Gideon Moi’s Kenya African National Union (KANU) party has dismissed Nick Salat and co. defection to President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) camp.
This comes after the former party’s Secretary General, Nick Salat, announced his move to UDA on Wednesday, along with a few KANU members.
However, KANU party officials led by Secretary General George Wainaina said the defection was a gimmick, owing to the fact that Nick Salat was dismissed after the 2022 Elections.
“This is almost the third time that Mr. Salat and his ilk are defecting. And by the time of his latest, and probably not the last defection stints, he had already been kicked out of the leadership position as a Secretary-General and as a member,” Wainaina said.
SG Wainaina claimed that the team purporting to be KANU members were “hired” and should not be identified as members of the party.
“What is appalling to us is the misuse of our highly valued branded party merchandise to beg for bread crumbs from a government full to the brim by hired characters paraded in the full glares of the camera,” he added.
Wainaina said the ongoing trend of defections speaks of a plot to end multiparty democracy, appearing to be referencing ANC refusal to fold into UDA.
“There is an emerging pattern of defections that speaks to a concerted effort by a certain axis to stifle multiparty democracy after previous desperate attempts at engineering and superintending hostile takeovers of political parties failed before they could even take off.”
The new Secretary however asked their newfound homes to take them seriously to avert more defections.
“Knowing what we do about the defectors, we are tempted to intercede and plead with the government to accord them the attention that they so much crave.”
“Wainaina termed the team as “a bunch of hype men and women: all too form and little substance.”
“What we will not take lying down is individuals gallivanting from one press conference to the other, duping Kenyans under the cover of our beloved party,” he noted.
“We wish to tell them that KANU, built on a very solid foundation, is not moved by their purported defections.”
