Speaking during a press conference on Wednesday leaders from the region led by Nambale MP Sakwa Bunyasi said they had not been consulted and the agenda of the meeting remained unknown to them/CFM – Moses Muoki
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 8 – A section of elected leaders from Western Kenya have vowed to boycott a proposed meeting bringing together Luhya leaders slated for Saturday.
The forum co-convened by Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya and Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) secretary General Francis Atwoli was expected to deliberate on Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report released in November 2019.
Speaking during a press conference on Wednesday leaders from the region led by Nambale MP Sakwa Bunyasi said they had not been consulted and the agenda of the meeting remained unknown to them.
“As legislators from Western Kenya, we want to state clearly that we don’t know anything about this proposed meeting. We do not know where it was mooted and who the organizers are. Basic courtesy and common decency demand that if anyone is organizing a leaders’ meeting in any part of the country, he/she should involve the area leaders,” Bunyasi said.
“To do otherwise is to be both scornful and malicious.”
Bunyasi further stated that the meeting planned by COTU’s Atwoli is not about sensitizing Kakamega residents on BBI as earlier portrayed.
“We do not know where Atwoli derives the mandate to speak for the people of Western Kenya when they have elected leaders. We know him to be an elected Secretary General of COTU and we understand him when he speaks about industrial issues. He loses us however, when he presumes to go beyond that,” he said.
Bunyasi was accompanied by MPs Benjamin Washiali (Mumias East), John Waluke (Sirisia), Tindi Mwale,(Butere) Emmanuel Wangwe (Navakholo), Malulu Injendi (Malaba), Alfred Agoi (Sabatia) and Eseli Simiyu (Tongaren).
Oparanya, ODM Deputy Chairperson announced that all Luhya leaders will meet at Bukhungu Stadium on January 18 to chart the political way forward for the community following a meeting at Atwoli’s Khwisero home, Vihiga County on December 26 also attended by ODM leader Raila Odinga.
A section of Luhya leaders termed the Khwisero meeting a convention of Raila sympathizers who do not have the interests of the community at heart.
“We want to warn Atwoli that whereas in the first instance he succeeded to lie to our community that he had the powers to anoint a leader which he did when he named Musalia Mudavadi as community spokesman, we know that he now wants to anoint Oparanya to keep on giving Raila a foothold in the community. He has shortchanged Luhyas for decades,” former Kakamega Senator, Boni Khalwale.
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