Raila to meet small parties over joint nominations

By Geoffrey Mosuku

NAIROBI; KENYA: Prime Minister Raila Odinga is expected to meet Cord small parties on Sunday evening to unlock a new stalemate that has hit the Cord alliance after eight small parties affiliated to the alliance rejected joint nominations.

Raila is slated to meet representatives of the parties at the Serena hotel to quell the fears of a split after the parties vowed to defy an announcement made on Saturday by the Cord Elections Board.

“The Prime Minister who is our presidential candidate has summoned us to a meeting at the Serena Hotel on Sunday evening at 7pm to discuss the issue of nominations,” Youth and Sports assistant minister Wavinya Ndeti said.

 She spoke after leading other leaders such Kalembe Ndile of The Independent Party (TIP) and Stephen Nyarangi of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in a joint statement to declare their opposition to holding joint nominations.

The leaders had accused some officials of the Cord management team of arm twisting them into the exercise and vowed to conduct own nominations but support candidature of Raila/Kalonzo ticket.

Addressing a press conference at the 680 Hotel on Sunday morning, the officials said they had been ambushed by a document prepared by Cord management team led by Public Service minister Dalmas Otieno; which they refused to sign.

“We were confronted with a document purporting to agree on the mode of conducting joint nominations yet as parties we had agreed to join the alliance on condition that our right to field candidates is upheld,” Nyarangi said.

He added: “We want to tell our partners that we have not and we shall not cede our rights to nominate candidates but we shall support our presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his running mate Kalonzo Musyoka.”

They argued that they were not consulted when Cord management team constituted joint nominations board.

“I was not in the meeting but we sent our able representatives from Muungano and PDP parties to the Serena meeting when they document came up,” Wavinya who is the spokesman of the eight small parties said.

On Saturday, the Cord management team announced the formation of a joint nominations board led by Roads minister Franklin Bett with the nominations to be held by universal suffrage but the small parties referred to as Cord partners have rejected the move.

The parties include Maina Njenga’s Mkenya Solidarity Movement, former South Mugirango MP Omingo Magara PDP, Wavinya’s CCU, Koigi wa Wamwere’s Chama cha Mwananchi (CCM), Kenya social Congress (KSC), Kadu Asili, Mungano Party and United Democratic Movement (UDM).

“Even at Uhuru Park and KICC while launching Cord, it was made clear that our parties will retain the right to field candidates, so when was a decision reached for us to join them in the nominations?” Kalembe wondered.

The former Kibwezi MP accused some leaders in the alliance who feared competition at the grassroots of being behind the move; “why are they afraid of us in places like Ukambani and Kisii?”

He said that the small were willing to negotiate with the main parties in cosmopolitan areas like Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru and others but not countrywide.

“They told us that we can talk on how to win majority in some parties like Mombasa, Nairobi, Nakuru but not in Ukambani or other areas. This is a scheme to ensure some of us are locked out just like it did I 2007,” Kalembe said.

And speaking on phone from Kisii, Magara said that the parties will not be pushed to join the Cord joint nominations saying that will be left to ODM, Wiper and Ford Kenya. “We have made it clear to them that part of our deal is not on nominations but only supporting the Cord presidential candidate,” he added.

On Saturday, MPs Johnstone Muthama, David Musila, Anyang’ Nyongo, Eseli Simiyu and Dalmas Otieno who have been spearheading the talks in the alliance made the announcement  that did not augur well with the small parties who have now vowed to deal directly with the PM and VP.

“If they want us to walk out from the alliance, they should forget and from today we will deal directly with the Prime Minister and Vice President not the likes of Nyong’o and Muthama,” Wavinya, sports assistant minister and also the Kathiani MP added.

The small parties’ fears emanate from the fact that the Cord nominations are slated on the 17^th, just a day to the deadline on parties to conduct primaries; with these parties feeling this is a ploy to lock them out if they lose nominations.

“Some people have preferred candidates and thus will want to hide behind joint nominations to lock out their rivals,” Kalembe said while giving an example of Wavinya and Richard Onyonka who were denied Wiper and ODM ticket in Kathiani and Kitutu Chache seats respectively in 2007 but went ahead to win after moving to small parties; CCU and PDP.

However, Muthama has insisted that it’s only through a joint nomination that Cord will be transformed into a formidable party that will have strength both in and outside parliament.

“This is the only way to build a strong party and no one should be afraid of competing since the exercise will be free and fair. We want to ensure uniformity where a president and his deputy have one united team in parliament,” Muthama added.