- Mudavadi said a “Sky Team” comprising Oparanya and Wamalwa has been tasked to harass and intimidate him.
- Oparanya maintained that they are not going to relent in their tours to unite Western region.
Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi on Wednesday claimed he is the next target of the intimidation of Western leaders by the police.
He said his supporters, legislators and leaders from the region allied to him will also be targeted.
“I know I am the immediate target of police harassment,”Mudavadi told the Star in a phone interview.
He said a “Sky Team" comprised of Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya and Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa has been tasked to harass and intimidate him.
“It is aiming at me in a vain attempt to cut me down to size for the reason that I have refused to dance the tune of their master. I advise them to win me over with convincing arguments and not trade in brute force,” he said.
Oparanya termed Mudavadi’s assertions as baseless and “just his own thinking”.
“Nobody has tasked Eugene or me to harass him. I just want to encourage him to strengthen his party, as we strengthen ours. I am in ODM, Eugene is in Jubilee and he is in ANC,” he stated.
Oparanya maintained they are not going to relent in their tours of Western to unite the region and champion its interests. “We are not going to stop. For a long time, we have stagnated as a region because we do not have a common front,” he explained.
Mudavadi nonetheless told Oparanya and Wamalwa to listen to the admonition of elders who have told them to stop seeking division among leaders.
His claims of being the immediate target follows violence in Kakamega on June 20 when six MPs were tear-gassed in Malava constituency.
MPs Ben Washiali, Didmus Barasa Mwambu Nabonga, Justus Murunga and Ferdinand Wanyonyi had gathered with their colleague Malulu Injendi to discuss issues affecting the Western region.
A day earlier, Ford Kenya leader Moses Wetang’ula, a key ally of Mudavadi, was tear-gassed during a meet-the-people tour of Bungoma county, which he represents in the Senate.
Wetang'ula's convoy was cut off by police officers who dispersed crowds with tear gas and barricaded all roads he was to pass through to greet his supporters. MPs Chris Wamalwa, Catherine Wambilianga, Sakwa Bunyansi, Alfred Agoi, Barasa and Wanyonyi were with him.
Nonetheless, Mudavadi commended President Uhuru Kenyatta for admonishing CSs who spend public resources politicking in the guise of inspecting projects.
“Those in the Sky Team stand warned. They should heed the President and spend time implementing projects under their dockets and not skydiving in Western.”
Uhuru on Tuesday prohibited CSs from launching new projects without his express authority.
He issued the order during a virtual meeting with CSs, Chief Administrative Secretaries and Principal Secretaries.
The head of state maintained no new projects shall be initiated without his consent.
Mudavadi said the Sky Team tried to isolate some of the Luhya leaders using the BBI rally at Bukhungu Stadium on January 18 but failed and are now busy “manufacturing enemies for the head of state”.
He accused Wamalwa and Oparanya of engaging in dishonesty and falsehood. He said they are hell-bent on creating imaginary anti-Kenyatta and pro-DP William Ruto camps in the Western region.
He said the CS and the governor are using a narrative of uniting the Luhya community which has been united all along.
The ANC chief said the notion that Western is always divided at election time is a counterfeit narrative often used by propagandists to rattle the region.
“To my knowledge, there is no single time the Western vote has been divided since the reintroduction of multipartyism, and voters in Western aren’t divided. They have voted their preferences tremendously at the presidential level for single candidates, but never divided their vote among candidates in equal numbers,” Mudavadi said.
He added, “You can only accuse Western of not voting for one of their own. The reason Western has continuously voted for external candidates for the top seat is that they (the people) are yet to internalise the sense of confidence that is a precondition for attracting external regional support.”
Mudavadi said in successive elections - 1992, 1997 and 2013 - Western has voted for “others” at the presidential ballot despite having one their own in the same contest.
“We as leaders from the region haven’t done much to convince the region we are hungry enough for power due to petty divisions,” he said.
He warned, “For us to get our stake at the national level, we must agree that charity begins at home and all politics is local. We are not children of a lesser God in this country. We are all equal but we must think smart if we need to take over State House. Being messengers of doom won’t help our cause.”
(Edited by V. Graham)