From: dick.aduonga@ . . .

Mr Musalia Mudavadi, after a tough soul searching, finally made a decision to leave Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). I wish him well in his search for a new party. However, he would have liked Kenyans to believe that he is leaving because of lack of democratic space in ODM, the same party he, Musalia Mudavadi, has been leading as deputy leader for the last four years.

Based on all the public facts available, it is possible that he has been influenced by external factors rather than internal ODM politics. In the past few months, the deputy leader asked the party National Executive Council to review its presidential nomination clause which gives the party leader automatic right to be nominated as a sole presidential candidate. One would loudly wonder why he would object to a clause he knew very well existed in the party constitution for the last four years and never once informed the party of his disdain of it and yet seven or so months to the national polls, he finds the party structures and its leadership so incompatible with his dearly held political principles that the only way forward is to exit.

The former deputy leader has every right as a citizen to make whatever decisions he chooses, that is his constitutional right which must be fiercely defended. However, the cause and impact of such decisions ought to be rigorously evaluated especially when one is a public leader. In most working major democracies for example in the common wealth group of nations, of which Kenya is a member and our Constitution is a mirror of, the tradition is that if the general membership or a section of it feels the leadership is inept and unable to fulfil national party objectives, they call for party elections to change the leader. If the party leader retains his position, he leads his team to the next national polls and if not the newly elected leader takes the mandate. This model has worked well in India, Australia and United Kingdom among others and since Musalia never challenged Raila Odinga for the party leadership position but for the presidential nomination only, his objectives may still be politically suspect.

A time has come for the freedom fighters of the second liberation to team up with the freedom fighters of the third liberation to take the bull by the horn and finally liberate our motherland from the insidious schemes of the darker forces that are not ready to embrace the new constitutional dispensation. To the mischievous minds constitutional freedom for the masses is dangerous simply because they never envisaged that one day working class people would be free to enjoy their constitutional rights. Kenya is changing for the better and some people have not accepted that and for Musalia who has reached a T-junction, it must only mean one thing, decision time as indecision could be his greatest weakness

By Dickson Aduonga