Uhuru Kenyatta was endorsed by TNA and URP delegates to vie for the presidency on a Jubilee Alliance ticket. PHOTO: TeamUhuru
In a letter sent to the Registrar on Monday, National Chairman Hassan Osman argued that UDF was left out of the nomination process that endorsed Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta’s candidacy.
Osman said that it was not clear how the Jubilee Alliance picked Kenyatta on December 23 because the Alliance – to which UDF was also a member – had not agreed on a selection process.
“There exists a misunderstanding as to how the nomination of the presidential candidate ought to be conducted; whether by consensus or through delegates,” Osman said in the letter, which was copied to the two parties and the IEBC.
Heurged the Registrar to provide guidance on the matter adding that UDF’s coalition partners had failed to exhaust the Dispute Resolution Mechanisms contained in their agreement.
UDF, which is led by Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi, fell out with the other coalition parties after Kenyatta’s supporters pushed their leader to a corner and reneged a boardroom deal that had picked Mudavadi as the alliance’s candidate.
Mudavadi said that he and Kenyatta had made a deal, in the presence of lawyers, where the Gatundu South MP gave up his presidential ambitions in his favor.
TNA delegates however refused to honor the agreement saying it was arrived at through the backdoor forcing Kenyatta to go back on his word.
The delegates also maintained that the presidential flag bearer would be picked through a delegates’ nomination process even though Mudavadi stuck by his deal with Kenyatta.
“If Mudavadi wants to be in Jubilee, he has to accept nomination by delegates. He left ODM (Orange Democratic Movement) seeking democracy,” quipped Garsen MP Danson Mungatana.
Party Secretary General Onyango Oloo said TNA did not recognise the agreement because it was not binding to party members.
“The decision for Uhuru on whether to step down or not lies with the delegates. We have built this party for a long time preaching democracy and we want to practice it.”
And on Friday Mudavadi scoffed at suggestions that he was edged out of the Jubilee Alliance by Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto saying he had already walked out.
In a statement from his spokesman Kibisu Kabatesi, Mudavadi termed the decision to announce his exit as “dishonourable, heartless and cheeky to the extreme.”
“Reports that Hon Uhuru Kenyatta and Hon William Ruto have purportedly ‘dropped’ Hon Musalia Mudavadi from the Jubilee coalition paint the couple as dishonourable,” he said.
Mudavadi also declared that he would conduct campaigns on his own and that he was still in the race.
The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy has also been asking Mudavadi back into the ODM fold.
“I want to tell my brother Mudavadi sorry. Come back home; the door is still open and you are welcome,” urged Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Saturday when he was presented to the public as the coalition’s presidential candidate.
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