Mumias East Member of Parliament (MP) Peter Salasya has reached out to the former United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party Secretary-General Cleophas Malalah to counter the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party’s dominance in western Kenya.
In a statement on Friday, November 22, 2024, Salasya said he was ready to bury the hatchet with the former Kakamega County Senator to forge new political formations in the region.
“Cleophas Malalah, I am now going to recruit you to my team; we chase ODM completely. Penye imefika we must bury the differences we had for the sake of our community,” Salasya said.
Salasya, who was elected on a Democratic Action Party of Kenya (DAP-K) headed by former Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa, floored veteran politicians when he garnered 12,140 votes against his closest opponent David Wamatsi, who ran on an Amani National Congress (ANC) party ticket and got 9,043 votes.
However, before the surprise 2022 general elections, Salasya had unsuccessfully vied for the Mumias East seat in 2017 but was floored by former MP Benjamin Washiali.
The first-time MP’s differences with ODM founder Raila Odinga came to a head when he castigated the former premier for what he called plotting to reduce resources for members of Parliament.
This was after Raila called a press conference on Friday, November 15, 2024, and called out MPs over their differences with the Senate on the Division of Revenue Amendment Bill. MPs had earlier stated that counties should get Ksh380 billion for the financial year 2024/2025, but senators wanted the figure pushed to Ksh400 billion.
Salasya also claimed that Raila was out to stifle the members of parliament’s role through the reduction of the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NGCDF) and Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF) and reduce them to beggars.
“After him realising he could not auction independent-minded MPs like me to Ruto, he wants CDF to go so that he can auction all of us to worship Ruto to beg for development in our regions,” Salasya said.
In Salasya’s new approach, he seeks to unite with Malalah to kick out ODM’s dominance in Western Kenya.
This comes after Raila on Tuesday, November 19, 2024, met ODM Members of Parliament (MPs) and governors from the Mulembe nation at a dinner meeting in a Nairobi hotel.
The ODM party bagged a majority of seats in Kakamega County, where Salasya hails from, a trend that he seeks to counter together with Malalah, who is a close ally of the former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
Malalah was ousted from his position at the UDA party in unclear circumstances, which revolved around his suspected opposition to the broad-based government and closeness to Gachagua, who had been earmarked for impeachment.
