Labour Party leader Ababu Namwamba at a past event. [Photo/ scoopnest.com]
Ababu Namwamba has said he regrets swearing allegiance to ODM leader Raila Odinga as Kenya’s elected president after the 2007 general election.
Ababu said he, then, trusted Raila’s leadership and was willing to do anything to ensure he took over the leadership of the country.
After the 2007 bungled presidential poll in which then President Mwai Kibaki was controversially declared winner, Ababu, during MPs’ swearing ceremony in Parliament refused to take oath paying allegiance to Kibaki arguing he was not Kenya’s elected president then.
Ababu argued that Raila was Kenya’s elected president and swore never to take Parliamentary oath in Kibaki’s respect as the commander in chief.
“I was close to Raila more than anyone else,” Ababu said on Saturday.
“Even in Jan 15, 2008, in my first day in Parliament carrying a Bible, I Ababu Namwamba swore in Raila’s name as the President of the republic of Kenya," he said .
After the 2007 disputed elections, Emuhaya MP Kenneth Marende had been tasked to swear in MPs after being elected Parliament Speaker. But there was a hitch.
ODM had claimed victory in the elections but incumbent Mwai Kibaki had been sworn in.
MPs were to take oath in alphabetical order after Kibaki and Raila and consequently, Ababu was the first to be called in.
Although Marende had made a determination that the MPs take oath in the manner prescribed- swearing allegiance to the president and the country- Ababu then, aged 33 would hear none of it.
Then Imenti South MP Kiraitu Murungi intervened on a point of order and asked Marende if it was in order for Ababu to take oath in a manner not prescribed.
But adamant Ababu refused to swear allegiance to the president only mentioning the republic.
“I don’t mince my words, I say the truth. When you see me leaving that party (ODM), ask why?”
Ababu broke ranks with ODM in 2016 after accusing the party leadership of undermining him as secretary general.
He relaunched the Labour Party of then led by former Funyula MP Julia Ojiambo in Nairobi and announced he will ride on it in defending his position as Budalang’i MP during the August 8 polls.