NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 11 – Mathira Member of Parliament Ephraim Maina has been expelled from Safina for violating the party constitution and the Political Party’s Act.
The party’s disciplinary panel accused the legislator of alleged involvement in the formation of a new political party and campaigning for a candidate of a party other than the party that sponsored him to Parliament.
According to the party chairman Mwalimu Mati, who read the verdict to journalists at the Serena Hotel, the party had no choice after giving the MP enough opportunity to respond to the accusations.
“Ephraim Maina has been afforded due process under the party constitution and the Constitution of Kenya. Bearing in mind the gravity of the allegations, the evidence supporting the allegations and the consequences of allowing the conduct to continue; the disciplinary panel finds that Hon. Ephraim Maina is in gross and continued breach of the party Constitution and Code of Conduct and the Political Parties Act.”
“His refusal to submit to the jurisdiction of the party he belongs to is aggravated by his refusal to respond to the notice to show cause and summons issued by the Secretary General of the party. Maina is unable to controvert the charges laid against him; the disciplinary panel unanimously renders him expelled from the Safina party with immediate effect,” Mati charged.
The MP is accused of taking public positions and supporting the presidential candidature of members of the G7 alliance and specifically Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and not Paul Muite, the presidential candidate of Safina.
He chairs a group of Central Kenya Members of Parliament, a group that is said to be forming a new political party that will front for the interests of the chosen leader of Central Kenya in the next general election.
“While purporting to represent Safina party, Maina has convened meetings which were intended to form ethnic political alliances knowing full well that Safina is an anti-tribal nationalistic party and that he had no authority to misrepresent the Safina party’s stance on the 2012 elections,” Mati argued.
He has reiterated that party constitutions were meant to be respected and that his party would not relent in awarding punishment to members who deviate from the norms prescribed in the constitution.
He said: “Safina party has no tolerance for political straddlers. We will abide by our rules without fear or favour. The panel observed that such behaviour which we are punishing today is prevalent in Kenyan political parties but the Safina party will never allow its members to engage in such undemocratic conduct.”
However, the Mathira legislator dismissed the verdict by the party to expel him saying that the decision was the result of a process that was not well constituted.
Maina told journalists at his private offices that he had not campaigned for any presidential candidate for the 2012 elections, but had only campaigned for the election of the current president.
He reiterated that he still remains the MP for Mathira and asked his constituents to disregard the position of the party, and said that he would continue to conduct his political life undeterred by intimidation.
“I want to assure the people whom I represent that I still remain their MP and a member of the Safina party. The people of central Kenya that I will push for the unity of Central Province and I will not under any circumstances be intimidated by means I consider to be improperly constituted,” he asserted.
“I am not preoccupied with campaigns… they (Safina party) have not mentioned the person I campaigned for. Maybe I should be campaigning for myself to be the president, I proudly exercise my leadership with courage and liberty, and will not succumb to anything outside the constitution of the virtues I hold dear,” he affirmed.
Maina said that he said that he will at a later date use unspecified constitutional and legal means to defend his rights.
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