Mudavadi declares 2017 presidency bid

Amani Coalition leader Musalia Mudavadi met Members of County Assemblies from Rift Valley, Nyanza and Western regions at a forum where he said he would vie for the presidency in 2017.

Addressing the 68 Amani Coalition MCAs at Sosa Cottages in Vihiga County, Mr Mudavadi said he would contest on the ticket of his newly-founded Amani National Congress (ANC) party.

Mudavadi said the choice for Kenyans in the 2017 elections would be between stability by his party on one hand and the chaos of incompetence by Jubilee or hypocrisy by CORD on the other.

He "reminded" Kenyans about the elections in 2013 when he said choosing Jubilee was the same as choosing chaos and it had come to pass.

"The problems being witnessed currently are as a result of that choice," he said.

The MCAs unanimously agreed to use ANC to seek re-election in 2017.

Mudavadi claimed he had been stabbed in the back too many times and vowed not to let it happen again. The Amani leader said he would hold political reawakening meetings in Western region until 2017.

Desperate lot

"We have rented our votes to others for too long. It is time we got a return on our investment," he said.

"Why do you rent out a shamba? Because you are desperate. I am here to ensure we are no longer a desperate lot. We must get out of the culture of political dependency."

He asked people from the region to join ANC and urged other political parties with followings in the region to affiliate themselves with ANC and create a united voting bloc.

He said he did not regret not being in Government and claimed it was he that proposed Eugene Wamalwa for a Cabinet position in the Jubilee administration.

"I want us to be our brothers' keepers as Kenyans," he said.