early '90s gave him the advantage of being able to handle the economy from a global perspective as President.

"Cowards don't make the hard decisions I had to make in the Finance docket. I was surrounded by a very hostile political party elite steeped in corruption and the Goldenberg trauma. The Kenya Revenue Authority is my innovation that stopped cartels from stealing tax money."

He said when he was the Agriculture minister, he made tea farmers own factories while in Transport, Information and Communications, he liberalised the sector.

Mudavadi said mobile phones were now cheaply available for the majority of Kenyans because he made the call to establish Safaricom.