UDF leader Musalia Mudavadi has said he will be in the race for the presidency in 2017.
He said his 2013 bid was a rehearsal.
Mudavadi said his desire to serve Kenyans remains as strong as ever and he has no apologies for contesting in the March 4 general election.
"Do not feel sorry for me or for yourselves. We all did our best and exercised our democratic rights. But there is still a tomorrow for which we must prepare," he told mourners at the funeral of former Bungoma County Council clerk George Murunga in Kimilili, Bungoma county on Saturday.
The former Deputy Prime Minister said he is focused on restructuring his UDF party to be owned by the people in readiness for next elections.
"We went into elections as a young party with weak grassroots structures and bludgeoned with stigma. Next time, we will enter the race as a strong party free of negative associations," Mudavadi said in reference to what he added was propaganda against him in the last elections.
At another funeral, that of Masinde Werengai, former MP of then larger Lugari constituency in Kakamega county, Mudavadi addressed the issue of regional unity by urging leaders to be honest and learn the lessons of the past elections.
"My other name is unity. I provided a platform for community unity in the last elections but was stabbed in the back. The last elections told us who is for and who is against unity. Unity will not matter again if leaders do not honour their unity pledges to the public," he said.
Calling on the region’s leaders to pull together, Mudavadi said unity cannot be found in leaders abusing each other on podiums instead of focusing on issues affecting the community.
"I am surprised that the platform in western is to bash each other while the national cake is being shared elsewhere. Where is the voice for the community on regional and ethnic balance in national government? You are being encouraged to compete for nothing here while forgetting the national stake you must compete for," he said referring to discontent over exclusion in government appointments raised by some speakers.
Condemning the murder of Murunga and insecurity in the western region, Mudavadi asked the government to put its act together on the high rate of insecurity in the country. He said the government was reluctant to utilise security machinery available to it in law to cub insecurity.
"Insecurity and death are not matters of dialogue with perpetrators or condoling victims by visiting them but action. Since I advised two months ago for the County Oversight Security Committees to be activated as required by law, little has been done leading to escalation of insecurity," he asserted.
Asserting that he was the architect of devolution laws while minister for local government and knew what ought to be done, Mudavadi urged Governors not to be detracted from being custodians of devolution through symbolic gestures.
"If governors do not view themselves as custodians of people’s resources and use them on priorities, they would have been set up to fail devolution. The law is clear that you devolve a function and the money. The issue of inadequate administrative and personnel structures is an excuse because they are only transposed from national to county government until the later develops competent capacity," he warned.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment