Did Boni Khalwale's statement confirm NASA split?
Wetangula could lose his Senate Minority leader post.
Dr Khalwale, who was responding to the question on whether NASA would stay put until 2022, bluntly said that the coalition, “was already split” adding that his party (Ford Kenya), was in fact “open for talks with other political parties outside Nasa.”
“We (Ford-Kenya) are opening ourselves to fresh negotiations with political parties within Nasa and, where an opportunity presents itself, outside it,” Dr Khalwale, the former Kakamega senator, said.
While he failed to substantively confirm earlier rumours that Moses Wetangula's Ford Kenya party could be exiting NASA, Dr Khalwale hinted at a major scheme to rebrand the party as it mulls on talks for new alliance formations.
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He inferred that the ultimate swearing-in of both President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga marked the end of the 2017 elections.
“Now, without saying it, the leaders of the parties are realising that Uhuru and Raila have been sworn in, and that that marks the end of the 2017 electoral cycle,” he said.
ODM factor
Meanwhile, Jubilee Party in the recent past launched a charm offensive to populate an idea that ODM took all key party leadership positions in both houses, a move which is splitting further the coalition.
Meanwhile, ODM leader Raila Odinga is said to have convened an urgent National Governing Council meeting which will be preceded by the National Executive Committee Friday next week to make major changes in the party.
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The meeting which aims at de-whipping several of the defiant lawmakers in the party will equally serve to replace 11 former officials, including former General Secretary Ababu Namwamba, who decamped to Jubilee Party.
ALSO READ: Raila to make changes in ODM
The Star on Thursday reported of a plan by the party that the meeting was convened due to “increasingly strenuous relationship between the affiliate parties, amid fears that the coalition is headed for an acrimonious split over unreasonable demands on its senior partner.”
ODM party is branded as the largest party in the Nasa coalition with 98 MPs in both the Senate and the National Assembly. Kalonzo’s Wiper Party has 26 lawmakers, Mudavadi’s Amani National Congress has 7 lawmakers and Ford Kenya led by Moses Wetangula has 13 members.
Wetangula out
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The Odinga-led party is said to be threatening to use its popularity muscle in the houses to make changes in the leadership.
Ford Kenya leader and Minority leader in the Senate Mr Moses Wetang’ula and Kiminini MP Chris Wamalwa (deputy Minority Whip, National Assembly) have been targeted in the new onslaught.
Other causalities targeted are Wiper Party’s Mutula Kilonzo (Minority Whip, Senate), Jessica Mbalu (Speaker’s Panel) and Kathiani MP Robert Mbui (deputy Minority Leader, National Assembly).
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