We will not be blackmailed into backing some leaders - Mudavadi

ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

ANC Party leader Musalia Mudavadi has urged Kenyans to reject leaders who will be imposed on the electorate.

Mudavadi said there was a scheme by a few individuals to try and blackmail Kenyans into supporting a particular candidate in the August elections.

Speaking during an interview with Citizen TV, he urged Kenyans to be open-minded and make individual decisions on the ballot.

Mudavadi said as a politician, he was free to work with whoever he wanted without any coercion.

Asked if he was ready to work with Deputy President William Ruto or ODM leader Raila Odinga, he said: “Let people not choose friends for others. I will make my decision and nothing is impossible as long as it is constitutional.”

“There is freedom of association. I will (soon) be making my position known to Kenyans as long as it is constitutional. I will be making a decision on whom to work with,” he added.

Mudavadi, who has already been endorsed by his ANC Party through the topmost organ of the Party the AMANI council, says his eye is on the presidency and he will stop at nothing to achieve his goal.

He downplayed speculation that he was preparing to support either Raila or Ruto for the top job.

He said he wants to see the lives of Kenyans improving so that every Kenyan can have “pesa mfukoni”.

“At this point and time, the ANC Party has given me the mandate to vie for the Presidency. The National Delegates Conference will (this month) ratify this decision. That is my position.”

Mudavadi said some party leaders declared who they were supporting for the top job before popularising their own parties.

“How do you set up a party today and the next day you declare that you support someone else? That means that was your original agenda,” he said.

“My focus is to vie for president, we will have a convention and decide.”

ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi. [Edward Kiplimo, Standard]

He questioned the motive of those pushing the Huduma Bill, saying it has been introduced at a very critical time to confuse the electorate.

He urged MPs to carefully scrutinise it before making any pronouncements.

Mudavadi said he was deeply concerned that one of the proposed election laws, which is under Parliament’s consideration, will make it mandatory for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to develop its voter register from the National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS) popular known as Huduma Namba. 

He added that voter registration was the most sensitive and delicate component of Kenya’s election cycle.

“It is dangerous to do anything that will further dent public trust or that may be (mis)interpreted as mischief, to such a sensitive register, especially when we are already in the active phase of the electoral cycle,” said Mudavadi.

He said the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, an independent State Commission, as well as the Kenya Human Rights Commission, the Nubian Rights Forum and other civil society agencies filed a case at the High Court to stop the Huduma Namba process until policy and relevant legislation for safety and security of personal data are put in place.

“IEBC is the mandated custodian of voter’s data and register and it is in the process of completing the verification of the voter’s register. The introduction of Huduma Namba to develop a register, no doubt, adversely affects this process and shall undermine the preparedness of IEBC to conduct free, fair and verifiable elections,” said Mudavadi

He warned that the Huduma Namba system had serious gaps which erode public trust.

“In 2017, we cried about “Vifaranga Vya Computer.” Do we want to cry again in 2022, about Vifaranga Vya Huduma Namba?” wondered the ANC leader.