Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has on Thursday, July 29, announced its decision to walk out of NASA coalition.
NASA was political vehicle that brought together Wiper Party led by Kalonzo Musyoka, Musalia Mudavadi’s Amani National Congress (ANC), Ford Kenya led by Moses Wetangula and Isaac Ruto’s Chama Cha Mashinani in the last general election – with Raila as the flag bearer.
ODM has resolved to formally leave the coalition following wrangles surrounding sharing of party funds with ODM maintaining that its owes its coalition partners nothing.
ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna said on Thursday, July 29, in a press briefing that the decision was made following a meeting of the party’s National Executive Council (NEC).
The statement read: “The NEC also deliberated on question of resolution of the dispute regarding sharing Party funds with our former partners in the NASA Coalition and wishes to make the following observations…. The offer to make certain payments to our former partners was made on a strictly without prejudice basis because from a plain reading of the Coalition Agreement, we owe nothing to our partners,” said Sifuna.
“We still hold that NASA is the past. To further demonstrate this point, the NEC of ODM has today resolved to formally exit the NASA Coalition.”
ODM says it will chart its own way forward and is focused on establishing new partnerships ahead of the 2022 elections.
“The NEC has further deliberated on the future of the Party and its need to make new friends. We intend to embark on a programme to build new partnerships and extend the ongoing partners to the grassroots. To this end regional meetings and engagements have been planned with like-minded parties. The schedule for these will be shared in due course,” added ODM.