Mudavadi party hits back at ODM

ANC Party Leader Musalia Mudavadi speaks to the party aspirant for Kibra’s November 7 by-election Eliud Owalo at Onduso PAG Church in Kibera. [Collins Kweyu/Standard]

Amani National Congress has said it's not interested in ODM's support for its party leader Musalia Mudavadi's presidential bid, escalating the row between the National Super Alliance partners over the upcoming Kibra by-election.

Amani Secretary-General Barrack Muluka said NASA only existed on paper, while reacting to ODM's warning that Mudavadi had squandered the chance of getting ODM's backing to be named 2022 compromise presidential candidate.

Orange party leaders have accused Mudavadi of betraying the NASA spirit by fielding Raila Odinga's former aide, Eliud Owalo, as the ANC candidate for the Kibra seat left vacant following the death of Ken Okoth.

The ODM leaders made the claims at a campaign meeting in Kibra on Tuesday for their candidate Bernard Okoth.

Muluka, however, said ODM is dishonest as it fielded a candidate against Wiper's Julius Mawathe in Embakasi South.

He said the Constitution allowed them to field a candidate for the city parliamentary seat, arguing they contested against ODM in various seats in the 2017 elections.

Muluka accused ODM of using fellow NASA partners and likened the relationship between it and its coalition partners to that of a horse and horse-ride. He said they would not allow ODM to use them.

“ODM isn’t going to choose for the other coalition partners when it is convenient for them to invoke the name of NASA, and at all other times they behave contrary to what the coalition agreement said,” Muluka told The Standard.

“My brother Mudavadi, you waited for Raila’s call during his swearing-in ceremony. Why didn’t you wait for his call this time round?” ODM chairman John Mbadi posed.

According to Muluka, ODM should not lament their decision to field a candidate for the Kibra race, arguing that they too had fielded candidates in other areas considered to be their coalition partners’ strongholds.

“They refused to support Mawathe in Embakasi South. They even took him to court when he won the seat. And then when the by-election came, we sat down and attempted to discuss. They refused and fronted Sumra,” said Muluka.

He accused ODM of betraying them by swearing in Raila on January 30, 2018, despite agreeing to drop the mock swearing-in ceremony in a meeting before the event.

 

Muluka said that Raila went behind their backs when he met Uhuru leading to the March 2019 handshake, adding that Jubilee had in fact betrayed NASA by fielding a candidate in Kibra.

“If ODM should be complaining against a partner that betrayed them in Kibra, that partner is Jubilee,” he said.

Jubilee nominated McDonald Mariga to vie in the November 7 by-election despite claims by some of its leaders that they would not field a candidate in solidarity with the handshake.

A section of Jubilee leaders had also protested the choice of Jubilee to field a candidate, vowing to support ODM.