Mudavadi rules out talks with ODM

Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi has ruled out a pre-election coalition deal with ODM, saying that his United Democratic Forum party was careful with whom it entered into alliances with.

However, he said that a committee had been formed to work out a coalition agreement with Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper Democratic Party.

But the move might complicate the talks, given that the Wiper party has recently been warming to Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement. (READ: ODM lauds Kalonzo for ditching G7)

Mr Mudavadi fell out with his former boss in ODM when he ditched the party to run for the presidency.

“We are open to alliances with other parties, but we are very careful when selecting the parties we enter into coalitions with,” Mr Mudavadi said.

Ideals and agenda

He said his party would not consider some of the advances by some of the parties that are seeking to enter into a coalition with it.

Mr Mudavadi said UDF would only work with parties whose ideals and agenda mirrored its own.

On Tuesday, the UDF aspirant received members of the Vijana na Raila, a youth lobby associated with Mr Odinga’s election campaign, at the party’s headquarters in Nairobi.

The secretary-general of the group, Mr Shem Otoi, said they had now changed to Youth for Mudavadi, signifying their new allegiance.

Mr Otoi said the Orange party was not responsive to the youth agenda, which apart from forming majority of Kenya’s voting population, had also a long list of grievances top of them being lack of jobs.

Mr Mudavadi also received a delegation of defectors eyeing various seats in Kilifi, Taveta, Kisii and Lamu counties.

They included former Cabinet minister Morris Dzoro, who is gunning for the Kilifi senator’s seat, and former MPs Basil Criticos and Harry Kombe.

Extension of deadline

At the same time, the UDF presidential hopeful called on the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to ensure it stuck to its timetable to register voters, saying that there would be no window for extension of deadline.

He said that the next parliamentary session could be the last for MPs before Parliament is dissolved in January in readiness for the General Election.

“Now that the IEBC has released a timetable for registering voters, it should stick to it as there may be no opportunity to extend the time for the exercise,” he said.

Parliament extended the IEBC timeline for voter registration from 90 days before the election to 60 days due to delays acquiring Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits.

The Sabatia MP also called for thorough investigations into the Baragoi killings in which about 40 police officers lost their lives to suspected cattle rustlers.

He warned that such incidents, if allowed to occur during the electioneering period, could be used to disrupt the exercise and interfere with the country’s democratic process.