Account for Sh2 million before you decamp, party tells Imanyara

THE Chama cha Uzalendo wants Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara to account for more than Sh2 million allocated to the party by the government before he shifts his allegiance to the Orange Democratic Movement. “The party has its account at the Commercial Bank of Africa but Imanyara has gone ahead to open a parallel account with the Co-operative Bank of Kenya on behalf of the party, where all the money from the Political Parties Fund are directed. We have raised this issue with the Registrar of Political Parties. Let him sort out these issues before he decamps to wherever he wants to go,” said Bwanamaka on Tuesday.

The party also dismissed Imanyara’s decision to join forces with Prime Minister Raila Odinga ahead of elections as a ''selfish idea''. Bwanamaka said Imanyara would have instead consulted the party officials for a possible coalition rather than joining a lobby group in the name of Friends of Raila. “CCU confirms that it cannot be belittled by such a selfish move as we are already on stage to work with other political parties on equal parties. That is why we are so much concerned with issue-based politics and not politics of personal gains,” said Bwanamaka in a statement.

But Imanyara denied the claims and insisted that CCU is one of the parties that are compliant with political parties’ law. “I don’t sign cheques for withdrawals. There is the party treasurer responsible with that and I think that is the right person to talk about the issue of money. I cannot engage Bwanamaka personally because there are party organs to do so,” said Imanyara on the phone.

He also said that the party had provisions that allowed any member to support a presidential candidate of his choice by the fact that CCU does not have a presidential candidate. “We have provisions that allow members to support presidential candidates of their choice and I don’t think this is an issue. We did the same in 2007 and the same thing I am doing now,” Imanyara added.

He told off Bwanamaka over what he termed as his failure to even register 1,000 members from Mombasa County in the just concluded political party recruitments. Imanyara joined Fora, lobby group that will be steering Raila’s agenda to the electorate in the upcoming elections He has been handed the deputyship of the lobby group and promised to work with Raila to ensure that the forces of opportunism and backwardness do not succeed, adding that it is only Odinga who is suitable to succeed Kibaki. Imanyara was elected to parliament in 2007 on a CCU ticket but he has been seen occasionally supporting the ideas and to the extent voting with ODM in parliament.