We have no money to give you, ODM tells NASA affiliates

NASA Leaders during the Peoples Assembly Lower Eastern Chapter at the Machakos Golf club.[File, Standard]

The Orange Democratic Movement ODM has refuted claims that it is bullying other affiliate parties under the NASA coalition.

Through its party leader Raila Odinga, ODM said it is unfair for Musalia Mudavadi’s ANC, Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper and Moses Wetangula’s Ford-Kenya to accuse ODM of being greedy and not honouring a coalition agreement.

Speaking on Radio Citizen this morning, Raila said the truth of the matter is that ODM has no money to share with the three parties.

This comes after Mudavadi, Kalonzo and Wetangula vowed a vicious court battle with ODM over the political party’s funds as they move to formally dissolve the coalition.

The three principals said they had resolved to pull out of NASA, a decision likely to collapse the coalition that sponsored Raila for the top seat in the 2017 presidential race.

The three leaders are already working on papers to have the coalition disbanded over what they termed as irreconcilable political mistrust.

Mudavadi said that a technical team was already working on the matter, suggesting that they could soon file withdrawal papers with the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP).

He said that there were certain procedural issues that they have to be addressed before dissolving the moribund coalition.

“It is a process and something will soon happen. There are procedural issues we have to look at before the final decision is made. Obviously, people are working behind the scene on the matter,” said Mudavadi.

According to the NASA agreement, it stands dissolved if three affiliate parties leave. This means should Wiper, Ford-Kenya and ANC file for withdrawal, the coalition would stand dissolved.

It has emerged that for the three parties to pull out, they have to convene a National Delegates Convention (NDC) to ratify the decision. The signing out from the deal has also to be done or witnessed by the substantive party secretary-general, who is the party’s accounting officer.

But Raila said ODM is as broke as other political parties.

“We are not their enemies, we have had engagements with them and we are ready to further those engagements. In the 2017 election, we united for a common goal, we fought together and won the case at Supreme Court, but we withdrew from the repeat election,” he said.

Raila said since they did not participate in the repeat election, the Attorney General and the registrar of political parties refused to acknowledge the votes they got in the first round.

“It should be known that ODM has not received any money under the Political Party’s Fund. What we have is money from member contributions,” he said.

According to Raila, the other affiliate members are not getting money because they do not have enough representation in the two houses.

“We went hunting as a team, but did not kill the animal, we, therefore, have no meat to offer. In fact, what we should be engaging in now is how to regroup and launch a major attack now that we know who took the animal we had targeted,” he said.

Raila maintained that NASA was not a political party but a coalition that sought to consolidate votes and get one of them to the presidency.

He said the agreement was if NASA won, the principals would be part and parcel of the running of the government but if they failed, they would be in opposition but as independent parties.

“This is why you see ANC, Wiper and Ford-Kenya are already working on their plan ahead of the 2022 election. The NASA agreement will end at the closure of the current parliament and if we have to work together again, we shall have to seat and draw new lines of engagement,” Raila said.

"They accuse me of not endorsing someone but on my side, I have not refused because we have had no such conversations. If there is any candidate that will be deemed strong to win, I will gladly endorse them,” he added.

Raila said if there will be any coalition ahead of the election, it must be strong enough to win.