Azimio leaders scoff at Kenya Kwanza deal

DAP-K Secretary General Eseli Simiyu during a meeting at Party's headquarters in Nairobi. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

Azimio leaders in Kakamega and Bungoma have poked holes into the power deal Kenya Kwanza signed with two leaders from the region.

Speaking separately in Bungoma and Kakamega, DAP-K secretary general Eseli Simiyu and Kakamega Woman Rep Elsie Muhanda said Kenya Kwanza presidential candidate William Ruto took Musalia Mudavadi (ANC) and Moses Wetang’ula (Ford-Kenya) for a ride by demanding the duo deliver to the alliance 70 per cent of the Luhya vote in return for a 30 per cent share in his government. 

“Azimio has promised our son Wycliffe Oparanya, who is current Kakamega governor, the Finance docket and former speaker Kenneth Marende Senate speaker seat with no conditions. If someone starts giving you conditions so that he or she shares with you power then that is not a true friend,” said Ms Muhanda at a rally in Likuyani yesterday.

Muhanda, who received Peninah Mukanane, a Woman MP aspirant in Kakamega, who left UDA to join Azimio, said that Raila unlike Ruto has a cordial working relationship with the Luhyas and could not strain them with unrealistic demands.

During the rally, Mukanane alongside Lugari MP Ayub Savula, said they dropped their bids for Woman MP and governor respectively to back Muhanda and Kakamega governorship seat aspirant Fernandez Barasa (ODM).

Simiyu, on the other hand, said Wetang’ula was aware that the deal with Ruto was shaky because even after being promised a stake in government and Senate speaker position, and that is why he is still vying for Bungoma senate seat.

“If Ruto is sure that he is going to win, why is Wetang’ula still vying for the seat? Wetang’ula is sure Kenya Kwanza is headed nowhere and that is the reason why he is still vying. If Ruto was true to him, he could have spared him the hurdle of vying and just hand the seat to him when the Kenya Kwanza Alliance forms government,” he said.

The former Ford-Kenya secretary general further called on voters in Tongaren constituency to vote for Azimio because it had reformist leaders.

He characterised Azimio’s presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his running mate Martha Karua as heroes of the second liberation.

“They suffered to fight the one party democracy to bring us the multiparty democracy we’re enjoying. That cannot be spoken of the Kenya Kwanza which has conservative and non-reformist leaders who have no agenda for the country,” he said.

He took a swipe at Wetang’ula and Bungoma governor aspirant senate speaker Kenneth Lusaka for not pushing for the Sugar Bill a reformist legislation that he said could turn around the ailing sugarcane industry.