Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has convened a meeting to avert a looming messy and noisy fallout within the Azimio la Umoja coalition.
The two major parties within the coalition, Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and Jubilee Party, have been trading blame after former Prime Minister Raila Odinga lost the Presidential election.
ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna told the press on Sunday, November 20, that Jubilee had not delivered its promise of delivering 40 per cent of the Mt Kenya vote.
He argued that the team, which was led by Jubilee Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni, had continually lied to Raila over the likelihood that Azimio would hit its target in the Mt Kenya region.
"The agreement was that the Jubilee Party would help us get at least 40 per cent of the vote in Mt Kenya. If you look at the registered voters in Mt Kenya of about 6 million, that means that Kioni and his party was supposed to delivered 2.4 million votes.
"People were lying to Baba about the actual situation on the ground. We were being told we could get 40 per cent when some of these people who were speaking knew that they were going to lose," he stated.
Kioni, on the other hand, claimed that the Jubilee team had delivered 1.2 million votes - a runaway success for the former Prime Minister compared to the votes he had garnered from the region previously.
He further argued that his association with the coalition cost him the Parliamentary seat he contested.
"1.2 million votes, if you compare with what Raila had gotten before, at least for those of us who are with them, they should sow respect.
"The only reason why I am not in bunge is because of having stuck with Jubilee and having supported Raila," he responded.
Sifuna, however, maintained that ODM was ready to sit down with all parties within the coalition to iron out issues.
"I saw the headlines yesterday quoting Jeremiah Kioni, the SG of Jubilee, saying that they are done with Raila and that they paid whatever debt there was. Within ODM, there is a vast silent majority who would want nothing but that conversation with our brothers and sisters in Jubilee.
"We would want to have that discussion on everybody's role, what was promised and what was delivered. Let them tell us if they have decided that they want to chart another path. Coalitions are based on consent and you cannot be forced to be in a coalition that you feel is not good for you," stated Sifuna.
Raila, however, dismissed the squabbles as child's play arguing that all issues within the coalition would be sorted out.
