This is what Azimio agreement means – Makau Mutua

Prof Makau Mutua,  the Spokesperson of the Raila Odinga 2022 presidential campaign team, has given his interpretation of the Azimio la Umoja agreement.

On Saturday, 24 parties came together at the KICC, signed the agreement and unveiled Raila Odinga as Azimio’s presidential candidate.

In a question and answer session with journalists in Nairobi earlier today, Prof Makau said that what the parties signed two days ago was an agreement to join the Azimio la Umoja coalition party.

"What was signed by the 24 parties was an agreement to form Azimio la Umoja coalition party. Political Parties come to Azimio as individual political parties and not a coalition,” he said.

He told journalists to ask Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka to explain what he meant when he said ‘none of the Secretaries-General knew what they were signing’.

An hour before his remarks, Musyoka had in an exclusive interview on KTN News stated that they would meet as One Kenya Alliance and ponder on their next move.

“Things were mixed up. I am sure all those secretaries-general; none knows what we signed. Azimio will be registered as a coalition of political parties. So the confusion came in when Junet (Director of the election in Azimio) proposed Raila to become ‘Azimio la Umoja’ candidate. We had agreed on Azimio-One Kenya,” Kalonzo said.

Kalonzo also opines that the Saturday event was rushed in a confusing process. He adds that his allies at OKA opted to take a back seat before signing the agreement to assess the practicality of joining the pact.

“If the process was not rushed as it were then OKA would have come. For instance, my SG didn’t sign everything because some were for Azimio la Umoja parties, which Wiper is not,” he reiterated.

“That is why we have a meeting because none (OKA members) but Gideon Moi showed up. The whole process was confusing. Our legal minds should look into the legal technicality of the agreement,” he added.

Makau, who is also the chairman of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, said that over 20 parties agreed to join the Azimio la Umoja coalition party which will be presented to the office of the Registrar of political parties.

“We are pleased to announce that 20 plus parties signed the documents which will be filed with the Registrar of political parties after the accompanying documents are drafted by the lawyers,” Makau added.