Blow to Mudavadi as Vihiga senator and several MCAs dump ANC for Azimio affiliate UDP of Cyrus Jirongo.
The United Democratic Party (UDP) led by Cyrus Jirongo on today received defectors from Musalia Mudavadi’s Amani National Congress (ANC) party.
The leaders were received in Nairobi where Jirongo assured them of full support in advancing the Azimio la Umoja agenda to mobilize as many voters as possible behind Raila Odinga’s presidential bid.
“I want to welcome all of you to UDP, today is a culmination of long discussions and I want to assure you that you have made the right move. The right place to be is to be in a vehicle that is in Azimio,” said Jirongo
“We support Raila Odinga because we believe that he represents the right feelings of a majority of Kenyans. We are supporting him in Azimio because we want leadership that shall help this country recover from the mess that we find ourselves in today.”
On his part, Vihiga Senator George Khaniri who led the team of defectors including several MCAs acknowledged that parting ways with ANC was not an easy move further stating that they did not agree with Mudavadi’s move to join the Kenya Kwanza outfit led by Deputy President William Ruto.
“It was not an easy decision, this is a party that we have built for a long time and it is not us leaving ANC, the party leader left with the party and went to a place that we cannot follow him,” he said.
“Before the decision to join Kenya Kwanza was made we were not consulted, so we are not party to that, we severe our relationship with ANC completely and from today henceforth our home is UDP.” Khaniri added.
Mudavadi has been suffering a loss of members since forming ties with Deputy President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA), as the opposition team has been wooing members from Kenya Kwanza in a battle of voter numbers ahead of the August 9 polls
