'ANC remains intact,' Mudavadi says as he downplays defections from his party

Amani National Congress (ANC) party leader Musalia Mudavadi now says that he is unperturbed by the decision made by some of his party members to decamp to rival political factions.

Last week Penina Mukabane, an aspiring Woman Representative for Kakamega County, and Wycliffe Muhanji, who served as ANC’s grassroots mobiliser, jumped ship to Deputy President William Ruto’s UDA party. In December 2021, high-profile ANC members among them Matungu MP Peter Nabulindo and ANC Deputy Party leader Ayub Savula also ditched Mudavadi’s camp for ODM leader Raila Odinga’s Azimio la Umoja movement.

According to Mudavadi, his party members are free to converse with and join any political camp they feel meets their specific interests as such there should be no cause for alarm in regards to an ongoing crisis at ANC on the same.

 “If any member wishes to take a walk, frankly speaking, it is his democratic right. If that happens, the party will just go to its reservoir of members and identify alternatives,” Mudavadi told the Nation Newspaper in an interview on Thursday.

Mudavadi continued on to say that his party’s reputation remains intact despite the absconding of party members to DP Ruto's and Odinga’s political vehicles.  Having more party members, Mudavadi says, does not automatically guarantee loyalty.

“You are better of having a few committed and dedicated soldiers than 1,000 fellows who are ready to stab you in the back purporting to be loyalists,” the ANC leader added.

Mudavadi also dismissed claims that divergent views are emanating from some of his party members citing that having different opinions should not be perceived as endorsing disparity across Kenya's political scene.

“I can name MPs who belong to ODM but have divergent views. There are very many. In fact, the biggest chunk of Jubilee MPs has different views. There are those in Wiper and Ford Kenya too with different views,” he said.

The One Kenya Alliance (OKA) co-principal, while hinting that the alliance was still open to coalition talks, also touched on the coalition’s progress in regards to naming a flag bearer ahead of the August polls citing that the decision will be made before the Independent Electorate and Boundaries Commission's (IEBC) February deadline. 

He consequently dispelled assertions from certain factions who claim that he has an automatic advantage over OKA co-principals Moses Wetangula, Kalonzo Musyoka and Senator Gideon Moi should a competitive nomination be carried out to determine the coalition’s flag bearer.

“We leave that to the technical committee to make its decision. But whoever is raising that should just look at the National Super Alliance (NASA) situation back in 2017,” he said.

“In the NASA situation, Wetangula, Raila, Kalonzo and I were there. In the process, Raila was picked as the presidential flag bearer and Kalonzo as his running mate but the decision was not made along ethnic lines.”