Why Nasa chiefs won’t quit coalition

National Super Alliance principals are holding on to the coalition because they fear losing parliamentary leadership positions and committee privileges, the Nation has established.

Amani National Congress (ANC) parliamentary group chairman Ayub Savula said that while they had contentious issues with Nasa, none of the parties was ready to walk away yet.

“We have asked our leader Moses Wetang’ula not to write to the Registrar of Political Parties quitting Nasa so that we remain as a coalition on paper and we retain our positions in House leadership at the National Assembly and the Senate. We have members holding House leadership positions and we need to safeguard them,” Mr Savula said.

CONDEMNATION

Parliamentary committee membership and House leadership positions are given through coalitions while those in committees are seconded by the outfits.

Mr Wetang’ula, the Ford-Kenya party leader and one of the four co-principals of Nasa, on Monday sparked debate about the future of the coalition when he declared it “dead” and vowed to forge new alliances ahead of the 2022 State House race. The comment drew immediate condemnation by Mr Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) which dared Mr Wetang’ula’s MPs to give up all their seats in parliamentary committees and House leadership they hold by virtue of being members of the coalition.

SUPPORT

“If they have left, they should also quit these positions... You cannot whip a coalition you do not belong to,” ODM chairman and National Assembly minority leader John Mbadi said on Tuesday, in comments seen to refer to deputy minority chief whip Chris Wamalwa, a member of Mr Wetang’ula’s party.

Yesterday, Mr Wamalwa, who is also the Kiminini MP, supported Mr Savula’s comments, saying that even with the comments by his party boss, a party “can only move out of a coalition by writing formally to the registrar of political parties.”

“Ford-Kenya is still under Nasa as per the records at the Registrar of Political Parties. The coalition is composed of ODM, Ford-Kenya, Wiper and the ANC, which are recognised by Parliament under the standing orders,” he said.

SECRETARIAT

ANC has also threatened to stop its Sh10, 000-per-member contributions to Nasa and instead channel it to its own secretariat.

“Nasa is a vehicle that has stalled, but it still has the logbook. So we will retain the logbook by having it remain only a coalition in documents, but we will not fuel it. We will re-route the funds we give them to rebrand our own parties,” Mr Savula said, adding that he had MPs from his party and they had agreed to write to the Clerk in both Houses of Parliament to stop deductions to the coalition.

He said he was hopeful Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper and Mr Wetang’ula’s Ford-Kenya will follow suit.

MISTREATED

Mr Mudavadi, the architect of the coalition, and who on Wednesday sought to call his troops to order, has warned against any attempts to withdraw from the coalition, saying such a move could have “serious repercussions which could undermine the support and confidence Kenyans have in the opposition.”

ANC Secretary-general Barrack Muluka said all was not well in the coalition formed in January 2017 and blamed the situation on the January 30 ‘oath’ by Mr Odinga and which was boycotted by the other principals, besides the March 9 peace deal between the ODM leader and President Uhuru Kenyatta, which excluded the other three Nasa leaders.

“The glue that held us together is dry, and perhaps, died when some people went to Uhuru Park to take an oath, which we had agreed together was not going to be taken and the situation has been made worse by the handshake and the sneaky manner in which Wetang’ula was mistreated,” Mr Muluka said.