Wrangles within the National Reconstruction Alliance party (NRA) are threatening to divide the party membership into two with Busia senator Okiya Omtatah being roped in the melee.
The party’s National chairman Mr. Fredrick Munuku now claims a section of the party worked together to carry out dubious businesses within the party after it’s registration, a move he says may polarize the party.
“During the party registration, personally financed the whole process while I was in the United States of America, but when I came back the people I was using to register the party were managing the party for their own gain.
Mr. Munuku, who claims to be the party’s founder of NRA said their efforts to address the simmering wrangles have been futile with the party’s secretary general “deliberately meddling the list of the national executive committee members without his knowledge.”
He has since moved to the political parties’ tribunal to seek legal redress.
“For a long time, we have been trying to address this issue as a party. We have had meetings with the Office of political parties (OPP) where they advised us to have a dialogue and find a solution but some of the issues that we uncovered were so grave only one entity could address them. In particular, we discovered that the secretary general attempted on several occasions to change the national executive committee membership list.”
Fredrick Munuku NRA chairman
He added, “The list that we gave to the registrar in February 2021 when the party was being registered was later changed to another list that I was not aware of as the party chairman. I have tried on many occasions to raise this issue with the office of OPP and after deliberation, they advised us that we go to court for direction.”
“We have tried dialogue, tried peace talks it was not working and now we are heading to political parties’ tribunal to see how the court can help us sort this issue.”
Mr Munuku challenged Busia senator Okiya Omtatah who was elected on the NRA ticket to break his silence and declare his stand on the leadership wrangles facing the party.
“Already there are two factions but what is worrying us, is the senator’s silence on the ongoings.. His body language in NRA can tell you clearly that is not a friend to the NRA constitution. We are really interested to know where he is standing, whether he is supporting the group that is committing a very serious fraud in a public institution or not,” he noted
He further accused certain individuals in the department of compliance in the office of the political parties to have colluded with the party secretary general to try and alter the membership list to favor certain wing of the party.
“It should be known to the public that there are individuals in the office of the registrar particularly the department of compliance that have worked with the secretary general and other people to change our documents in favor of the latter and we want to let them know that we are aware of what has been going on in those offices and as a party, we are determined to address the issues.”
Mr Munuku
He noted that anybody who vied on the NRA party in the last general elections was not legally nominated stating that nomination certificates require a signature from the National party chairman and party’s secretary general which, according to him he did not sign any certificate.
His sentiments were echoed by the party’s National women leader Ms Irine Mwai who noted that it was in bad faith robbing Mr Munuku of what he struggled to build.
Busia County NRA Chairman Bonface Namani clarified that Mr Omtata holds no position in the party accusing him of being behind issues facing the party.
“Let it be clear that Mr. Omtata is just a member of the party. There is no way you are given the mandate to be the caretaker of someone’s property while away and when he comes back you want to take over.That wont happen. he noted
Mr Omtata has however distanced himself from the ongoing wrangles saying he doesn’t wish to meddle in the party’s leadership wrangles.
Party Secretary General Paul Amemba could however not be reached for comments as his phone calls and messages went unanswered.
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