Cleophas Malala, the secretary general of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), has denied reports that he left the Amani National Congress (ANC) of Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi recently.
The formerly outspoken Kakamega Senator claimed that he abruptly left the ANC party after his opponent in the Kakamega governor contest humiliated him last year in the hopes of being named as Cabinet Secretary by President William Ruto in his cabinet.
“In anticipation of my appointment as a state officer because after I lost the election in Kakamega, and we won the national government, it was inevitable that I was going to be appointed in whatever capacity, CS, PS, CAS, chief, assistant chief. It was certain that I was going to be a state officer. So in anticipation and predation to that I resigned from ANC immediately after I lost the election,” Malala said.
His resignation, he continued, was in accordance with Article 77 of the Constitution, which forbids appointed state officers from holding elected office in political parties and forbids full-time state officers from engaging in any other gainful job.
Malala added that the Kenya Kwanza Alliance’s constituent parties do not compete with one another and that his appointment to the UDA occurred after five months of being party-free.
“We are sister Parties. We exist within the coalition called Kenya Kwanza and therefore we are not in competition.”
The secretary-general added that the Kenya Kwanza is strongly intact and dismissed rumours that there is conflict within after his appointment.
“We are employing persuasive ways in which we are going to talk with our colleagues. This is an evolving idea that we shall sit down on. If we are convinced otherwise, if the dynamics tell that having one party is not good for you, that we need to have a multiple approaches towards the 2027 election, we shall go back to that approach.”
