Rifts in ‘Yes’ camp as VP heckled

Cracks have emerged in the Yes camp over campaigns for the proposed Constitution after Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka was heckled at a weekend rally at Uhuru Park.

Mr Musyoka says ODM is behind the hostile reception, adding that PNU was considering abandoning the joint Yes rallies and holding their own.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga, however, played down the issue, saying the campaigns were not a party affair.

“This is about the (new) Constitution, it is not about 2012,” Mr Odinga said on Sunday, without directly referring to Saturday’s heckling.

“We’ll have joint rallies and have other rallies separately. We can’t all be at the same place at the same time (campaigning for the proposed law])” he said after attending a church service at All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi.

The Yes team plans to hold 20 rallies before the referendum.

Politicians led by President Kibaki and the PM received a rousing welcome, with the principals being applauded when they stood to speak.

Mr Musyoka was, however, forced to cut his speech short when the crowd booed him.

Addressing journalists at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on his way to Iran on Saturday night, Mr Musyoka said intelligence reports indicated ODM was behind the heckling.

Wiper slogan
He said PNU plans to conduct separate rallies from those of ODM and dismissed claims by Higher Education minister William Ruto, who is leading the No campaign, that he is on their side.

Addressing a No rally in Machakos on Saturday, Mr Ruto, who was accompanied by ODM-K chairman Samuel Poghisio, also conveyed the VP’s “greetings.”

But an agitated Mr Musyoka said he and his party ODM-K are firmly in the Yes camp and that he did not send any greetings.

“They shouted wiper (ODM-K slogan) and gave the impression that I had sent my greetings,” Mr Musyoka said.

The VP, who was accompanied by MPs Mohammed Affey and Emilio Kathuri, said: “The rally showed rifts in the grand coalition are still prominent. One would think it was an ODM rally, yet the President, who was in the frontline, had wanted to tell Kenyans about the positive things in the draft.”

He said he wanted to tell Kenyans about the establishment of the Supreme Court but was stopped.

Former Starehe MP Maina Kamanda, who worked with Regional Development minister Fred Gumo to organise the rally, said he could not tell if the booing was organised.

Mr Kamanda, however, said the situation could have been worse if the organisers had not intervened before the rally and urged local leaders to control their supporters.

Despite the heckling, Mr Kamanda said both ODM and PNU leaders in Nairobi will continue holding joint rallies.

He termed Saturday’s rally as “very successful given that we only had two days to organise it.”