Sunday, June 3, 2012

Supporters call for UDF, TNA alliance


Supporters call for UDF, TNA alliance

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Updated Saturday, June 02 2012 at 22:01 GMT+3
By Stephen Makabila and Vitalis Kimutai
Politicians linked to the G7 alliance are keeping up calls for a joint campaign strategy against ODM even as signs of friction between key leaders emerge.
Saturday, three Members of Parliament connected to two key parties in the group went on to call for their parties to work with Mr Musalia Mudavadi’s United Democratic Front (UDF) if they want to beat ODM leader Raila Odinga.
MPs Jamleck Kamau and Lewis Nguyai, who join Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta in The National Alliance (TNA), and Fred Kapondi, in William Ruto’s United Republican Party (URP), made their remarks at a UDF rally in Kakamega. Their declarations, however, come amid a contest within the alliance to reach out to the region and its leaders. ?
“We need to rally behind one candidate to face ODM,” Kamau told the rally.
“TNA and UDF have resolved to work together and pick a single candidate for the presidency. Mudavadi should unite all leaders in western Kenya so that we can achieve this goal,” he added.
Observers of events in the last few weeks say there is no chance of the group rallying behind one candidate in the first round of the presidential race.  The question is whether they can work together as rivals or whether the jostling to strengthen their positions will split the group prematurely.
Organic merger
While UDF and Musalia are not part of the G7; there has been talk of a political deal emerging “organically” sometime down the road. This comes not long after Uhuru told a night meeting in Nairobi that Justice Minister Eugene Wamalwa (New Ford Kenya), who is part of the G7, is the group’s only man in Western Province.
And just days after Mudavadi and Ruto held a night meeting with at least 40 MPs to plan ODM’s defeat in a parliamentary battle to name new MPs for the East African Legislative Assembly. The meeting, which was reported under the headline ‘Operation Stop Raila’ by our sister paper The Standard, also discussed other ways to work together outside Parliament.
This cooperation between UDF and URP has already scuttled plans for at least one G7 alliance rally, some sources say.
A G7 public rally set for Busia County Saturday, with Wamalwa as the host, was shelved and replaced by a leaders’ meeting. The Justice Minister says this was to avoid competing with Mudavadi’s Kakamega rally. Other sources, however, say this was because Ruto would not attend.
Ruto’s refusal has been attributed to his understanding with Mudavadi after Wednesday’s night meeting. Other sources claim he was making a point to Uhuru and Wamalwa after the alleged cold shoulder he got at the Saboti MP’s expense during the TNA launch two weeks ago. Whatever the reason, Ruto has a deliberate plan to steer clear of the G7 for now.
“We are not going to engage in G7 rallies for now because we are concentrating on building URP,” says Belgut MP Charles Keter, one of Ruto’s key allies in the South Rift.
“We have been skipping those rallies for weeks now because we are busy, but there is no problem between us and other G7 leaders.” The Eldoret North MP’s withdrawal proved significant.
Busia rally
“We weighed the implications of only Uhuru and Wamalwa holding a rally in Busia without Ruto and we thought it would send wrong political signals,” said one of those involved in planning the rally.
Mr Chris Mugwang, one of the organisers of Saturday’s leaders’ meeting in Busia, says the planned Busia rally will go on after Wamalwa’s party, New Ford-Kenya, meets and “puts a few things in order”.
“We agreed Wamalwa meets 500 leaders drawn from Busia County at the Border Palace Hotel first. Issues of the rally will follow later,” he said. Ruto has fires to fight within URP itself.
After pledging to name Matuga MP Chirau Ali Mwakwere as his running mate should he get the URP ticket, he has had to contend with an unhappy ally in Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo. Saturday, Jirongo hinted a new party is in the offing, involving a fresh alliance of MPs from the Coast, Western, Eastern and Nyanza provinces. 
The Kaddu MP said Kenya needs an equal opportunities party not tied to tribal power brokers who were stifling internal party democracy while claiming to enhance it. It is not clear how this pending split will affect URP and the G7.
The prevailing formation in G7 leaves three distinct groupings; the first is the Ruto axis, the second the Uhuru-Wamalwa axis and the third Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and his Wiper Democratic Movement (WDM).
Kalonzo, who has vowed to retire from politics if he fails to make it to State House on his second try, has also been keeping his distance from the G7.
He skipped the group’s last rally in March, when Ruto and MPs allied to him played host in Kericho. Rallies in Kisii and Nyamira counties were to follow the Kericho event, but differences between the Uhuru camp led by Foreign Affairs Minister Prof Sam Ongeri and the Ruto camp led by former assistant Minister Omingo Magara forced its cancellation.
Kalonzo’s move
Kalonzo has lately focused on his own presidential bid with county and Diaspora tours. His absence led Wamalwa to remark a few weeks ago: “Sincerely speaking, the VP is no longer within the range of the G7 radar.” An attempt by Uhuru and Ruto to push him out of the alliance earlier this year ended after interventions by Wamalwa and President Kibaki. When making peace with Kalonzo, Uhuru had admitted G7 leaders “have issues (between them) that need to be addressed”.
The Ruto-Mudavadi meeting to discuss the possibility of URP and UDF working together was seen as a reaction to earlier talks between Uhuru and Wamalwa. Cabinet Minister Soita Shitanda, assistant ministers William Cheptumo and Jebii Kilimo, and MPs Bonny Khalwale, George Nyamweya, Ben Washiali, Sammy Mwaita, David Koech and Elijah Lagat, among others, attended the meeting.
“We have never had problems with Mudavadi,” said Mosop MP David Koech. “Relating with him is even much easier now that he is out of ODM. We can now sit and talk.”
Eldama Ravine MP Moses Lessonet said the primary focus of the working relations between URP and UDF allied MPs was to push for common interests in Parliament. With political suspicion between Uhuru and Ruto now mounting, it may be a matter of when, not whether, the G7 dream ends.


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