Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua has accused the Kalonzo Musyoka-led One Kenya Alliance (OKA) of blackmailing presidential hopeful Raila Odinga with the aim of weakening his quest for the presidency.
Dr Mutua, the leader of Maendeleo Chap Chap, said the push to have a ‘three-legged-stool’, comprising Jubilee, ODM and OKA, in the coalition instead of four to include smaller parties is risky.
The coalition, Dr Mutua said, should accommodate everyone for the sake of stability.
He also said the confusion being created by OKA could aid Deputy President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza alliance.
“Anyone opposed to the expansion of Azimio and who wants only a three-legged stool of three parties to be in charge and disregards everyone else must have plans to blackmail and entitlement,” Dr Mutua said in a statement.
“A three-legged stool can collapse if one of the legs breaks off. A four-legged one will still stand.”
He added: “This political selfishness is the problem that we have faced in this country of leaders and opportunists who whine and blackmail all the time and who put their personal interests and not those of wananchi first.”
Dr Mutua’s remarks come a day after OKA sent a protest letter to the Registrar of Political Parties, alleging that the coalition document submitted on April 9 had been altered.
OKA said changes to the document to have a fourth leg in the coalition, expand the council from the initial seven to 11 members, and have smaller parties involved in discussions about the running mate position were not part of the deal they had made.
Mr Odinga had made the three concessions to accommodate smaller parties, after the Dr Mutua-led Mwanzo Mpya caucus protested their exclusion from the original deal-making table.
In his statement, Dr Mutua says that since the coalition has more than 20 political parties, they will not allow others to be excluded, urging the former Prime Minister not to give in to OKA’s demands.
“I urge Raila Odinga and the other players in Azimio not to bow down to blackmail and extortion but to stand firm in championing … democracy, inclusion, politics of transformation, wealth creation and peace and stability in Kenya,” he said.
Dr Mutua says that because Mr Odinga was endorsed as Azimio’s flag-bearer in a democratic process, his running mate will have to undergo the same process to establish what kind of value the person brings on board.
“We endorsed Raila Odinga via a democratic process of delegates and we felt that the seat of his running mate should also be processed through a democratic process that brings everyone together for acceptability and effective motivation for campaigning,” he said.
Dr Mutua also said Azimio operations had been slowed down by incessant demands from their new political allies, OKA.
“We were all working well together in the spirit of Umoja before the document that OKA is insisting to be reinstated. The document was creating a power base of only three parties – Jubilee, ODM and Wiper excluding all the other parties of Azimio from effective and democratic participation in Azimio,” he said.
With Mr Odinga having moved to quell tensions in the coalition, Governor Mutua says they do not agree with OKA’s push for zoning. BY DAILY NATION