Atwoli is a “school playground bully” who does not deserve respect for his lies’ :Mudavadi’s secretary Kibisu Kabatesi

Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi’s press secretary Mr Kibisu Kabatesi has come out guns blazing telling off Cotu boss who over the weekend while attending a funeral in Busia made some remarks injuring the good standing of both Hon Mudavadi and his Ford Kenya counterpart Sen Wetangula. The Cotu boss further said that DP Ruto has been helping Mr Kabatesi pay his medical bills.

Below see Mr Kabatesi’s rebuttal.

Monday August 9, 2021

PRESS STATEMENT

RE: A Personal Response to an Uncouth Attack on my Person by Francis Atwoli

This statement is issued in my personal capacity as an abused member of the Kenyan society, and not in my official capacities. I have neither consulted Hon Musalia Mudavadi nor has he approved this statement.

While attending a funeral service in Siaya County Saturday, COTU Secretary-General Francis Atwoli launched an unprovoked public vitriol against me, Hon Musalia Mudavadi, Hon Moses Wetangula and other innocents.

I pen this response reluctantly, though, because an Elder of Atwoli’s stature is supposed to earn respect and be respected in return. I find it uncomfortable to engage in a public spat with one the age of my late grandfather. However, overtime, Atwoli has proven unworthy of respect because of his foul-mouthed, obnoxious public insults of select leaders for not accepting his unsolicited patronage.

In the community Atwoli and I share lineage from, an elder never lies, cons or misleads. Such a person loses the title of an elder and is side-lined from participating from elders’ engagements. For far too long, we have allowed Atwoli to straddle the public space with buffoonery, lies, con and intimidation games.

Atwoli has taken Ambridge that I called him out as a political broker and not an honest broker after he sought to impose himself as arbitrator in an imagined truce between Raila Odinga and One Kenya Alliance luminaries on behalf of the former. Such an informed insight doesn’t call for astonishing angry response couched in lies by a delinquent elder.

The idea that elders are genetically full of wisdom escapes credulity when applied to Atwoli’s clowning. Unless otherwise that the natural attrition of senility is setting in, I fail to comprehend blatant lies that;

DP Willian Ruto paid my medical bills.

My last acquaintance with Ruto, in any way, was way back in 2013 in Malava subcounty of Kakamega County. As a living being prone to ailments like any other – but who hasn’t bought everlasting life like Atwoli would have Kenyans believe – I have never sought any help, let alone of the medical kind from Ruto.

I ask Atwoli to table evidence of the nature of my ailment, the hospital I visited, the date(s) and dated receipts of DP payment. Failure to do so should earn Atwoli condemnation for capricious character assassination.

Atwoli gave Hon Mudavadi 200 million.

He whimsically makes this allegation. I am wondering why Atwoli would throw such money around and what its source would be. Assuming Atwoli is just an ordinary workers’ leader, does his publicly-known salary allow for such politically philanthropic extravagance? And when did Atwoli speak for workers last? Could his source of wealth be attributed to absconding representation of workers and cozing with employers?

The other set of questions are; if Atwoli is awash with such cash, how come his generosity isn’t reflected in his patronage of his favourite political outfit? How come ODM and Raila must scramble around to finance campaigns every election circle, while Atwoli boasts of billions on public podiums?

Hon Mudavadi and Hon Wetangula are extorting Raila for 700 million to accept him into OKA.

This most outrageous claim can only be made by a boastful school playground bully. It isn’t mere bragging. But it’s informed by Atwoli reeling from being outrightly rejected in his mediator offer by OKA. Is it within Hon Mudavadi and Hon Wetangula character to extort? How about Atwoli, does he have such character? As James Orengo should testify, Atwoli’s immoral claims beg the questions;

Where was Atwoli when Mudavadi financially acquired ODM in 2007; donated the ODM Pentagon, and Strategy and Communications buildings in the leafy suburbs of Nairobi? Is Mudavadi the desperate person Atwoli attempts to portray, the same one who in 2017 donated the current Musalia Mudavadi Centre (MMC) as NASA campaign headquarters?

Does Atwoli know, like James Orengo would, that for six months, Mudavadi put his chopper at the disposal of the NASA candidate, free of charge? Where were Atwoli’s philanthropic legendary millions when the NASA candidate pulled out of the October repeat presidential elections for lack of funding?

He brought one million people to Bukhungu Stadium in Kakamega County to endorse Mudavadi as the Luhya spokesman in 2016.

Atwoli is a cheat: The enthronement was the brain child of the Western Region Council of Elders and Luhya Elders Forum. Atwoli hijacked it for the publicity it generated.

Atwoli is a cheap liar: Bukhungu Stadium can only sit 23,000. If you were to sit 1million people is equivalent of the whole of Kakamega population, including infants. Wouldn’t such an event attract widespread international interest including insertion into the Guinness Book of Records? Haven’t we seen what numbers one-million match in USA looks like? Could Bukhungu in late 2016 even compare?

So why does Atwoli lie? He is desperate. He isn’t catching the political fish he set out to for his client. And time is running out for his client. Hence the violent verbal attacks to destroy their reputation.

In Siaya, Atwoli was doing exactly what his client demands – being a political broker and not a trade unionist looking out for workers’ plight. Maybe workers should call Atwoli out too; instead of hobnobbing around as a pseudo-politician, he might want to retrace his steps back into meaningful trade unionism.

In doing so, Atwoli might want to acknowledge who picked from the roadside for a Kabarak visit that set him on the road to becoming the long-serving COTU SG in place of the favourite Wafula Wa Musamia.

Kibisu Kabatesi

Private Secretary and Spokesman for H.E Musalia Mudavadi, EGH