Opiyo Wandayi: I have no regrets for blowing whistle in Parliament

Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi says he will not apologise for whistling down President Uhuru Kenyatta during the State of Nation address in Parliament.

In an interview with the Daily Nation in Kisumu on Sunday, the lawmaker said opposition MPs and senators resorted to whistling after exhausting all avenues for dialogue with the government.

Several ODM lawmakers were ejected from the assembly on the orders of Speaker Justin Muturi.

A defiant Wandayi said the “Firimbi Movement”, as the group now fashions activism against “the ills of the Jubilee administration”, would grow stronger with time.

The ODM political affairs secretary said the government had not given the opposition a chance to speak on matters affecting Kenyans.

“The movement has been born out of the fact that all possible avenues for dialogue have been closed in and out of Parliament,” said the Ugunja MP.

“Parliament has deliberately chosen to gag us. We saw that there was need for an alternative approach which would allow Kenyans get the message of the real state of the nation.”

The lawmaker said even as Parliament opens tomorrow without him, he would be comfortable to have passed the message that the House “is not a church or mosque where the priest’s word is the law”.

“Parliament is not a place where you go and listen to the preacher and leave without asking questions about the sermon. It has to be known by all that the place is a house of debate; a battle theatre,” said the MP.

“Standing orders are not God’s Ten Commandments. They have to be applied judiciously and pragmatically to encourage debate on national matters.”

He blamed Mr Muturi for acting on behalf of the government.

“The speaker must know that we talk on behalf of the people who sent us to Parliament. They ask us questions whose answers can only be sought from the floor of the House,” said Mr Wandayi.

The first-time MP said he made the choice of leading the protests “since there is no other place where Kenyans can say things as they are to the powers-that-be”.

“It was like a suicide mission. But we did what had to be done. How can the government know that if it doesn’t provide opportunities for discussion?” he asked.

Mr Wandayi dismissed the notion that he was sent by his party leader Raila Odinga to whistle at the President.

Mr Odinga has supported the action of the Orange MPs.

“I’m a well-educated man. I was not instructed by anybody to whistle. We only get instructions on party positions,” said Mr Wandayi.