Jubilee party secretary general has dared NASA MPs to miss eight parliamentary sittings. [Photo/The Star]
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee party has bashed the opposition coalition NASA over threats to boycott the October 17 election.
In a statement on Thursday, Secretary General Raphael Tuju said the Raila Odinga led coalition was hypocritical in its latest theatrics after the Supreme Court annulled President Kenyatta’s August victory.
He took a swipe with NASA’s threat to boycott the repeat presidential poll and its subsequent order to opposition lawmakers to abscond parliamentary sittings.
“The hypocrisy is amazing that NASA can even have a parliamentary group meeting and yet not recognize the legitimacy of that parliament in the same breath. It is even more hypocritical that they would boycott to go to parliament to conduct their legislative duties and claim it is a matter of principle yet they took the oath of office to ensure they get into the payroll,” Mr Tuju said in a statement.
NASA had rubbished calls to have their MPs attend Parliament sittings citing the unconstutionalism of the 12th parliament.
Ford Kenya party leader and Bungoma senator said President Kenyatta did not possess powers to convene or schedule the opening of the newly-elected Parliament.
"That duty awaits the President who will assume office after being sworn in by the Chief Justice upon taking and subscribing to the oath of allegiance and the oath for the execution of the functions of office as provided by the Constitution," Mr Wetang’ula said a press conference at Okoa Kenya offices Monday.
He dared the opposition MPs to miss eight consecutive sittings if they meant their word; this could render the affected MP to a by election.
The Tuju observed that the opposition was hoodwinking Kenyans by introducing the boycott debate while at the same time fund raising for their presidential campaigns.
He said; “But the most obvious game of political conmanship is the threat by NASA leadership to boycotting the October 2017 presidential elections on one hand while on the other hand, they are raking in money from poor wananchi through the pay bill number.”
The Jubilee Party secretary general urged the NASA leadership to write to IEBC on their boycotting intent.
He argued that the taxpayers should not shoulder the costs of the election if the opposition was not going to take part.