The rift in Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance seems to be widening as coalescing parties continue to mount political warfare against each other.
Wiper Deputy Party Leader Farah Maalim on Tuesday, November 22, poked holes at the Raila-led coalition, pointing out that the party would not make it to the 2027 General Election due to deceit and betrayal from the top brass.
In particular, he questioned the former premier's candidature in the August 9 presidential election and accused him of seeking selfish gains as opposed to the country's overall interest.
“I kept wondering throughout this process, what is Raila Odinga looking for in this contest? Is he looking to become president or something else, the impression you get is he is either looking for money or other resources or other things, look at what Ruto is doing..,” Maalim told KTN News.
"Why did we lose? We had the same problem in 2007, 2013, 2017 and now 2022, in all these our agents were not paid, which means somebody who had the money did not pay, are you going for this race to become president of this country?" he paused.
In addition, he accused Raila of not throwing his weight behind politicians who forfeited their interests to support his bid.
"I think we are not only imploding, my honest assessment is within a short period of time there will be no Azimio, how do you explain a whole Secretary General of a party, who is out of his seat because he joined Azimio, Kioni and Kanini Kega would be in parliament today if they were in Kenya Kwanza, he stated.
"You need to seriously be out there sacrificing for such people and then Kioni gets 19 votes, if he lost by 80 or 90 votes, he would have gone down fighting, how do you explain the secretary general of Jubilee who supported Raila's presidency getting such against a t
otal number of one hundred plus MPs, what informed that decision? That means people were whipped towards a certain direction," he explained.
The Dadaab lawmaker also implored Wiper Party Leader Kalonzo Musyoka to chart his own path and not expect support from Raila Odinga.
"My good friend Kalonzo Musyoka who has sacrificed a lot for Raila, now believes the mantle will be handed to him, it will not happen, the good thing for him is to make up his mind for the future, he was betrayed in 2007, 2013, 2017 and 2022, we have never been in this business to win the presidency," he affirmed.
These sentiments come in the backdrop of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua's push to have Jubilee MPs support the government before December 31, 2022.
The DP declared that his quest to unite Mt Kenya region under one political roof and mentor young political leaders was unstoppable. He gave an assurance that those who had "strayed" into Azimio formation would be back by December 31, 2022.
“As I have said before, politics is now over and it is time to serve the people. During the just concluded elections, Azimio had 13 percent of votes in this region and we will reach out to professionals, business people and politicians who had gone astray."
"I have talked to many of them and have told me they were intimidated and coerced into joining Azimio and are ready to return to the fold, " he noted.
