A section of Muslims in Mombasa have distanced themselves from remarks made by Garissa Township MP Aden Duale, who likened ODM to a cult.
The former National Assembly leader, speaking on the Jeff Koinange Live show on Citizen TV on Wednesday, said there is no democracy in the Orange party. He added that its structures are like those in the Roman Catholic Church – nobody can challenge the Pope.
“ODM is a cult. Nobody can speak. It’s like the Catholic Church. It has structures, the Pope,” Duale said.
On Thursday evening, Muslim clerics drawn from the Kenya Muslims National Advisory Council said Duale’s remarks are dangerous, reckless and insulting to the Catholic Church.
“Those remarks are dangerous and inciting. Duale should not use religion to politic,” Kemnac chair Sheikh Juma Ngao said.
Sheikh Ngao said as a founding member of ODM, he should know better than speak hateful words against the party leader Raila Odinga.
Raila, he said, is a respectable politician who has contributed a lot to the democracy that even Duale enjoys today.
“If it were not for Raila, Duale would have been in jail today because of uttering the very words he did,” Sheikh Ngao said at a press briefing in Mombasa.
He said Islam does not allow Muslims to mock other religions.
“The Catholic Church and Islam have a rich history of unity. Do not soil that history with reckless words,” the Kemnac chair said.
Kemnac vice chair Abubakar Al-Amin said politicians have to learn how to sieve their words, especially as the country heads to a general election.
“The tongue can elicit feelings of resentment and hatred among members of different society. We have to be careful how we address issues,” Al-Amin said.
He said Raila should be respected as a statesman.
“You have to be wise as a leader,” the Kemnac vice chair said.
Sheikh Amir Zani said Raila has changed the history of Kenya and deserves respect, not being likened to a cult leader.
“Duale is a good leader whose leadership is generally good. The problem is the mouth,” Sheikh Zani said.
He said Duale’s speeches are usually full of wisdom but "most often than not, they are usually spoilt at the end because of sneaky words that sour the whole speech".
During the Wednesday evening show, Duale said he was forced to quit the Orange party because of the dictatorial tendencies in it.
“And that’s why I had to leave it in 2009,” Duale said.
ODM chairman John Mbadi, who was on the same show, accused Duale of biting the hands that fed him.
He said it is Raila who nurtured Duale from an ordinary businessman to an astute politician he is at the moment.
“He is a thankless man,” the Suba MP said.
Sheikh Ngao said Raila’s sacrifices for the country should make all politicians respect him.
“That is why he deserves to be the fifth President of the Republic of Kenya," the cleric said.
He said he sacrificed his ambitions for the love of the country more than three times, being detained without trial, shelving his presidential ambitions and twice agreeing to forget the past for the sake of peace in 2008 and in 2018.
Edited by A.N
