By Jerry Okungu
Nairobi, Kenya
May 3, 2012
Hon Musalia Mudavadi my friend cannot do this to me. He cannot embarrass me this much and expect me to keep quiet. I must warn him that this time it will not be business as usual.
I have always held Musalia in high esteem and he knows it but when he tries to con me and the rest of Kenyans, I must protest in the loudest terms possible. It is the beauty of the new constitution. It has given ordinary Kenyans the authority to interrogate their leaders.
Mudavadi purports to have resigned from ODM, as Deputy Party leader and as the Minister for Local Government. However, he is clinging to his parliamentary seat in Sabatia and Deputy Premier citing some vague clause in the accord. I have a problem with this day light conmanship.
Mudavadi knows as I know that if you resign from the party that took you to parliament, you must lose your parliamentary seat and seek reelection on your new party. You cannot resign from your party and sit pretty; not if you want to be taken seriously.
The reason why Mudavadi is clinging to his Sabatia seat fraudulently is because he knows that his deputy premier’s job hinges on that seat. At least that is what the Coalition Accord says. It is the reason he must seek reelection on a UDFP so that he automatically loses the deputy premier job. He cannot have his cake and eat it at the same time.
Mudavadi may have relied on strange advisors to follow Uhuru’s script when Uhuru resigned his Finance portfolio but retained the deputy premier’s job. Uhuru’s case was different. He resigned the Treasury job because he was facing a criminal case in The Hague. He did not resign because he differed with the party that appointed him DPM. In fact Uhuru is still a proud member of PNU which is headed by Kibaki the appointing authority of the PNU wing of government. Had he differed with KANU and PNU and resigned from both, he would have been fired as Gatundu MP on the spot. That is why he did not resign from KANU as late as last week during that party’s National Delegates Conference. He is in Parliament because of KANU and is the Deputy Premier courtesy of PNU.
The reason why Musalia must surrender the ODM seat in Parliament is simply this: his new party, UDFP did not exist in Kenya in 2007 and therefore did not sponsor him or any other politician to parliament. He must take the moral courage to be the first UDFP MP in parliament if he wants to be Kenya’s fourth president or if he intends to be taken seriously by Kenyans. That is what Raila Odinga did in December 1996 just a year before the 1997 general elections.
As a serious presidential candidate, it is important that he stops behaving like some mannerless ODM renegades that have formed their own parties but have dreaded the day they will resign from ODM. The reason the renegades cannot resign is because they know it deep down in their hearts that they are unlikely to return to parliament. More importantly, they know resigning will automatically make them lose their parliamentary seats.
Mudavadi resigned from ODM citing lack of democracy in that party. He resigned because he wanted a fair and transparent nomination process. He wanted nominations at the county level and not at the National Delegates Conference at Kasarani because the latter would be rigged by Raila Odinga.
However, it was comical to see the DPM give his “nomination acceptance speech” at the KICC. When did the UDFP carry out its grassroots nominations for its presidential flag bearer? Was the good Musalia actually running away from competition? This must be the stuff cowards are made of.
Those who want to lead Kenyans must be honest men and women that Kenyans can trust. It is a tragedy that this country has more political charlatans than it can afford. A few good men are hard to come by.
Now we know why Mudavadi wanted ODM to amend its constitution first then submit its forms for registration later to the Registrar of Political Parties. The man knew that the process of the amendment of the constitution would take at least 60 days whereas the deadline for registration of political parties was 14 days away.
Under the circumstances, he was acutely aware that if ODM succumbed to his demands and delayed registration, he would jump ship to his UDFP once ODM was deregistered! How dishonest and crafty can some people be when it comes to ambition for power!
Where is the Musalia who promised Kenyans that he would fight for the ODM nomination and that if he lost fairly, he would support Raila and if he won, Raila would support him? Where is Musalia who pledged that he was in ODM to stay? That Musalia has disappeared into thin air never to be seen again!
And what was that song about at Musalia function? Did I hear some tune that sounded like Harambee, Harambee Tuimbe Pamoja? Was it a KANU revival or a home coming for KANU children that were sent into exile during the 2002 tsunami?
If indeed it was a gathering of KANU hawks under another name; it was good they gave the second liberation soldiers ample warning. KANU kleptocracy must never be allowed back into our social fabric in our life time. Bitter memories are still haunting us. Nyayo torture chambers are still fresh in our memories.
jerryokungu@gmail.com
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