Vincent Bartoo
24 April 2008
Nairobi — KANU leaders from the Rift Valley have withdrawn from the Party of National Unity (PNU).
And they want the party to delink itself from PNU, claiming it was shortchanged in the allocation of Government positions. Kanu has 14 MPs in Parliament - and only one is from the Rift Valley.
Led by former Baringo Central MP, Mr Gideon Moi, the leaders said Rift Valley did not get its share of ministerial appointments.
Gideon said although the party leader, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta, was appointed Deputy Prime Minister, Kanu was not happy with how the region had been treated.
"We feel we did not get what we deserved considering the support we accorded PNU in the last General Election," he said.
Gideon said despite Kanu's poor showing in the elections, plans were underway to rejuvenate it and restore its former glory.
"Rift Valley people now desire a party that will articulate their interests because they have been shortchanged in this Government," he said.
Gideon was addressing the Press after chairing a meeting of North Rift Kanu officials in Eldoret on Wednesday.
He was with former MPs, Mr John Sambu, Mr Joseph Kimkung, Mr Ezekiel Barng'etuny and former Eldoret North parliamentary aspirant, Mr Jonathan Bii.
Other resolutions reached during the meeting included the filling of party positions left vacant by officials who had decamped to ODM.
Bii, who read the resolutions, said the leaders wanted the party to hold grassroots meetings all over the country to chart the way forward.
He also said Kanu officials in the North Rift supported their South Rift counterparts who had endorsed Gideon as the leader of the party in the Rift Valley.
Bii added that the meeting agreed to support the Bomas draft constitution once efforts to review the document were revived.
Many top Kanu officials left the party last year to join ODM when Uhuru refused to lead the party into a coalition with ODM.
They included Eldoret North MP, Mr William Ruto, the party's former secretary-general, who is now the Minister for Agriculture.
In the last General Election, Uhuru led Kanu to a coalition with PNU, a collection of parties that supported the re-election of President Kibaki.
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