• Fight is centred on the events of January 30, 2018 when Raila took the oath as people's president.
• Raila party restates ODM leader won't back down amid pressure to endorse his Nasa colleagues.
Image: JACK OWUOR
The fallout within the National Super Alliance escalated Monday, with principals exchanging barbs in an acrimonious political divorce.
Kalonzo Musyoka's Wiper party threw the first salvo when it accused Opposition chief Raila Odinga of "unrivalled political dishonesty and greed for power."
Coming just a day after ANC boss Musalia Mudavadi claimed Raila negotiated the handshake deal before the repeat presidential poll in 2017, Kalonzo said the handshake was mainly initiated by Raila to get himself into the trappings of state power.
Kalonzo was himself named special envoy to South Sudan by President Uhuru Kenyatta and has been globe-trotting to represent the state.
Kalonzo alleged Raila could easily abandon Uhuru if his interests are not met.
"Right now, there is no guarantee that Hon. Odinga will not abandon President Uhuru and join the President's rival before 2022 if he realises that his selfish desires are not being met," Kalonzo stated.
He said Raila's support across the country has been fostered by regional supremos, but Raila falsely believes the support is his.
"Before the 2013 General Election, Hon. Odinga beat his chest as a disappointed Hon. William Ruto walked away from him, only for the 2013 results to reveal that Hon. Ruto had actually run away with the Kalenjin voting block," Kalonzo said.
But ODM dismissed the Wiper leader and his compatriots Musalia and Moses Wetang'ula as “incoherent cowards who depend on endorsements”.
ODM national chairman John Mbadi, who is the National Assembly Minority leader, told the trio to forget Raila’s endorsement ahead of the 2022 elections.
The Suba South MP said ODM will oppose any plans for Raila to endorse any of the Nasa principals.
“They are cowards. They cannot stand on their own feet and are trying to force Mr Odinga to endorse them. Mr Odinga will do no such endorsement,” Mbadi said.
He said it was time the three “stopped whining and became their own men in their political careers”.
“The three are free to continue clinging on to Nasa. That too is consistent with their nature. They are never able to read the signs of the times and move on,” Mbadi said.
Just a day earlier, ODM secretary-general Edwin Sifuna had described Mudavadi and Kalonzo as political failures and challenged them to “stop dancing around their village huts” and move out and campaign.
“In 2002, he fled the Rainbow movement and returned to be a three-month VP when the whole country was recalibrating its politics and seeking a fresh start. Later in 2013, he fled ODM to seek the presidency on his own. Available data shows that he lost to Raila in 46 counties with a virtual tie in his home county of Vihiga,” Sifuna said of Mudavadi.
“Hon Kalonzo Musyoka on the other hand was the quintessential one-party rule man and a late entrant to the 2002 liberation movement. He only opted to join Hon Odinga in 2013 after his cunning attempt to exploit the ICC tribulations of President Uhuru and DP Ruto fell flat. He was seeking a landing spot and got a soft one,” Sifuna said.
Edited by P.O