ANC woos Ababu, says leading coalitions have failed Luhya community

Amani National Congress (ANC) party has welcomed Budalangi MP Ababu Namwamba to join it following his resignation from the Orange Democratic Party.

The Musalia Mudavadi led party said it is ready to absorb all Luhya politicians who feel frustrated in both ODM and Jubilee.

The party invited disgruntled politicians to cross over and help the party leader ‘build a progressive political agenda for the region.’

“Ababu and the other leaders who have been frustrated and marginalised in ODM are unconditionally welcomed to ANC if they are uncomfortable in ODM because it is their natural home,” the party said in a statement.

In the statement issued barely a week after Mr Ababu’s resignation as ODM secretary general, ANC hit out at both Cord and Jubilee, accusing them of taking advantage of the Luhya community.

(READ: Ababu quits ODM post, says Raila betrayed him)

“Jubilee and Cord are ideologically the same in the eyes of the Luhya people. It does not matter what the leadership of the two coalitions do between now and 2017. The writing is on the wall,” said the party’s secretary general Godfrey Osotsi.

After months of speculation about his political standing, Mr Namwamba resigned last week from his ODM post frustration within the party and betrayal by the party leader Raila Odinga.

He said he would tender his letter of resignation this week.

His resignation from the party position came barely a week after another Luhya leader, Funyula MP Paul Otuoma, had announced his resignation as the party’s national vice chairman.

Unlike Mr Namwamba, Mr Otuoma said he remained a committed member of the ODM party.

ANC said both ODM and Cord have miserably failed to represent the interests and aspirations of the community and cannot be trusted with the community’s votes in another election.

“The continued acrimonious exit from ODM by key leaders from the Luhya community was confirmation that ODM has miserably failed to represent the hopes, interests and aspirations  of Luhya community and that it is a party that specialises in political posturing and gerrymandering with no clear and long-term tangible agenda,” Mr Osotsi said.

(READ: Ababu hints at forming third political force)

The ANC secretary general said their exit has come at a time when the Luhya community was reflecting and soul-searching following a series of recent political events.

“The truth is that ODM has failed as a trusted and genuine champion of the interests and aspirations of the Luhya people. In fact they cannot account for the massive votes they got from the Luhyas across the country,” said the party official.

On the other hand, Mr Osotsi said Jubilee coalition had “perfected the two-community hegemony and discrimination and cannot be trusted by Luhyas.”

The ANC secretary general told the two political coalitions to stop interfering with Luhya politics, claiming both were applying divide and rule tactics.

“Cord and Jubilee should leave the region to chart  its own political destiny without undue interference through archaic divide and rule tactics, intimidation and political propaganda,” he claimed.

He said Mr Mudavadi had accepted Mr Namwamba’s apology for ignoring him in the 2013 election and choosing to support Mr Raila Odinga instead.

“Mudavadi has acceptedthe apology. The same sentiments have been expressed in various ways by senior leaders who have left ODM since 2013,” said Mr Osotsi, who argued that it is Mr Mudavadi who took most of the past and current ODM leaders to ODM.

“It is not too late to rejoin him in his efforts to restore progressive political agenda for the region and the country as a whole,” he said.

(READ: Raila fights to retain western Kenya backing)