Raila hits back at Wetangula, tells him to carry own cross

Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula with NASA leader Raila Odinga after addressing a press on March 22, 2018 at Sarova Panafric Hotel. [Photo by Edward Kiplimo/Standard]

Opposition chief Raila Odinga has accused his NASA co-principal Moses Wetang'ula of dishonesty.

Raila said he had nothing to do with Wetang'ula's ouster as Senate Minority Leader and urged the Ford Kenya leader to stop whipping up emotions over the problems facing him.

He said he did what he could to save Wetang'ula from being ejected by his colleagues.

Raila said Wetang'ula was the architect of his own downfall and asked him to bear his own cross, a reaction that worsens the rift in the Opposition coalition.

Trouble in NASA started when Raila met President Uhuru Kenyatta that was followed by the now famous handshake.

In a statement to newsrooms by his spokesman Dennis Onyango yesterday, Raila said Wetang'ula was rejected by senators from all NASA affiliate parties, not only ODM.

“To date, none of the NASA senators has come out to support Wetang'ula. That kind of rejection was unprecedented and pointed to a deep rooted problem between him and his colleagues. We find his sentiments to be dishonest, frivolous and evasive. They are only meant to whip up emotions to get sympathy over problems of the senator’s own making,” said Raila.

On Tuesday, the Bungoma Senator blamed Raila for his ouster as the Minority Leader. He accused the former premier of plotting his impeachment through a series of secret meetings with politicians from the ODM wing of the NASA coalition.

Prior to his ouster, Wetang’ula claimed Raila mobilised ODM senators for a meeting during which his removal was discussed.

Already Wetang'ula has declared his engagement with Raila was over.

“I have no ill feeling towards anybody. My ten-year support for Raila has left me a stranger in the palace,” Wetang'ula said.

But Raila said problems facing the senator came out during a meeting he had called to broker an understanding between the senator and his colleagues.

According to Raila, the senators accused Wetang'ula, in his presence, of being aloof, selfish, arrogant and having the tendency to impose decisions on them under the pretext that they were directives from the Summit, which often was not the case.