Ruto disappoints Raila’s team after joining NASA

janet ndila

April 19, 2017 8:53 AM

Hours after announcing that he had joined NASA, Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto angered ODM leader Raila Odinga's team.

ODM leader Raila Odinga and Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto

NASA principals Kalonzo Musyoka, Moses Wetangula and Musalia Mudavadi convened a private meeting at Raila Odinga Capitol Hill offices on Tuesday after the failed retreat in Mombasa.

The talks were meant to discuss the thorny issue of the coalition flagbearer with Bomet governor Isaac Ruto, who was expected at the meeting, failed to turn up.

Instead, the principals were informed at last minute that the governor would not attend the crucial talks without warning the principals.

“He is busy with the nominations… We are finishing the exercise today in Bomet, so he had to be here,” a source close to the Governor said.

The principals also locked out Nasa’s National Co-ordinating Committee (NCC), members of the quartet affirming that the talks were private.

“We, members of the NCC, came in as supporters of political party leaders but they requested that we leave them to deliberate on the issues among themselves, so I do not know what they discussed,” Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale, a member of NCC, was quoted by the Nation.

The principals held a two-hour meeting but details remain scanty of what they discussed.

This is after the four rejected a proposal by the NCC to have Odinga as the coalition flagbearer and Kalonzo as his running mate.

On the other hand, Ruto stated that he was joining NASA as an equal partner with speculations rife the quartet will restructure the power-sharing agreement deal to accommodate him

“CCM is joining Nasa as a coalition partner on equal terms with the rest of the parties already in the coalition,” Mr Ruto had said earlier.

janet ndila