Mudavadi, Wetang'ula and Musyoka meet over Nasa's future

National Super Alliance leaders will today hold a meeting to deliberate on the future of the coalition amidst cracks caused by newfound love between President Kenyatta and Raila Odinga.

The meeting in Athi-River, Machakos County, will be attended by Nasa co-principals Kalonzo Musyoka (Wiper), Musalia Mudavadi (Amani National Congress) and Moses Wetang’ula of Ford-Kenya.

3 PRINCIPALS

Mr Odinga’s attendance, however, has not been confirmed as his spokesperson Dennis Onyango said he was “not aware” of the said a meeting.

Details of the meeting were finalised last week, according to the three Nasa principals.

Mr Wetang’ula has said that the meeting will help shed light on what transpired before and on Friday.

“I and Mudavadi are working around the clock to ensure before 2022 we are speaking in one voice,” Mr Wetang’ula said through his party’s Twitter handle.

“We have been duped for long to support candidates from other regions who desert us in time of need after ascending to power.”

MUSYOKA

But as Mr Musyoka, Mr Mudavadi and Mr Wetang’ula roll up their sleeves for the meeting, Mr Onyango told the Nation that he was not aware of any plans for Nasa to meet.

The Nasa fallout is a culmination of a series of events that have rocked the coalition since January 30, when Mr Odinga was "sworn in" as the people’s president in a ceremony skipped by the other principals.

A source close to the opposition leaders, who sought anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said Mr Musyoka, Mr Wetang’ula and Mr Mudavadi had developed a penchant for taking sides and opposing every opinion that Mr Odinga presented during meetings, much to the chagrin of the ODM leader.

“A man can only take blackmail for so long,” the source said.

“They opposed the People’s Assemblies and went for the quest for electoral justice, then asked Mr Odinga to help them focus on the 2022 elections.

THREAT

"It is as if only they know where the door to Jubilee house is. All the three care about is 2022 just because of an agreement that bars Mr Odinga from contesting the presidency.”

During an ODM national governing council meeting early this month, the party told its allies in the coalition that it was ready to go it alone if pushed to the wall.

The threat came days after Mr Odinga said he had been betrayed.

“I will not be surprised if some people abandoned the journey. Even Jesus was betrayed by one of his closest disciple, Judas. Some people may want to betray us,” he said during the burial of Siaya Senator James Orengo's uncle but did not elaborate.

But Mr Odinga's economy with words did little to hide the source of his agony because just days earlier, Wiper had employed the support of Jubilee to force through Borabu MP Ben Momanyi as member of the Parliamentary Service Commission.

These comments have cast a dark cloud over Monday's meeting.

'HIS STYLE'

Most importantly, they point to the heavy matter of contention within Nasa that the four leaders keep brushing aside— a coalition agreement that bars Mr Odinga from vying for president again.

Exasperated by Mr Odinga’s lone-ranger antics, the co-principals met for the first time late on Sunday to review the events of the week and plot a response.

ANC Secretary-General Barrack Muluka said the decision by Mr Odinga to close ranks with Mr Kenyatta was not a surprise "as that has been his style of politics, and Nasa must now come to terms with the fact that it has lost one of its kingpins to Jubilee”.

“Odinga’s unilateral flight into the Jubilee Party corner is true to his surprise-and-attack style of politics,” Mr Muluka said, adding that even though Monday's meeting had been prearranged, only three of the principals would attend, suggesting that Mr Odinga was not welcome.

“It is the three principals who will have to sit and decide whether to incorporate Mr Odinga,” he said.

“Even if they incorporate him, they will be stretching it because he is already an outsider.”