ODM says okay if PNU walks out

Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang’. PHOTO/ FILE 

By LUCAS BARASA (lbarassa@ke.nationmedia.com)Posted Thursday, February 3 2011 at 11:31

The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) will be fine if their Grand Coalition partners Party of National Unity (PNU) were to pull out from the power sharing arrangement, a key member said on Thursday.

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Immigration minister Otieno Kajwang' told journalists ahead of his party's parliamentary group meeting that threats by PNU to walk out of the coalition were welcome.

The ODM went into a grand coalition with the PNU Coalition in 2008 to form a joint government after President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga signed a power sharing agreement to end the chaos that hit the country after the disputed 2007 presidential elections. The violence that emerged out of the dispute left more than 1,000 dead and 650,000 displaced.

On Wednesday, the MPs from the PNU said they would write to their chairman Prof George Saitoti to convene a delegates conference so the party can pull out from the coalition by March 4.

They argued that Mr Odinga's move to disown nominations to key public offices made by President Kibaki showed the power sharing arrangement was no longer working.

"ODM accepts the challenge that PNU can as well walk out of the coalition. The sooner PNU leaves the better. We are tired of politics of brinkmanship," Mr Kajwang said at Orange House before attending the party's parliamentary group meeting chaired by Mr Odinga.

Mr Kajwang, however, said it was not enough for PNU to only want to quit but that it should ask President Kibaki to dissolve Parliament so that the country could go to elections.

Mr Kajwang said ODM is strongest political party with largest network in the country and that it cannot be intimidated by "small, patched and scattered parties.

He said ODM was only waiting for completion of demarcation of constituencies, the formation of an independent electoral and boundaries commission, the dissolution of Parliament and allocation of money for elections.