The Jubilee merger was a nice idea, but the party top leadership ought to have retained the Coordinating Committee of Dr Noah Wekesa and Meru Senator Kiraitu Murungi.
That way, we could be far by now. Disbanding the Coordinating Committee was a bad idea. The Committee ensured that all the affiliate parties were on board. But when it was disbanded at the launch; that is where the trouble began. Initially, every party was represented.
We used to give our views openly and robustly. People would move in agreement. But when it was disbanded, things changed. What happened was like forcing a baby to speak and to lead a political party at the same time.
If the Coordinating Committee with all the experienced political players were still there, Jubilee would be something else by now. The people who are in charge at the moment are not consulting with the former parties that formed Jubilee. The disgruntlement was big from the word Go and the big bosses shouldn’t have ignored the sentiments of that big group.
The defection from Jubilee to small political parties, also claiming to support President Uhuru Kenyatta, is a cause for concern. Essentially, it can cost us the Majority in Parliament. Jubilee’s two top bosses have no option but to cooperate with the small parties – what the President needs most is reelection.
But to me, our competitors, the NASA team, offer nothing new. If you ask the local mwananchi, they will tell you these people are just greedy for power.
We know these guys, most of them have been implicated in major graft scandals. Wetang’ula was implicated in the Tokyo Embassy scandal and for a long time he has been one of the lawyers of Kamlesh Pattni. This other guy from our place is just an opportunist. He said it clearly – he is going to be in government, whether in NASA or Jubilee.
What I can say is that the daily NASA rallies are just comic. If you ask Churchill Ndambuki to mobilise, he will mobilise better than Raila.
But it doesn’t mean the big crowd will translate into votes. You know, I have worked with Raila, and if he has a rally in, say, Eldoret, his supporters from Kisumu, everywhere, will troop to the place. They are his fans. They can fill Machakos and they don’t vote there.