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Forget Luhya support, region leaders tell former Premier

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2020 00:00 | By
Kanduyi MP Wafula Wamunyinyi (centre) with other party members from Western region address the press in Nairobi on Sunday after they staged a move to oust Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula as Ford Kenya leader. Photo/PD/Hillary Mageka

George Kebaso, Hillary Mageka and David Musundi

The controversial ouster of Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula as Ford Kenya leader took a new twist yesterday after Amani National Congress (ANC) party leader Musalia Mudavadi told Opposition chief Raila Odinga to forget support from the Luhya community for  allegedly perpetually working against the region’s political interests.

Mudavadi and about 20 other elected leaders affiliated to the two parties yesterday accused the Opposition supremo of hatching a scheme to keep the community “perpetually divided and in disharmony” in order to use them as ladders to climb to the top.

“As leaders from Western Kenya, we are perturbed at the incessant efforts to keep our region perpetually divided and in disharmony.

There are those who think we are ladders that they can use to climb to the top. These have formed themselves into an axis of evil, seeking to ruin our destiny as a people,” they said, adding that “enough is enough”.  

They accused Raila of being behind Saturday’s attempted ouster of Wetang’ula as Ford Kenya leader and warned him to forget any support from Western region, which is dominated by the Luhya community.

They also blamed him for de-whipping of Kiminini MP Dr. Chris Wamalwa as the National Assembly Minority Whip whose position was given to Kimilili MP Eseli Simiyu.

The leaders, who converged at Wetang’ula’s Karen home, also warned Luhya leaders supporting “outsiders” without the community’s consent of digging their own political grave.

Community interests

The leaders singled out Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) secretary-general, Francis Atwoli, Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya and Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa who they claimed are working with Raila to sabotage the community’s interests.

“We don’t want to be coerced but to be persuaded by logic, and not by the gun on the table.

We will make decisions on who to associate with or who to support for political positions,” Mudavadi said and called on the community to be clear on its destination.

Wetang’ula specifically took issue with Luhya leaders who have decided to continue following political leaders from outside the community, warning them that the train has already left the station.

“The train has left and if you are not part of it, you are politically doomed,” he said.

Earlier in an interview with People Daily, Mudavadi said Raila has a habit of entering into coalition agreements and breaking them at will.

“But, if you develop a pattern or habit that you can enter into coalitions or agreements and break them at will, it will only be a matter of time and people will come to a conclusion,” he said. 

Elsewhere, allies of Wetang’ula strongly opposed the purported  change guard at the party and warned that those involved would  pay dearly for their careless moves.

“The recent move by Cotu boss Francis Atwoli in hosting some leaders from Western Kenya at his IIdamat home in Kajiado County was a culmination of all these clandestine moves to destabilise the party,’’ said Nominated MCA Margaret Wanjala.

Speaking to the People Daily in Kitale Town, Wanjala who was accompanied by Cherangany Ford Kenya chairman Nicodemus Milimo, said the move threatened to completely kill the party founded at the height of the clamour for multi-party democracy. 

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