Jubilee, CORD row on IDs intensifies

ODM acting party leader Anyang’ Nyong’o. [PHOTO: STANDARD]

By GEOFFREY MOSOKU

NAIROBI, KENYA: Jubilee and CORD kept up the war of words over the planned nationwide electronic registration of all Kenyans.

The war was sparked on Sunday after TNA strategist Moses Kuria released a statement accusing CORD of being behind the mess in registration of persons yet they were now opposed to the digital registration.

Kuria criticised Homa Bay Senator Otieno Kajwang’, who served as Immigration minister in the last Government, saying the situation of national registration documents deteriorated completely between 2008 and 2012 when ODM’s Kajwang’ was in charge of the Immigration ministry.

“So widespread were the irregularities under ODM’s watch that the national registration database is beyond repair and it has to be reconstituted afresh. It is common knowledge that ODM oversaw a system that was completely porous resulting in many aliens acquiring documents irregularly,” he said.

However, ODM acting party leader Anyang’ Nyong’o Monday shot back, accusing Jubilee of feeding Kenyans with well-orchestrated propaganda seeking to find an excuse for Jubilee’s poor performance in Government. 

This propaganda, according to the ODM chief, blames the opposition for not having kept Jubilee “in check”, hence its poor performance.

“What utter nonsense and absolute balderdash! One would have thought that a weak opposition would give Jubilee a field day to push all its policies through Parliament without hindrance. The lead propagandist thrives on threatening Jubilee MPs and senators who try to express their displeasure in the bad things the Jubilee administration does,” said Nyong’o.

He accused the ruling alliance of failure to use its numerical strength and a weak opposition to push through its development agenda, turning to propaganda to justify its failure to deliver.

“The truth is, using the tyranny of both numbers and political hubris, Jubilee has succeeded in perfecting the reign of propaganda and the tyranny of lies that now leads it to attempt to outsource its incompetence to the opposition. This cannot be Jubilee’s salvation,” said the Kisumu Senator.

RIG ELECTIONS

Kuria’s attack on CORD was a reaction to the opposition rejection of an announcement by Deputy President William Ruto that the Government will conduct a Sh8 billion digital registration of all Kenyans. CORD has rejected the same terming it as a ploy to rig elections in advance.

“The fresh registration exercise is an effort to remedy ODM’s era of errors. It, however, provides CORD with a very early opportunity to do what they do best—making claims that the reason elections exist is for them to be stolen,” said Kuria.

“These spurious claims expose the soft underbelly of the below par opposition. It should be put in consideration that the situation of our national registration documents deteriorated completely between 2008 and 2012 when ODM was in charge of the Immigration ministry,” he added.

Monday, Kuria sarcastically said Prof Nyong’o got his name wrong because he is not “Suna East MP Mohammed Junet (ODM).”

“Mr Junet has been on record demanding that Francis Nyenze and Moses Wetang’ula do resign as minority leaders for both the National Assembly and the Senate respectively,” Kuria said.