Bukhungu invitation puts Raila, Mudavadi on a collision course

Homa Bay woman representative Gladys Wanga, Senator Moses Kajwang and ODM party leader Raila Odinga during Wanga Genowa NGAAF Tournament at Homa Bay High School on December 27, 2021. [Jame Omoro, Standard]

The decision to invite ODM leader Raila Odinga as a chief guest for the Bukhungu meeting in Kakamega and ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi as an ordinary guest has raised speculation that this could be a scheme to eclipse Western leaders ahead of the 2022 elections.

The political tension that Raila’s invitation to the event, a presumably Luhya nation affair, has sparked has attracted the attention of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) that has summoned Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala over remarks relating to the meeting.

“Kakamega is my bedroom. So, I want to tell those people that if they don’t get authorisation from Musalia Mudavadi, they should not dare to set foot at Bukhungu Stadium,” Malala said during the 40th Maragoli Cultural Festival held in Mbale town, Vihiga County, on Sunday.

NCIC chair Samuel Kobia, while summoning the senator yesterday, was emphatic: “Kenya has no bedrooms and living rooms for any politician and there is no space for locking out other politicians from any political side from any part of the country” .

The event set for December 31 and dubbed Bukhungu II Declaration, will serve as a platform for the Luhya and other communities living in Western Kenya to declare whom to back for the presidency.

The organiser of the event, Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) secretary-general Francis Atwoli, yesterday inspected Bukhungu Stadium and said the political declaration the Luhya will make would largely affect the region’s voting pattern in the 2022 elections.

“Mudavadi is still the Luhya spokesman after I made him one in 2016 during the Bukhungu Declaration I, and has received an invite to attend the rally just as we have invited OKA leaders Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper), Gideon Moi (Kanu) and even Wafula Wamunyiyi of DAP. If anyone wants to come, so be it and if one wishes to snub the rally, he can as well follow us on TV,” he said.

Mr Atwoli faulted Mudavadi for not using his position as Luhya spokesman to gain political capital.

“Musalia should stop being lukewarm… he has not held even a homecoming party after I declared him the spokesperson for the Luhya followed by Wycliffe Oparanya (Kakamega Governor) and Moses Wetang’ula (Ford Kenya leader) in that order back in 2016,” he said.

On Sunday, Wetang’ula and Mudavadi send signals that they would give the meeting a wide berth, dubbing it Azimio La Umoja affair aimed at backing Raila’s 2022 State House journey at their expense. They view the meeting as part of Raila’s tours of Western, to sway the voters to back him at the expense of Mudavadi who has declared interest in the presidency.

“I have been predictable (on who to support) in the past (campaigns) but this time around, no one will predict my moves,” the ANC leader said during the Baloogoli Cultural Festival on December 26, where he hosted Wetang’ula and a host of Western leaders.

The Ford Kenya leader said that if he attends the Bukhungu meeting, it would show the organisers who are the real leaders of Western. “I would speak and move out with the masses after the speech just to show who is in control of the people of Western,” he said.

ANC chairman Kelvin Lunani sees the Bukhungu meeting as Raila’s attempt to lock the Luhya vote that is “steadily sliding away” to Mudavadi.

“When their (Luhya) darling son Musalia was duped in NASA, they reacted by going against Raila and for sure Raila has never been as desperate for the Luhya vote as he is today. He has literally slept in homes of big people like Oparanya, ate lunch with the leaders of the region and campaigned even in wards,” he said.

Jubilee Party Chief Whip Emmanuel Wangwe, who has declared support for Raila’s bid, said the issue is not down to a Mudavadi versus Raila contest, but the region’s representation in the next government.

“It’s a two-horse race and I am sure that Raila will be the next president. I hardly support anyone who is headed in the opposition. If he’s president, I believe we are better off as western people and the nation,” he said.

ODM Nominated MP Naomi Shionga and Busia Woman Rep Florence Mutua said the ODM leader’s forays in Western are not meant to hurt Mudavadi politically, but to build a new Kenya under the Azimio platform.

Mudavadi told off Atwoli over the decision to convene the political gathering and vowed not to attend. The Cotu boss cannot call for a political meeting given that he is not seeking any elective post, said Mudavadi.

“As a nation, we must observe democracy. We don’t want to hear that there is a meeting where someone who is not seeking any political office comes up and says now I want to determine who shall be your leader,” he said.

Mudavadi vowed not to succumb to coercion to support any presidential aspirant. “Kenyans have the right to elect the person they so wish; we can’t be told who to support and who to elect”.

Malala said those behind the Bukhungu meeting are out to disrespect the ANC leader and to derail his 2022 presidential ambitions. He claimed that Mudavadi had not been consulted and that Atwoli was using the meeting to disrupt the Luhya unity.