Uhuru, Raila move to calm storm raised by Kalonzo

Party leaders at crisis talks to end wrangling in the coalition on whose ticket Mr Raila Odinga will contest the presidency were told of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s firm message that the bickering has to stop.

At the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition party meeting yesterday, the secretariat’s Executive Director Raphael Tuju reportedly delivered the message from the President, who is Azimio’s council chairman.

President Kenyatta apparently called for an end to the public back and forth and asked them to instead use internal mechanisms to resolve differences.

“It was a thinly veiled but firm statement that once we agreed to enter into the agreement, we must now abide by its rules which are very clear that withdrawal can only take place six months after elections,” a secretary-general who attended the meeting said.

Mr Odinga, through Mr Tuju, called the crucial meeting of secretaries-general of the more than 20 parties within the coalition party to address the latest dispute. The meeting follows a protest letter by Kalonzo Musyoka-led Wiper, over claims of alteration of the agreement deposited with the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties.

In the protest letter by Wiper on Monday, the party raised concerns over the expansion of the coalition party’s caucuses from three to four, increment of the coalition council’s membership from seven to eleven and the selection of the presidential candidate’s running mate.

But in a new twist, Registrar of Political Parties Anne Nderitu yesterday said that whereas she was yet to receive the protest letter, amendments to the coalition document may not be allowed without concurrence among all the member parties.

Holding Azimio hostage

“We are in the review process of the documents but unless they all agree to amend anything on the document, it cannot happen by law,” Ms Nderitu said.

Movement for Democracy and Growth party leader David Ochieng’, a member of Mr Musyoka’s One Kenya Alliance, threw a spanner in the works after he distanced his party from the controversial letter. “We’ve not met as principals of OKA to discuss the content of the letter,” he said.

At the consultative meeting between Mr Tuju and the secretaries-general at Serena Hotel yesterday, the Nation established that some officials accused Mr Musyoka’s Wiper of “holding the Azimio train hostage”.

The meeting almost turned stormy after one official told Wiper Secretary-General Shakila Abdalla that as per the law, OKA ceased to exist when it inked the deal to join Azimio.

“She was taken to task to explain why Wiper was using the name of OKA to rock the Azimio boat when some of his former allies did not sign his protest letter,” an official who spoke to the Nation after the meeting said.

There were also concerns when the secretaries-general of Jubilee and ODM, Jeremiah Kioni and Edwin Sifuna, respectively, failed to attend the media briefing after the meeting, with some officials saying they stormed out. However, Mr Tuju told journalists that the two excused themselves as they had other engagements.

Ms Abdalla, in an apparent concession, said she was glad that Mr Tuju’s forum would in future provide an internal mechanism to settle such issues. DAP-K Secretary-General Dr Eseli Simiyu backed this view. “... thanks to the coming of Raphael Tuju, we will be able to consult more and reach more consensus and work together effectively,” he said.

The meeting came as the Azimio secretariat developed a number of post-nominations strategies it hopes will help keep Mr Odinga’s Western region voting bloc intact. Governor Cornel Rasanga, the Western Regional Co-ordinator, was to review the progress and “put their house in order” after competitive primaries.

Additional reporting by Rushdie Oudia