Mudavadi, Wetangula take swipe at Raila

Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula dancing with ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi during Maragoli cultural festivals at Mbale on December 26, 2018. [File, Standard]

ODM leader Raila Odinga came under sharp criticism by his coalition partners Musalia Mudavadi and Moses Wetang'ula over an alleged political betrayal.

Mr Wetang'ula accused Raila of political dishonesty and for allegedly using and dumping his partners at every election cycle.

Speaking last week during the launch of his autobiography Soaring above the storms of passion, Mudavadi also took a swipe at the critics of his book in an apparent response to Raila, saying they should write their versions of the political scene.

Raila had discredited the content of the book and dismissed Mudavadi as suffering from “memory lapses”. Wetang'ula talked of how ODM betrayed him by ousting him from the Senate Minority Leader position, which was later taken up by Raila ally and Siaya Senator James Orengo.

“I will never forget when our partners started to realise that we are not as valuable as we should be and things became messy and noisy … you stood with me unconditionally,” said Wetang'ula.

He went on to add: “We don’t need a country where friendship is based on convenience, short term gains and quick fixes, where we use friends and leave them at every twist and turn,” he added.

The Ford Kenya leader also hit out at Raila over his “memory lapses” remarks against Mudavadi, saying the former premier was worse in forgetting things.

“Please read the book and don’t pick a paragraph and start hurling insults that Musalia has memory failure and the person who is saying that has a history of memory failure,” he charged.

In the book, Mudavadi seems to suggest that the NASA management committee that identified Raila as the coalition’s 2017 flag-bearer may have been influenced from behind the scenes.