Raila Odinga fooled other Nasa chiefs on oath — Barrack Muluka
What you need to know:
- Malala said the co-principals had until end of this month to prepare to be "sworn in" or forget their positions as co-leaders.
- Last week, Dr Khalwale criticised Mr Odinga for going ahead with the oath even after agreeing not to do so.
Rifts within the National Super Alliance deepened on Wednesday when a top Amani National Congress official accused opposition chief Raila Odinga of reneging on an agreement to meet his fellow principals before going to Uhuru Park for the January 30 "oath".
Mr Barrack Muluka, the ANC secretary-general, claimed that Mr Odinga threw his colleagues into a spin when he appeared alone at Uhuru Park despite an agreement to meet at one of the principals’ houses before the event.
Mr Muluka sensationally claimed that Mr Odinga had asked his three fellow principals Kalonzo Musyoka, Musalia Mudavadi and Moses Wetang’ula to switch off their phones and wait for his call using a Nigerian number.
2022 AGREEMENT
The call, Mr Muluka claimed, took long to come, and when it did it failed to answer the questions the trio asked.
“The principals were not foolish, and they did not switch off their phones. When one of them called, and put Raila on speaker, he said I am marooned and he was asked by who? And he said, ‘these people’.
"He was asked, marooned by police or the military? He quickly said, ‘I will call you and tell you how we can meet.’ He then he left for Uhuru Park,” Mr Muluka told Citizen TV on Wednesday night.
Mr Muluka, a political commentator, wondered why Mr Odinga has not parted ways with his co-principals if they really betrayed him that day.
“Raila knows, in the name of God, that what I’m saying is the truth. Somebody is looking for space to wiggle out of the coalition’s agreement about 2022,” he said.
“We are not cowards. Somebody wants to make the victim look like the villain.”
REFORMS
On Thursday, Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala dismissed Mr Muluka’s comments as a scheme to divert attention from the opposition’s push for reforms.
“Mr Muluka is such an inconsistent liar who has nothing new to say and should not be taken seriously,” Mr Malala said in Kakamega.
Senator Malala challenged Mr Muluka to explain why it had taken him so long to come up with the story on how the Nasa co-principals were allegedly duped by Mr Odinga to skip his "swearing-in".
Mr Malala said the co-principals had until end of this month to prepare to be "sworn in" or forget their positions as co-principals.
“If they are not ready to be sworn in, we will not recognise them as Nasa co-principals. We in Nasa will not be derailed from our crusade for electoral reforms, fight against police brutality and the strengthening of the Constitution and Judiciary,” he said.
JUSTICE
In his interview, Mr Muluka also stirred debate about 2022 politics.
“I have to tell the country the truth. The Nasa agreement states that the party that produced [a] presidential candidate in 2017 will not present presidential candidate in 2022. Trying to demonise people as cowards and betrayers is wrong,” Mr Muluka added.
Mr Muluka’s sentiments are likely to jolt Nasa more, just a few days after Ford-Kenya deputy party leader Boni Khalwale termed Mr Odinga’s mock oath as a “non-issue”.
Last week, Dr Khalwale criticised Mr Odinga for going ahead with the oath even after agreeing not to do so.
Mr Edwin Sifuna, ODM Secretary-General, declined to comment on Mr Muluka’s remarks. But last week, he had criticised Dr Khalwale for his comments.
Wiper deputy secretary-general Peter Mathuki called on the Nasa parties to “move on” from the swearing-in and focus on electoral justice.
