PAA dismisses defection of members to ODM party

The Pamoja African Alliance (PAA) party has rubbished the recent decamping of some of its members to ODM, saying that no official from the party has left as earlier alluded to.

Led by the party’s spokesperson, former Malindi MP Lucas Maitha, the party’s national executive council (NEC) said that whatever happened was a political gimmick by ODM aimed at derailing the PAA party’s progress.

He alleged that it is also a plan by ODM to distract President William Ruto from delivering his agenda to the people on the coast.

“Some days ago, people purporting to be party officials decamped to ODM. I want to clarify that they were not officials but former members who ran for MCA seats in the last general election and lost,” said Maitha.

“It is a first in Kenya that people decamp from a party in government and run to the opposition."

In the run-up to the 2022 general elections, the party, then led by former Kilifi governor and now senate speaker Amason Kingi, decamped the Azimio la Umoja Camp for the Ruto-led Kenya Kwanza outfit.

Maitha reiterated that PAA is unbowed and unshaken, promising that the party is ready to take on ODM head-on in 2027.

“We have numbers in Kilifi, and in the last general election, the numbers favoured President Ruto."

“But watch this space; PAA will take over Kilifi and other counties come 2027,” Maitha said.

He questioned why ODM was disturbed by their progress, saying that they are afraid that coast residents can no longer sustain the taste of the orange.

Last Thursday, PAA former youth leader Sammy Nyundo led a delegation of members to meet ODM leader Raila Odinga at Chungwa House in Nairobi, where they officially announced their exit from PAA.

Nyundo alleged that their decision to leave was informed by being left in the cold since Kingi assumed the position of senate speaker, adding that they were also not involved in the decision to ditch Azimio.

However, Maitha clarified that their decision to join Kenya Kwanza was a result of dishonesty and bulldozing from bigger affiliate parties in the Azimio coalition without involving other coalition members.

“When PAA was first formed, we were working with Baba (Raila), until we were forced to sign a document at Bomas, Kenya, without even consulting our NEC members."

“None of our NEC members, including the secretary general, the chair, or even the party leader, had seen the document and presented it to us for ratification. That’s the point we opted out of Azimio to join Kenya Kwanza,” he said.

At Kenya Kwanza, Maitha said they had open discussions about what PAA wanted to be done for Coast people, including addressing the perennial land historical injustices meted out to locals and the return of port operations to Mombasa, among other issues.

The pact between PAA and Kenya Kwanza also saw the party given the senate speaker slot when they won the 2022 general elections.

“We can confirm that the issues we presented are now being addressed by the government. Port operations are back in Mombasa, and the president, in his last tour of the region, announced that they had set aside funds to buy land to address the squatter issues,” Maitha said.

He further asked members who decamped from the party to stop associating speaker Kingi with the party, saying that he is now a national leader in the senate and does not associate with any party.

"Kingi is no longer the PAA party leader; we donated him to the government and he was elected senate speaker, a position that requires him to be objective."

“We are only connected to him because he founded the party when all the governors at the Coast abandoned the quest to form a political party for our people,” he said.

PAA deputy party leader and acting party leader Hassan Albeid reiterated that whatever transpired would not deter their progress.

He reiterated that their party is an ideology that will revive the region’s development and economic agenda.

"We saw this coming, and we’re patiently waiting and psychologically prepared. But we want to show them (ODM) that PAA is a national party capable of producing national leaders."

“Come 2032, we shall also field a candidate for the top seat,” Albeid said.

The PAA national chairman, Ibrahim Hamis, alias "Babangida, called for members to keep calm, stating that the party is strong.

He asked them not to allow whatever was going on to distract them, as the party is soon expected to commence a nationwide recruitment exercise for new members.

“All these you are hearing ni story za jaba, our focus now is what is ailing our people. We don’t want to waste time on baseless politics,” he said.

His sentiments were echoed by former Mwatate MP Calistus Mwatela who said that the region needs to engage the government to ensure that it gets its fair share of national resources.

He expressed disappointment that most political parties in Kenya rotate under individuals and not policies.

“As a PAA party, we want to continue popularizing our blueprint centred around the development of this region.”

“Our roads and infrastructure have been in bad condition for years yet we are the number one contributors of revenue. We need to start gaining from our resources and stop petty politics and fighting that will take us nowhere,” said Mwatela.