Ford Kenya party leader Moses Wetang’ula’s fate as Senate Minority leader will be known today when the NASA Principals meet.
And it all depends on whether Raila Odinga will prevail on his party’s senators to retreat from replacing him. Yesterday, they remained adamant on changing the leadership, accusing Wetang’ula of being a stumbling block to the Senate’s agenda.
Raila last week told Wetang’ula and his NASA co-principals Kalonzo Musyoka and Musalia Mudavadi that he was not party to the plot to remove him as Minority leader.
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Raila met Wetang'ula on Saturday and Kalonzo on Sunday and reportedly told the two that those plotting the Ford-K leader’s removal were doing so behind his back.
“He told the two that he does not support the move and that he was not aware of the plot,” said a source familiar with the discussions.
Yesterday, the three co-principals were in Kitui West, campaigning for Wiper candidate Edith Nyenze in the forthcoming by-election. Kalonzo described Wetang’ula as the glue that holds NASA in Parliament and rubbished plans to dethrone him from the Senate perch.
He repeated that he and his co-principals had been assured by Raila that Wetang’ula would not be removed. He said Raila was expected but could not join them due to bad weather.
On Thursday, Wetang’ula survived being kicked out by a whisker, after Speaker Kenneth Lusaka temporarily suspended the move, ruling that he needed official communication from the NASA coalition’s chief executive officer.
The ODM senators had wanted to replace him with his Siaya counterpart, James Orengo, and accused him of arrogance and excluding them from Senate activities.
Yesterday, Kiminini MP Chris Wamalwa told the Star that all was well in NASA and that the Summit will sort out the issue today. “There is no cause for alarm,” he said.
“We are telling all our supporters that NASA is intact."
But Weta will be on tenterhooks today as the senators have vowed to replace him when they meet this morning. Yesterday, a meeting called by some senators to firm up their plan ahead of today's NASA Summit failed to take off as some were said to be held up out of Nairobi for weekend activities.
Only 10 of the 27 Senators were in Parliament
yesterday
for the meeting. ODM has 20 Senators, while ANC and Wiper both have three each. Wetang’ula is the sole Ford Kenya senator.
Homa Bay’s Moses Kajwang’ told the Star that Wetang’ula’s ouster was informed by the new political dispensation and that ODM is keen on having a leader who is supportive of the Raila-Uhuru unity mission.
The three co-principals have openly questioned the talks and demanded to be included.
“We have a new political dispensation and we have decided to take an active role in Parliament.
You remember after the election we have been boycotting Parliament: We have never been clear whether we are in Parliament or not.
“Now we are clear we are in and we need a leadership at the Senate that will push a robust agenda and facilitate realisation of whatever accord is reached between Raila and Uhuru Kenyatta,” said Kajwang’.
Wetang’ula’s ouster will be the only agenda in
today’s meeting, according to a communication sent to the senators and seen by the Star.
Siaya Senator James Orengo is poised to succeed Wetang’ula as the Senate Minority Leader, if the plan succeeds.
The Star has also established that Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala will take over from Orengo as the Deputy Minority leader in the Senate.
Malala – a rebel ANC legislator – has been working closely with ODM and Raila and is among the few ANC lawmakers who attended the controversial Raila swearing-in on
January 30
at Uhuru Park.
Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jr will be retained as the Minority Whip with ODM nominated Senator Beatrice Kwamboka as his deputy in place of ANC’s Petronilla Were.
A number of legislators yesterday claimed the Bungoma Senator had ‘grown horns’ and was not involving ODM in the Senate leadership, despite the party sacrificing the lucrative position for him.
“He is full of ultimatums to Raila and has been talking badly. Even recently he said the divorce is going to be very ugly,” added another senator.
The Star has established that discontent against Wetang’ula has been building for months over what is perceived as his uncooperative leadership. Senators who are the only legislators without a fund they control have been pushing to have one established in the league of the CDF (MPs) and the Action Fund for Woman Reps. As a consequence, individual senators cannot operate or oversee the functioning of their home county governments, unless they do so as a group on tour.
An attempt to set up one to facilitate their oversight role was shot down by MPs in the last Parliament.
Soon as the new senators were sworn in, the setting up of the fund became a priority of the Senate Business Committee. Four successive meetings have been held to advance the mission, but Wetang’ula is said to have dismissed efforts by his colleagues, including a plan for the Senate leadership to meet the President to lobby for Treasury to include the fund in the Budget.
Last week, he walked out of the SBC meeting chaired by Speaker Lusaka, and when reminded that his boss had signed a deal to work with government, Weta reportedly retorted that Raila was not his boss. Angry senators across the board then decided they had had enough and informed the NASA leader of their plot to do away with him. They mobilised and met on Wednesday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel to plan his removal the next day.
The source wondered why Wetang’ula, who visited France last month as part of the Senate leadership, which included the Jubilee team, has been hostile to working with the same colleagues in the House.
“Have you seen how angry he is every time he talks on the floor? Every time he has to be forced to apologise or withdraw remarks,” one senator added.
An ODM senator who did not wish to be named said
they want Wetang'ula out before the NASA Summit meets this afternoon. “We have to take over the Senate leadership, which we have made up our mind must be changed,” he said.
Last Friday, two principals — Kalonzo and Musalia — threw their weight behind Wetang’ula as “the Official Leader of the Minority in the Senate”, in a joint statement.
“We are privy to the position taken by the NASA principals and that is why we are moving with speed to show him the exit door before we appear before our Principals,” said one senator, insisting on anonymity.
Last week, 20 out of NASA’s 27 senators signed in favour of Wetang’ula’s ouster, surpassing the required two-thirds majority by two.
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Yesterday Bungoma Governor Wycliffe Wangamati and Ford Kenya party Secretary General Eseli Simiyu asked ODM to pack up and leave NASA, instead of causing confusion in the coalition.
The two leaders said that since ODM has decided to work with Jubilee, it should not make it hard for the remaining three parties to function.
The two were speaking on Monday at Naitiri in Tongaren constituency, when they opened a Sh13 million dispensary sponsored by Safaricom and the CDF.
They said Wiper, Ford Kenya and ANC can still play the role of the Opposition effectively and ODM should allow the remaining coalition partners to play their part.
"We have heard what Siaya Senator James Orengo has been saying that whatever the agreement that was reached between Raila
and Uhuru should not be interfered with. So let them leave us alone," said Simiyu.
The Tongaren MP accused ODM politicians of doublespeak since the Uhuru-Raila handshake that seems to be tearing the NASA coalition apart.
“What national unity are
they talking about when they are plotting to kick out a senior Luhya leader from his Senate seat? They cannot have their cake and eat it," said Wangamati.
Simiyu accused Jubilee of planning to make Kenya a de facto one-party state and promote dictatorship.
Wangamati said that the national dialogue must be inclusive and ODM’s actions were therefore in bad taste.
He said Ford Kenya would hold a National Executive Council meeting in Nairobi today to discuss the matter.
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