Kenya: An Orange Democratic Movement MP has called for dissolution of affiliate parties in Coalition for Reforms and Democracy ( CORD).
South Mugirango MP Manson Nyamweya said this would make the opposition coalition stronger ahead of the 2017 General Election. He added that the move would make political parties orderly and strengthen the country’s democracy.
The MP claimed that some parties in the coalition were riding on the popularity of ODM without harnessing their synergy in building a formidable coalition ahead of 2017 General Election. Nyamweya particularly singled out Ford-Kenya of drawing massive political capital from the Orange party’s goodwill without showing commitment to support former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s 2017 presidential bid.
He claimed that Ford-Kenya leader Moses Wetang’ula campaigned for his re-election as Bungoma Senator on the platform that he was eyeing the presidency a move he alleged rattled the ODM family the wrong way. “In my understanding Ford-Kenya should declare whether they support Odinga to vie for president in 2017 to enable ODM make an informed decision,” Nyamweya told The Standard on Sunday.
The lawmaker warned that if efforts to transform CORD into a political party hit a snag, then affiliate parties should go separate ways to allow ODM to re-invigorate itself as formidable force with Raila as the presidential candidate. Competition “People should realised that CORD died after we lost the March 4 General Election and it is high time that as ODM we moved on to build on our strengths if the others fail to dissolve,” he added. Nyamweya warned that failure by CORD affiliate parties to forge a common front the coalition’s ambition to form government would remain a pipe dream.
Former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper Democratic Movement, Ford-Kenya and ODM parties are the key stakeholders in CORD with their leaders serving as co-principals of the coalition. In October Kalonzo also proposed a merger of all CORD affiliate parties saying the current situation was creating unnecessary competition within coalition members giving advantage to competitors.
A major political showdown now looms within CORD over calls for dissolution of affiliate parties. Nyamira Senator Mong’are Bwo’Okongo also called for the creation of a common CORD secretariat to coordinate flow of information from the coalition. “We do not wish to be called to individual party headquarters to make deliberations or issue statements there, we need a common office to run our activities from,” he said.
-standardmedia.co.ke
