Mwahima to ditch ODM in 2017 election
MP Masoud Mwahima with his supporters at his home in Likoni, Mombasa, last week. Mr Mwahima on Sunday, January 10, 2015 he said he will defend his seat on a JAP ticket in 2017. PHOTO | KEVIN ODIT | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
Mr Mwahima caused a stir last week when he was photographed leaving State House, Mombasa, with an envelope in which there was a sizeable brick of what he described as job applications from his constituents.
Mr Mwahima claimed that ODM was plotting to deny him the party ticket in next year’s election.
Mr Mwahima described ODM leaders whom he did not name as “crafty fellows”.
Mr Masoud Mwahima, the Orange Democratic Party MP for Likoni, has ditched his party and announced that he was moving to the Jubilee Party.
Speaking by phone from his Vyemani home in Likoni on Sunday, Mr Mwahima claimed that ODM was plotting to deny him the party ticket in next year’s election.
“I want to announce that next year, I will defend the Likoni parliamentary seat on a JAP ticket and I am telling my opponents, whoever they will be, that I will win early in the morning,” he said.
The MP, who at one time served as councillor and mayor of Mombasa, claimed that Orange House was plotting to bar him from getting an ODM ticket and had already “planted” three candidates in the area including Mombasa Woman Rep Mishi Juma Mboko.
“They are trying to put a snare on the biggest trap maker. I am telling them that they cannot succeed in their plan,” he said.
Mr Mwahima said that some ODM “lieutenants” in Mombasa County had approached him to convince him to remain in the party but he declared: “I have made up my mind and will not look back”.
“Baada ya kugundua kwamba nimehama na washaumia, wameanza kunifuata kuniuliza oooo, kwanini umehama…tafadhali baki hapahapa (After realising I have quit and that this will be a disadvantage to them, they have started coming to me asking why I have gone and convincing me to remain),” he said.
CRAFTY FELLOWS
Mr Mwahima described ODM leaders whom he did not name as “crafty fellows”.
According to him, despite his support for the Opposition party “my people have not tasted sugar or fruits”.
Mr Mwahima caused a stir last week when he was photographed leaving State House, Mombasa, with an envelope in which there was a sizeable brick of what he described as job applications from his constituents. He later denied claims that the envelop contained money.
On Sunday, asked whether President Uhuru Kenyatta’s stand that squatters on the Waitiki Farm pay the Sh182,000 despite local leaders including Mwahima appealing for a waiver would affect his popularity in the area, Mr Mwahima said it would not.
“Even though the President said the squatters must pay the Sh182,000, he gave them an easier option where they will pay in 12 years instead of three. That means Sh1,000 a month which is quite reasonable,” he said.
He said that he stands with the President on the matter and was optimistic that the over 7,000 beneficiaries of the allocations will reap big benefits.
Addressing the public at Shikaadabu Grounds on Saturday where he issued 5,000 title deeds to the occupiers, President Uhuru Kenyatta maintained that they must pay the money that will be refunded to the Settlement Trustee Fund (STF) which bought the land on their behalf.
Local leaders including Ms Mboko, Kwale Woman Rep Zainab Chidzuga, Mr Mwahima, Jomvu MP Badi Twalib, Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir and Kisauni MP Rashid Bedzimba among others had earlier at the meeting appealed to the President to waive the fee.
After successful negotiations between President Kenyatta and the land owner, Mr Evanson Waitiki Kamau, at State House Nairobi last month, which he attended, Mr Mwahima came out singing praises to the Jubilee government.
