Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka’s confidant Dan Maanzo now wants the former Nasa principals to reunite ahead of the 2022 polls.
The Makueni MP told the Star on Friday that the former political buddies must work together in the next elections if they are keen on succeeding President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The second-term lawmaker said both ODM leader Raila Odinga and One Kenya principals cannot on their own defeat Deputy President William Ruto who is a already a front runner in the next year’s presidential contest.
Maanzo said dissolution of the giant Nasa coalition was a big mistake as the disintegrated opposition only raises DP’s chances in the coming polls.
“ODM leader Raila Odinga on his own cannot go anywhere, OKA alone cannot go anywhere. They must work together.
“Raila is looking weaker without Kalonzo and the other OKA principals,” Maanzo said.
The MP said Raila should have urgent talks with OKA chiefs as equals to have a joint opposition candidate next year.
Nasa, a giant political machine that brought together Raila, Kalonzo, ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi and Moses Wetang’ula (Ford Kenya) suffered a rocky relationship leading to its dissolution in August after the parties wrote to Registrar of Political parties pulling from the outfit.
The leaders backed the former Prime Minister in the last two presidential elections - as Cord in 2013 and Nasa in 2017, except Mudavadi who was a candidate in 2013.
The cracks in the coalition started soon after the ANC, Wiper and Ford Kenya principals stayed away from Raila's mock swearing-in as 'The People's President' in January 2018 at Uhuru Park.
Their relationship deteriorated in March the same year after the famous handshake between Raila and President Uhuru Kenyatta which brought an end to the political turmoil that engulfed the country after the contested 2017 elections.
The handshake caught many by surprise including Kalonzo, Wetang'ula and Mudavadi who appeared locked out of the negotiations that brought the two leaders together and birthed the Building Bridges Initiative.
Maanzo also expressed confidence that OKA will prove its critics wrong and hold together dismissing ultimatums by a section of ANC legislators who he claim are trying to create a wedge in the nine-month alliance.
Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala early this week accused Kanu Party Leader – a principal in OKA – of being the weak link in the alliance and demanded that he (Moi) pulls out KANU from Uhuru’s Jubilee party and concentrate in the new formation.
“Malala is just a noise maker, who is Malala by himself. We must work as a team in OKA. Malala just wants to be governor, he is choking Musalia. He must allow Musalia to think as Musalia.
“The movement is bigger than Malala, everything is right in OKA, Malala is free to talk,” Maanzo said.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)