THE struggle to succeed opposition leader Raila Odinga in both ODM and Cord is at the centre of the Public Accounts Committee wrangles.
Three ODM MPs in the PAC, Omondi Anyanga, Abbas Mohammed and Andrew Mwadime, have ganged up with Jubilee legislators to remove Ababu over bribery allegations.
Yesterday, the Cord leadership in Parliament, which includes Ford Kenya leader Moses Wetang’ula and Francis Nyenze, held several meetings with its members to try and have ODM members within the PAC withdraw their signatures from a petition to remove Ababu.
Raila, 70, does not have an outright successor in either Nyanza or ODM, should he decided to quit active politics.
Anyanga has previously wanted to be the PAC chairman and he works with Luo MPs who did not want Ababu to replace Anyang’ Nyong’o as as ODM secretary general. The second term Nyatike MP believes he is senior enough to succeed Raila in the region and in Cord.
“The group that is unhappy with Ababu’s rise in the ODM is partly behind the wrangles. They believe that both the PAC chairmanship and the SG position are too powerful and give Ababu huge clout,” said an MP.
Yesterday, Deputy Minority leader Jakoyo Midiwo put up a robust defence of Ababu, dismissing the allegations against him as entirely political.
“The ODM MPs who signed the petition will be talked to. If anyone dares to touch Ababu simply because he is our SG, I will defend him come rain, come sunshine.
“The allegations against him are political and can not see the light of day,” said Midiwo on Mayienga FM, a Dholuo station.
It is also understood the Luhya politics pitting Ababu and Wetang’ula are also being played out.
But fighting off claims that the PAC squabbles had reignited rivalry within the Orange Party, ODM chairman John Mbadi maintained a Cord Parliamentary Group meeting called off at the last minute yesterday was postponed because Senators had prior engagements and could not attend.
But in a telling statement, the Suba MP, who is also a member of the PAC, insisted that the committee should be reconstituted to maintain what he termed “the moral high ground”.
He went on: “We need to reconstitute the PAC for the committee to maintain the moral high
-the-star.co.ke
