Ford Kenya leader Moses Wetang’ula says there will be no automatic candidate in Cord for the 2017 General Election.
“Raila, Kalonzo and I will go through an open nomination process when the time comes,” Mr Wetang’ula said at the weekend.
The Bungoma senator who spoke during a memorial service for former Vice President, the late Michael Wamalwa Kijana in Kitale, Trans Nzoia County, was reacting to calls by a section of Luhya leaders who are urging him to leave the coalition.
Wetangula’s announcement comes just days after ODM leader Raila Odinga declared he will run for president.
Mr Odinga’s quest for presidency in the next elections has raised questions over ambitions of former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka and Mr Wetang’ula.
United Democratic Forum (UDF) leader Musalia Mudavadi called on Wetang’ula to reconsider his association with Raila.
“Raila gave the late Kijana Wamalwa a rough time when they worked together. He did the same thing to me and now Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba, who they have branded traitor for standing his ground,” he said.
“The current discontent in ODM over Namwamba and Raila’s presidential ambitions are clear exit points,” Mudavadi told Wetang’ula.
Mudavadi accused Raila of undermining leaders from the region. He also accused him of blocking Namwamba from ascending to the position of ODM’s secretary general. “He (Raila) always wants other leaders to be subordinate to him,” he said.
New Ford Kenya leaders Eugene Wamalwa and former MP Wakoli Bifwoli said what Namwamba is going through in ODM was likely to befall Mr Wetang’ula.
National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale Sunday claimed that the Cord leaders meeting in Ngorongoro, Tanzania last week was meant to stem a fall-out arising from Mr Odinga’s declaration that he will go for the presidency in 2017.
Mr Duale said the three opposition chiefs did not also hold the meeting to discuss the referendum as some of their MPs had claimed.
 
Courtesy Nation Media Group