A meeting called by ODM leader Raila Odinga to mediate in wrangles involving Nairobi MCAs was called off at the last minute on Thursday.
MCAs who had arrived for the meeting at Gracia Garden Hotel told the Star that Raila called off the meeting after most members of the Central Management Committee failed to show up. The meeting was supposed to begin at 4.30pm but, according to sources, only Raila, Mombasa governor Hassan Joho and ODM secretarygeneral Edwin Sifuna had arrived.
“Several members of the committee including the national chairman had not arrived. So it was not possible to proceed with the meeting,” an MCA said.
The meeting was called to quell the fights that have been going on in the assembly for more than two months. The meeting will now be held next week on Tuesday.
Opposition MCAs have been wrangling for two months since speaker Beatrice Elachi was impeached.
Two factions have emerged, one led by Minority leader Elias Otieno and Chief Whip Peter Imwatok, and the other by Highrise MCA Kennedy Oyugi and Imara Daima MCA Kennedy Obuya. Obuya’s faction said they petitioned party leader Raila Odinga to remove Otieno and Imwatok.
The wrangles have split the party’s top brass. Chairman John Mbadi has written at least three letters to the acting assembly speaker Mwaura Chege, replacing Otieno with Oyugi and Imwatok with Lower Savannah MCA Nicholas Okumu.
Mbadi’s letters were countermanded by Sifuna and executive director Oduor Ong’wen. “You are directed to disregard any communication to the contrary.
No changes have been made to the minority side leadership by the party or any of its organs,” Sifuna wrote to speaker Mwaura on Tuesday.
Mwaura also rejected Mbadi’s letters replacing Otieno with Highrise MCA Kennedy Oyugi and Imwatok with Okumu.