Nasa principals to announce flag bearer after three-day retreat

Nasa leaders were putting out fires following unconfirmed reports that the coalition’s technical committee had settled on Mr Raila Odinga and Mr Kalonzo Musyoka as the presidential pairing in the August elections.

The principals met the coalition’s co-ordinating committee at Lilian Towers, Nairobi, to find ways of calming the storm over the allegation that the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader Odinga will fly the opposition National Super Alliance flag with Mr Musyoka as his running mate.

Meanwhile, Nasa’s co-ordinating committee finalised its search for the coalition’s presidential flag-bearer on today.

LEADERS' RETREAT

The 12-man team handed in its report to the four principals at a two-hour meeting with Mr Odinga, Mr Musyoka of Wiper Mr Musalia Mudavadi of Amani National Congress and Ford-Kenya’s Moses Wetang’ula at a Nairobi Hotel last evening.

“The Nasa co-ordinating committee today gave an exhaustive progress report to the summit,” said Siaya Senator James Orengo, the committee co-chair.

“The report was based on the studies and recommendations done by the technical committee.”

Mr Orengo said the summit, consisting of the Nasa quartet, will head for a retreat from April 17 to 19.

“Whatever they decide will then be communicated as the final decision,” said Mr Orengo at his sixth-floor office at Lonrho House, Nairobi.

SIMULATION DONE
A co-principal is said to have called Mr Odinga in the morning to complain about leakage of sensitive information that could unsettle their supporters.

“The matter has raised a storm and it must be dealt with,” said a source in Nasa.

“This is part of the things that have always rocked opposition coalitions in the past.”

A national committee member told the Nation that at a meeting on Tuesday, the technical team conducted simulations on the best pairing for Nasa in the August 8 General Election.

RAILA CANDIDATURE
In the simulations, Mr Odinga ticked the most boxes as the flag-bearer with Mr Musyoka his running mate.

They are said to have presented 12 simulations of the way the vote would go based on combinations of the four principals.

Members of the team voted for the Raila-Kalonzo combination with eight of the 11 present against.

Mr Mudavadi’s representatives Kipruto Kirwa, Captain Abdi Yare Mohammed and Sakwa Bunyasi are reported to have voted against the idea.

Mr Odinga’s representatives in the committee are Kitutu-Masaba Member of Parliament Timothy Bosire and Senators Orengo and Dr Agnes Zani (nominated).

UKAMBANI VOTES
Mr Musyoka was represented by Machakos Senator Johnson Muthama and former National Assembly Deputy Speaker and Garissa Township MP Farah Maalim.

Mr Wetang’ula had the Kakamega Senator, Dr Boni Khalwale, and MPs Chris Wamalwa (Kiminini) and Dr Eseli Simiyu (Tongaren).

The technical committee argued that Mr Odinga would still get 70 per cent to 80 per cent of the vote in western Kenya even without help from Mr Wetang’ula and Mr Mudavadi.

With Mr Musyoka having the Ukambani vote solid behind him, he was seen as the strongest bet for running mate.

REPORT CONTESTED
Some of Mr Musyoka’s supporters, such as National Assembly Minority Leader Francis Nyenze, have insisted that the Memorandum of Understanding between Wiper and ODM in 2013 be honoured.

Mr Mudavadi and Mr Wetang’ula’s representatives are understood to have been unhappy with the assertion that Mr Odinga did not need their support in Western.

But Mr Bunyasi dismissed the report, arguing that the meeting lacked quorum and the technical committee had no mandate to decide the line-up.

“Those were basic simulations, of which there was no quorum,” said Mr Bunyasi.

“The committee is only supposed to present scenarios for the principals and the co-ordinating committee to decide.

“These people who are leaking such information are doing a disservice to the coalition.”

Lugari MP Ayub Savula claimed that members of the co-ordinating committee from one of the parties were leaking information to create a perception that their candidate was the best for Nasa.

“I am telling them to stop because we believe that our candidate is the most experienced,” said Mr Savula. “They should wait until all 12 proposals have been scrutinised.”

THROW OUT PAST ACCORD
Earlier in the day, the Amani team said the past deal with the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord) should remain a non-issue when considering who the Nasa flag-bearer will be.

Former Cherangany MP Kipruto Kirwa, the Amani deputy party leader, said all MoUs made ahead of 2013 by Opposition leaders should be trashed because Nasa is on a new slate.

“It is like forming a new company,” Mr Kirwa told journalists at Amani House.

“You don’t bring in assets and liabilities of a company that no longer exists.”

In 2013, ODM, Wiper and Ford-Kenya formed the Cord alliance and fronted Mr Odinga as flagbearer and Mr Musyoka as running mate.

MISLEADING INFORMATION
But there was also a hastily arranged MoU that supposedly said Mr Odinga would be a one-term President, to be succeeded by Mr Musyoka in 2017 before Mr Wetang’ula picks up the baton in 2022.

Last evening, Mr Orengo accused the media of driving a narrative geared at influencing the committee in its report.

He insisted that the media had got the membership of the technical committee wrong in their reports.

The members, he said, are economist Dr David Ndii, former Mumias Sugar Company chairman Dan Ameyo, Member of the East African Legislative Assembly Abubakar Zein, Mr Koitamet ole Kina and Ms Halima Ali Omar.

By Patrick Lang’at, Aggrey Mutambo and John Ngirachu