Nairobi, Kenya: The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy ( CORD) has convened a strategy retreatthis weekend for its senators and governors.
ODM leader Raila Odinga and Wiper party leader and former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka
The 24 governors and 29 senators will converge at the Serena Beach hotel in Mombasa from Saturday to Monday for what the coalition says is a bonding session.
Former Prime Minister and ODM leader Raila Odinga and Wiper party leader and former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka will lead the meeting.
Wednesday, CORD principal and Bungoma senatorMoses Wetang’ula confirmed the meeting which he only described as a session to network.
“Yes we will be in Mombasa this weekend with ourgovernors just to network,” Wetang’ula said without divulging more details of the retreat.
Mombasa governor Ali Hassan Joho and his Kisii counterpart James Ongwae confirmed receiving invites for the weekend retreat but could not divulge more on the agenda.
This is the first ever meeting for the opposition coalition summit of the governors and its leadership following the March 4, general election that handed victory to Jubilee’s Uhuru Kenyatta.
Although Cord lost the presidency, the coalition through its partner parties managed to clinch majority of the gubernatorial seats at 24 out of the 47 counties. These include the crucial counties of the country’s capital Nairobi, the sea port city of Mombasa and the country’s third city of Kisumu.
ODM’s Josephat Nanok also won the Turkana seat; a county which will be the country’s first oil producing region following the discovery of huge deposits of the black gold.
While accepting the decision of the Supreme Court to confirm Uhuru’s victory, Raila who flew the Cord flag said the coalition will now concentrate its energies in supporting devolution.
Raila and Kalonzo have reaffirmed that they will push the devolution by marshaling their troops into those counties that they control so as to realize the full potential of devolved units.
“Raila Odinga believes that one of the biggest changes to ever happen in Kenya is devolution andgovernors are the symbol of that devotion. Full benefits of this change can be realized with the success of devolution,” the former PM’s spokesman Dennis Onyango said Wednesday evening.
The weekend retreat is among the many forums that they CORD leadership has lined for its governorswho will help in transforming the count developments by creating links and cooperation.
“He is organizing a lot of forum for governors but locally and internationally which aims at linking them to potential investors and development partners both at home and abroad,” he added.
Onyango also said the CORD leaders will sue the forum to keep encouraging their governors to be focused on the CORD agenda, and encourage them to implement the promises during the campaigns.
“ CORD made various promises during the campaign and it’s now time that the manifesto of the coalition is implemented in accordance to what voters were promised,” he said.
Sources have also indicated that there are fears in the opposition that the Jubilee leadership has hatched a plot to weaken CORD by wooing some of its governorsto work with them.
Insiders of the opposition said Jubilee is planning to dish goodies to governors which include including them in delegations that accompany Uhuru to foreign trips.
The recent one is Mombasa governor Joho who was in the president’s entourage to Uganda on Monday and Nairobi’s Evans Kidero who has accompanied Uhuru on many occasions culminating to Sunday’s lunch meeting at his posh Muthaiga home.
By Geoffrey Mosoku, The Standard
