CORD retreats to address money woes and indiscipline

ODM Leader Raila Odinga with his Ford Kenya counterpart Moses Wetangula at a previous event. Photo/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 9 — The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) was meeting at the Great Rift Valley Lodge in Naivasha on Sunday to set its Parliamentary agenda for 2014.

Coalition leaders Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetangula were expected to chair the two-day sessions meant to address a number of issues causing disquiet in the coalition.

At the top of the agenda was the formation of a shadow Cabinet that would charge various members of the coalition with the responsibility of addressing the various governance issues.

“We can’t have everybody shooting from the hip. We must present a united front, a coalition position. Everybody must tow the line,” an insider told Capital FM News.

The coalition partners are also expected to agree on how the Orange Democratic Movement’s Political Party Fund allocation of Sh87.4 million, at present, will be shared out among the coalition partners, if at all.

On Saturday the Wiper Democratic Movement leader Musyoka expressed confidence that they would get a share of the allocation but said they would also be pursuing their own allocation.

“CORD does not need anybody’s advice on how to share the Political Parties Fund. In fact as Wiper we should be getting our own allocation. I don’t know what all this business of 4.8 percent is when in actual fact we got over the required five percent,” he argued.

Members of Parliament allied to Musyoka’s Wiper and Wetangula’s Ford Kenya have in the recent past complained of being sidelined by Odinga’s ODM.

A section of Ford Kenya party members have even called on Wetangula to pull out of the coalition for the reason that it has not benefited them.

But Musyoka sought to allay these fears maintaining that there are no cracks in the coalition and that it would continue to play a united role of the opposition.

“Do not worry about us. Before becoming President didn’t Mwai Kibaki have to try a number of times? Did he stay out of the game? No. And neither will we,” he assured.

The CORD strategy retreat is scheduled to conclude on Monday afternoon, on the eve of the re-opening of Parliament.

About The Author

OLIVE BURROWS

With a decade of storytelling under her belt, Olive Burrows has been with Capital FM for the last four years and perhaps most notably interviewed US President Barack Obama. Committed to asking the hard questions and telling the story in the most engaging way possible, she has also interviewed Melinda Gates, a UK Minister and severally had the opportunity to sit across from President Uhuru Kenyatta and address the pressing issues of the day. Other notables she has had occasion to seek answers from are UN Secretary General António Guterres and John Kerry in his time as US Secretary of State.

See author's posts