Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi, a political invertebrate by many accounts, has formally ended his association with the populist prime minister, Raila Odinga, amid online rumours that he was paid to end ties with his boss.Mudavadi, who rarely smiles in public, has sought to cut an image of a strong politician, even after thanking Odinga in 2007 for helping him get out of political oblivion which Project Uhuru vote in 2002 drove him into.
Today, he left Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement to join the United Democratic Forum Party with the hope of the party nominating him to run for president in 2013 elections. He fell out with Odinga recently over a clause in the party constitution which makes Odinga the automatic ODM presidential candidate.
ODM, run by painfully loyal Odingaists handed over the party's constitution to the registrar of political parties, with a promise to Mudavadi that the clause would be amended to allow him challenge Odinga in nominations. Mudavadi thinks this is a lie. And sources close to him say all along, he knew that there would be no free nomination process in ODM that would possibly allow Mudavadi to beat Odinga for the party's ticket for president.
On http://jukwaa.proboards.com online chatroom, and in bar-based forums, some commentators have been alleging that Mudavadi was paid to burst ODM and get out.
''I wonder how many dollars Uhuru [Kenyatta] paid Mudavadi to get out of ODM,'' a commentator posted on the forum, echoing similar comments to Jackal News editors in recent weeks.
We have not been able to verify the authenticity of these reports.
Earlier today, he announced that he was quitting his post as the minister for local government and his position as ODM deputy party leader. However he said he would remain as the deputy prime minister and MP.
''My trail led me to a party that is patriotic enough to capture the national interests, ambitious enough to re-ignite the appetites of real change crusaders,''he said in Nairobi.
Musalia Mudavadi was born on September 21 1960 in Sabatia, Vihiga District. His darkest point in his career is the Goldernberg scandal in which his name was mentioned.
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