ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna has taken a swipe at Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka for asking ODM leader Raila Odinga to retire ahead of the 2022 elections.
On Sunday, December 19, the One Kenya Alliance co-principal asked ODM leader Raila Odinga to retire with President Uhuru Kenyatta in August 2022, remarks that appear to have not settled well with ODM Secretary-General.
Sifuna who has declared interest in vying for Nairobi senatorial seat in the 2022 elections fired salvos at the Wiper leader saying Raila would be retiring in August 2022 were it not for Kalonzo’s greed, in reference to the controversial 2007 elections where Kalonzo dumped Raila and unsuccessfully vie for the presidency before settling for the vice president position
Prior to the 2007 elections, Kalonzo ditched Raila’s ODM and formed his political vehicle, the ODM-Kenya in which he used to vie for the presidency.
The then ODM-Kenya party leader garnered 879,903 votes against 4,584,721 and 4,352,993 votes for retired president Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga respectively resulting in post-election violence where hundreds of Kenyans lost their lives and thousands of others rendered homeless.
This saw the then political power brokers led by late billionaire Chris Kirubi offer Kalonzo the vice president position in exchange for his 879,903 on top of 4,584,721 votes that Kibaki had, making it hard for Raila to challenge his loss in court.
While Kalonzo said he did that in the best interest of the country to bring to an end the post-election violence, Sifuna on his part claim the OKA principal did so due to his huge and selfish appetite for power.
In a statement to his social media on Monday, December 20, Sifuna said Kalonzo’s unreasonable greed for power during the dramatic 2007 General Election has ensured he will never become president of Kenya.
He said if Kalonzo would stick to ODM in the build-up to the 2007 General Election, Raila would easily win the presidency and hand over the mantle to him (Kalonzo) as early as 2017, adding that the ODM party would now be campaigning for Kalonzo’s re-election.
“If Kalonzo Musyoka had not been unreasonably greedy in 2007 Raila would have finished his two terms in 2017. We would all now be campaigning for Kalonzo’s re-election under the Original ODM Party,” Sifuna said in a Tweet.
