Deputy President William Ruto’s party, UDA, is preparing to receive its newest catch- Kajiado Central MP Memusi Kanchori.
Memusi is already bidding goodbye to his party, ODM, after allegedly failing to convince the party not to hold primaries in Kajiado Central and instead nominate him directly.
In a political rally in Dalalekutuk Ward on December 15, where he had gone to drum up support for his CDF chairman John Loisa, who is running for MCA, the MP, accompanied by UDA aspirants such as Senatorial hopeful, Samuel Seki, demanded that ODM use “intelligence reports” to identify popular candidates like him instead of holding primaries which he said would be infiltrated by the County Government machinery.
The MP has increasingly become jittery of the resurgence of his leading opponent, Moses Birisha, within the Azimio La Umoja ranks, supported by key ODM party honchos at Orange House.
The party big wigs are said to be opposed to Memusi’s third term bid arguing he has failed to support ODM party activities including paying the Sh 20,000 monthly party subscriptions.
Birisha, initially set to run on UDA party, beat a hasty retreat after secretly meeting top ODM Officials in party leader Raila Odinga’s Capitol Hill Office, in Nairobi, two weeks ago.
Mr Birisha is a senior officer in the County Government of Kajiado and is an ally of Governor Joseph Ole Lenku, a new found ally of Mr Odinga.
It is this meeting between Birisha and Raila men that jolted Memusi to suspect there could be foul play during the party primaries prompting him to harshly criticize Mr Odinga that he should not allow resources linked to the County Government to be used to tilt the ODM party primaries in favor of certain aspirants.
He went ahead to warn Raila that the primaries should be done away with and instead “intelligence on the ground” be used to get a candidate.
The remarks angered ODM top brass who ordered Kajiado ODM Branch Chairman Innocent Katoo to release a public statement against it on December 16.
The statement was approved by party Secretary General Edwin Sifuna and Suna East MP Junet Mohamed.
On Tuesday night, Memusi’s ultimatum to Mr Odinga came back to haunt him during a meeting in Kitengeja between him, ODM MCAs and party officials led by the Chairperson of the National Elections Board (NEB), Catherine Mumma.
Ms Mumma categorically said party primaries were inevitable and that the MP should face other opponents and fight for the for the ticket.