Straight-shooting Amani National Congress (ANC) party secretary-general, Barrack Muluka resigned from the party yesterday.

Muluka, a renown publisher and communications adviser said his decision was meant to allow him pursue other interests, decongest the space around the party leader, Musalia Mudavadi and allow him to make political choices in the lead-up to the 2022 elections.

In his resignation letter, Muluka thanked Mudavadi for according him the opportunity to pen his memoirs and also work for the party.

He listed the unveiling of a new Constitution, re-organising and strengthening of the party’s structures as well as its expansion to other parts of the country as his achievements.

“The coming into being of a new Constitution a few days ago,  gives ANC a good space for a fresh start and a new lease of life.

It is now ready, in my view, to compete for political power against other political parties. I doubt I could have added more value to what I have done so far.

Moreover, it is now fitting that the space around you should be de-congested. This will allow you to make critical decisions on population and leadership of the party under the new Constitution,” Muluka observed.

In a quick response, Mudavadi in a statement sent to newsrooms, said he had received and accepted Muluka’s resignation letter and thanked him for his services.

Sense of principal

“On behalf of the ANC fraternity, I want to unreservedly thank Barrack for the committed service he gave the party for nearly three years.

His was not an easy responsibility as he served the party through various defining and intractable moments. But he carried himself with decency, dignity and also from a deeply ingrained sense of principle.

I will not hesitate to work with him again should the opportunity present itself again,” Mudavadi said.

Muluka assumed the position in September 2017, replacing renegade Nominated Member of Parliament Geoffrey Osotsi.

Prior to that, he had been commissioned by Mudavadi two years earlier to help him write his autobiography Soaring Above The Storms,which was released last  December 16.

Save for Deputy President William Ruto, Muluka has previously offered consulting services to most of Kenya’s top political players at election time in the last two decades.

He was a consultant for the Kanu presidential ticket of Uhuru Kenyatta and Mudavadi in 2002, former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka in 2007, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga in 2013 and Mudavadi in 2017.

In between, he also consulted for former Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo and wrote former Cabinet Minister Simeon Nyachae’s biography. 

Speaking in parliament, ANC Members of Parliament thanked Muluka for his services. They assured the party’s followers that the party was still strong.

The legislators, led by Lugari MP Ayub Savula noted: “ “We wish to reassure our supporters across the country that in spite of Muluka’s exit, the party remains strong and focused on propelling Mudavadi to the Presidency during the 2022 General-Election.

ANC will continue to spread its wings in all parts of the country and seek to have new reform-minded partners and allies in the countdown to the next State House race.”

Though both Party Leader and Secretary-General spoke well of each other, fillers have it that relations between the duo has been deteriorating for quite some time since their joint tour of the United States last year.

Sources said that Muluka’s relations with the MPs has also been on the ice over a considerable period of time, given the often contradictory statements from secretariat and the legislators’ caucus.

He is also said not to have been in good terms with a number of party honchos who found his principled and uncompromising way of handling situations as some form of arrogance, rigidity and a lone-ranger attitude.

No animosity

His continued tiff with Osotsi and Kakamega senator, Cleophas Malala who was last month expelled from the party, but was reinstated by the Political Parties Tribunal, is also said to have rubbed a section of the party the wrong way.

Unconfirmed reports indicate that Muluka was two months ago removed from the list of signatories to the party’s bank accounts, a matter that is said to have infuriated him.

However, when contacted, Muluka denied there was any friction between him and the party’s leadership. 

“There is no animosity. We must get into the culture of engaging and disengaging. We should never make life permanent.

We must come to terms with entries and exits. I have just talked to him (Mudavadi). There is nothing between us. You can find out from him,” said Muluka.