Nominated MP Godfrey Osotsi has asked ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi and his Ford Kenya counterpart Moses Wetang’ula to stop misleading the Luhya community.
The ANC lawmaker asked the two leaders to come clean on the parties merger process. The two parties were to be merged to form a single party to unite Luhyas.
The merger is currently threatened by conflicting interests with ANC saying Ford Kenya has been infiltrated by Deputy President William Ruto.
Ruto is expected to run for president in 2022. The merger was aimed at creating a platform for the endorsement of one Luhya leader to run for the top seat. Mudavadi has said Ruto is their competitor.
Yesterday, Osotsi said the merger was bound to fail because of legal challenges, suspicion between the two leaders and lack of a clear ideology.
"The two leaders speak from different scripts despite appearing together in public and promising unity. They must decide what they want and stop creating unnecessary anxiety among our people,"
Osotsi told the Star on the phone.
Mudavadi, Wetang’ula and Devolution CS Eugene Wamalwa shared a platform at three funerals in Western at the weekend. They also attended a church service in Busia county on Sunday where they preached Luhya unity.
The trio attended the burial of 2017 Navakholo ANC parliamentary aspirant Jacob Nanjakululu. They also attended the funeral of Gabriel Waneloba in Tongaren and that of Nairobi University don Chris Wanjala in Lwandeti, Kakamega county.
Eugene asked the Mudavadi and Wetang’ula to dissolve their parties before December. “I urged them to dissolve their parties so that we can announce our new political vehicle during this year’s Maragoli Festival on December 26,” Eugene said in Tongaren.
Osotsi said that the merger cannot be actualised because ANC has a court case over its leadership. He said secretary general Barrack Muluka cannot sign the merger agreement because his position is disputed.
"The two leaders must tell us what went wrong because they must have discussed and agreed before announcing the parties would be merged in a month,"
Osotsi said.
The MP said the merger was motivated by a desire to lock Raila out of Western for leaving Mudavadi and Wetang’ula out of the handshake deal.
Osotsi, who is battling Muluka over the secretary general post in ANC, said that it was wrong for the two leaders to carry out experiments with the community.
"This merger thing was built on quicksand. Such experiments are what make our people lack trust in the leaders,"
he said.
On Saturday, Muluka ruled out the possibility of merging ANC and Ford Kenya after former Kakamega senator Boni Khalwale declared he will support Ruto in 2022.
Khalwale was part of the technical team tasked to come up with a merger framework.
Osotsi said Mudavadi and Wetang’ula also disagreed on who should be the leader of the new party and presidential candidate.