Wednesday, September 13, 2023 – The Orange Democratic Movement(ODM) party has attacked Speaker of the National Assembly Moses Wetangula after he criticized former Prime Minister Raila Odinga for expelling five lawmakers for allegedly meeting President William Ruto.
The party last Wednesday kicked out Kisumu Senator Tom Ojienda and MPs Elisha Odhiambo (Gem), Phelix ‘Jalang’o’ Odiwuor (Lang’ata), Caroli Omondi (Suba South) and Gideon Ochanda (Bondo) over allegations of meeting Ruto without Raila Odinga’s permission.
Wetangula, as a result, lectured the opposition on democracy, criticizing the opposition for what he termed as harassment of elected leaders who have chosen to work with the Kenya Kwanza government for the sake of development.
In response, ODM on Wednesday took an issue with Wetangula’s “partisan” involvement in the matter, saying as House Speaker he is supposed to remain a neutral arbiter in legislative and political party issues.
ODM Secretary-General Edwin Sifuna called Wetangula a speaker who has reduced himself to “a Kenya Kwanza appendage and nothing more” in his dispute resolution mechanisms, unlike his predecessors who “picked the path of statesmanship over sycophancy or partisanship.”
The party dismissed Wetangula’s sentiments and maintained it would see through the expulsions because the five leaders chose to promote the interests of other political formations.
“We can only hope that Mr Wetangula forgot that once the due process of these expulsions is concluded, and ODM intends to follow it through to the end, it will be his duty to declare those seats vacant. He cannot therefore have any opinion on the matter until the party has undertaken its mandate as to do so would be extremely prejudicial,” read the statement.
“But if Wetangula feels constrained to speak, we challenge him to lay down the instruments and garb of the office of Speaker and meet us on the political platform like any other politician, so that we can take on him as we have effectively done in the past.”
The Kenyan DAILY POST
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