National Super Alliance (NASA) Co-Principal Moses Wetangula last week suffered a major blow after his nomination for the Senate Minority Leader position was rejected.
Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka rejected Wetangula’s nomination as the House Minority Leader and issued an ultimatum to the Opposition to submit a list of its nominees to various committees by November 20.
Speaker Lusaka dismissed two letters from the coalition nominating the Bungoma Senator as the Minority Leader arguing that the nomination did not follow the set rules.
Responding to the setback, Senator Wetangula stated that the move to block his nomination was"a scheme that was hatched a long time ago and blamed Mr Lusaka for the mess."
[caption caption="File image of Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula"]
[/caption]
“We at NASA already knew what they were planning, even before it came out. It is a matter that Mr Lusaka has been discussing in bars.
“The role of a Speaker in Parliament is not to fix people. He does not know the glue that has put Nasa leaders together,” Wetangula was quoted by the Sunday Nation.
Mr Wetang’ula said the Constitution and the law recognise NASA as a coalition in Parliament. “We are in Parliament as a package called Nasa. The instruments recognising NASA are with the Registrar of Political Parties and our Nasa secretariat.”
According to Wetangula, blocking his nomination is a "desperate attempt by a “Jubilee-sponsored Speaker” to derail the coalition because he knows that the Opposition stands for the good of the people.
“The Speaker cannot micromanage us. We operate within the structures of NASA that allow us to work together. The schemes by these doomsday conspirators will not succeed. They will not manage us. We are ahead of the game and they are always playing catch-up,” he explained.
Meanwhile, The nomination of National Assembly Minority Leader John Mbadi was also quashed on grounds that it had been done unprocedurally.
Speaking on Friday, NASA Chief Executive Officer Norman Magaya dismissed the blocking of their nominees adding that those were just sideshows to slow down the coalition.
[caption caption="File image of NASA Leaders addressing the media"]
[/caption]
“The fact remains that Mr Wetangula and Mr John Mbadi (Suba South MP) are NASA’s choices for Minority Leaders in the Senate and National Assembly respectively,” he stated.
