ODM party leader Raila Odinga will have to reorganize his plans to enter the White House in the run-up to the 2022 general election, after his allies in the NASA coalition disbanded him, and the Jubilee party suspended its alliance process.
In a move that left him alone as presidential politicians continue to organize, his allies at NASA announced that they would withdraw from the coalition to form another, One Kenya Alliance (OKA), which they will use in the 2022 general election.
In the 2017 general election, Mr Odinga sided with Kaliper Musyoka of Wiper who was his running mate, Musalia Mudavadi of Amani National Congress (ANC), Moses Wetangula (Ford Kenya) and Isaac Ruto of the Mashinani Party (CCM) in the National Union. Super Alliance (NASA).
Mr Musyoka, Mr Mudavadi and Mr Wetangula have teamed up with Kanu chairman Gideon Moi to form OKA, a coalition that they say will form the next government. On Tuesday, the three said that in order to formally form the OKA coalition, their parties would withdraw from NASA.
“On the issue of the NASA alliance, we Ford Kenya, Wiper and the ANC would like to emphasize that we are not backing down from our commitment to the success of the One Kenya Alliance in partnership with Kanu and other like-minded parties,” they said.
“All we know now is that NASA is part of our history,” they said. The announcement of the parties came a day after the Jubilee party suspended talks with the ODM, saying it wanted to reorganize.
“Right now, we are planning our party to be strong before we talk about the union,” said Jubilee deputy general secretary Joshua Kutuny. Yesterday, ODM party chairman John Mbadi confirmed that talks to form a coalition with Jubilee had been called off.
However, he said ODM will continue to promote itself in the form of participatory coalition strategies. “We are currently strengthening the party across the country in anticipation of a return to negotiations on the union,” said Mr Mbadi.
It emerged that the ruling party’s decision to suspend talks with the orange party stemmed from the stance of some of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s allies who feel that Mr Odinga is not popular in the stronghold of the Mount Kenya Jubilee party.
Mr Odinga differed with his fellow NASA allies after excluding them from talks with President Uhuru Kenyatta that led to a compromise with the BBI, which aimed to change the constitution before it was put on hold by the Supreme Court.
Although he has not announced his candidacy for the 2022 general election, his fellow NASA officials have vowed not to support him in the election, saying he has betrayed them.
The political leaders accused Mr Odinga and the ODM of violating the NASA agreement by not allocating funds to political parties and refusing to support one of them in the upcoming general elections. Kenya claims that NASA did not win the 2017 general election.
Mr Musyoka, Mr Mudavadi and Mr Wetangula have rejected calls to revive NASA to have the power to win the 2022 general election, a situation that political analysts say leaves Mr Odinga in a difficult position. in isolation from NASA and efforts to reunite with Jubilee hit a rock while the BBI hit the brakes.
I think it is a difficult situation that he has not experienced since 2002, ”said political analyst Evans Obwaka. According to him, this is a scandal that Mr Odinga could skip over as the 2022 general election approaches.
