•He said Raila cannot be trusted to lead the country if he could not keep his word on small party matters.
• Mudavadi spoke when he received into the party Habil Nanjendo who defected from ODM to ANC.
Image: MARTIN OMBIMA
ANC Party Leader MusaliaMudavadi has accused the leadership of Azimiola Umoja led by ODM leader Raila Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta of blackmailing political aspirants into joining their Azimio La Umoja outfit.
Speaking in Kakamega during his third day of the campaign in the region, the Kenya Kwanza principal said Raila had conned leaders to defect from their parties into joining Azimio, only to later leave them in the cold.
He said Raila cannot be trusted to lead the country if he could not keep his word on small party matters.
Mudavadi spoke when he received into the party Habil Nanjendo who defected from ODM to ANC.
Nanjendo is eyeing the Butere parliamentary seat,
He defected to ANC after Raila gave a direct ticket to the incumbent MP Tindi Mwale.
Mudavadi addressed rallies in Butere and Matungu constituencies where he promised aspirants free, fair and transparent party nominations.
“Raila Odinga is the master of conmanship politics. He lied to some people to defect from their parties with a promise of fair nominations. After zoning them into his Azimio project, he has gone ahead to hand direct tickets to some while ignoring his party stalwarts,” said Mudavadi.
The Kenya Kwanza principal who has camped in the western region since Saturday castigated the ODM leader and said Raila is keen on controlling the Luhya politics while allowing democracy to thrive in his Luo Nyanza backyard.
Image: MARTIN OMBIMA
He said the ODM leader had not given direct tickets to people in his backyard, and questioned why he was keen to give direct tickets to others in Luhya land.
Mudavadi said Raila has been in government for three years and never took government goodies to the people of Western and only concentrated on wooing the development budget to his backyard.
“In the years he has been in a ‘handshake’ government with President Kenyatta, he took projects worth more than Sh200 billion to his community and totally ignored the people of western including the revival of Mumias Sugar Company and Nzoia Sugar Company. He comes here to tell us that he will help revive the collapsed firms. Why didn’t he do it while in shared government with Uhuru?” posed Mudavadi.
Mudavadi, accompanied by Governor aspirant Cleophas Malala and MPs Beatrice Adagala (Vihiga) and Benjamin Washiali (Mumias East), continued to amplify his call on the Luhya nation to consider voting in Kenya Kwanza leaders.
Nanjendo, the former Political Advisor to Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya ditched the Orange Party for what he termed as betrayal within the party after he was denied the ticket.
Mudavadi lauded Nanjendo's move to join ANC under the Kenya Kwanza Coalition.
"They thought they had cornered Nanjendo but he was smarter and outwitted them,” said Mudavadi in Sabatia, Butere Constituency.
He added: "The people of Butere feel betrayed by the ODM party, and they have vowed to teach ODM a lesson come August 9th.”
He hit out at President Kenyatta over his move to support and campaign for Raila instead of finding solutions to economic problems facing Kenyans.
“We don’t want few families to continue controlling Kenyans. In August, Uhuru's term is coming to an end and we want to tell him to stop giving us projects."
He said Uhuru is playing reverse psychology on Kenyans by letting his people join Kenya Kwanza while he is busy telling other Kenyans to join Azimio.