Why Cord turned around and saved Ababu by a whisker

The Cord leadership rallied its members in the Public Accounts Committee to rescue chairman Ababu Namwamba when they sensed a bigger plot by Jubilee Members of Parliament to install their preferred person to the position.

The Sunday Nation has learnt that Raila Odinga made frantic calls to his co-principal Moses Wetang’ula from Brussels, Belgium, where he was at the time, and told him to do all within his power to save the ODM secretary general from imminent Armageddon on Wednesday.

This was barely 24 hours before the committee took a vote to decide Mr Namwamba’s fate in the committee.

Mr Wetang’ula, who is also the Senate Minority Leader, then met Cord members of the committee and passed the message from Mr Odinga.

According to two committee members, it is on the strength of this that some ODM members initially bent on voting out Mr Namwamba changed their minds, saving him.

Suna East MP Junet Mohamed, a committee member, found himself in a tight spot after reports emerged that he might have voted against his Secretary-General.

“I voted to keep Mr Namwamba on his seat. I have learnt to keep my loyalties to the party and its cause at all times and cannot be used to further the political ends of those who have issues with Mr Namwamba,” he said.

It was a grand scheme by individuals said to be working at the behest of powerful forces in government to install a Jubilee-friendly chairman from ODM because, being a watchdog committee, the seat belongs to the opposition.

When the plan was unearthed, it ceased to be an integrity issue, like it had appeared all along, and instead, became a political game where any inaction on the Cord side would have meant playing into enemy hands — that is, Jubilee Alliance — Cord reasoned.

Bribery complaints by committee members against Mr Namwamba then took a backseat and were drowned by political maneuverings.

The Sunday Nation learnt that Cord leaders initially opted not to be drawn into the “committee wars”, viewing them as “domestic” fights that could be dealt with internally. But then a supremacy contest between the government and the opposition took over.

Mr Odinga stepped in after members disowned a planned party group meeting to ease the noose on the lawmaker.

It later turned out that the short text message (SMS) which had summoned MPs to the meeting did not originate from the party whip in the National Assembly, Mr Thomas Mwadeghu.

Mr Namwamba was accused of sending the messages.

'A LOT OF BACKSTABBING'

Ijara MP Ibrahim Abass, accused by some in ODM of working with external forces to dislodge the PAC chair, said: “I was never interested in the seat; and our leaders in the National Assembly knew as much. I told them the party leadership could just propose a name to replace him.”

Also pointing a finger to some within his party for being behind his woes, the beleaguered PAC boss said: “I was a general caught between the fire of my rogue soldiers and the enemy’s firepower. There was a lot backstabbing and I am glad it is over.”

In another subplot of the PAC circus, Mr Namwamba is also accused of inter-alliance instigation.

According to one ODM MP who sits in the committee, in an attempt to win their support or sympathy, Mr Namwamba told Jubilee members that he was a victim of individuals in his own party who were out to tame his rising political star.

When with Cord MPs, ironically, he allegedly tells them not to fall for a plot by the government to undermine the “good work” of the opposition.

We also learnt that Mr Namwamba intends to file copies of audio recordings as official documents of the National Assembly. This is part of the “evidence” he presented to members during the meeting to demonstrate that they had collected bribes in the course of discharging their duties. 

Meanwhile, things may never be the same again in the committee, with ODM chairman John Mbadi, who is also a member of the committee, and other MPs, saying they would start a process to have the PAC team disbanded and reconstituted.