From: Nicholas Mireri
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 23:37:53 +0000

Moi meets ODM-K team

By BERNARD NAMUNANE and PATRICK NZIOKA

Former President Daniel arap Moi today held a secret meeting with key figures in Kalonzo Musyoka’s campaign team.

Those at the meeting  in Mr Moi’s Kabarak home were ODM-K secretary-general Mutula Kilonzo, who is also his personal lawyer, Mr Daniel Maanzo, the party founder and Foreign Affairs Minister Raphael Tuju, a key member of President Kibaki’s campaign.

The talks could signal Mr Moi’s interest in wooing ODM-K into an alliance with President Kibaki’s Party of National Unity.

But Mr Musyoka, who is  the ODM-K presidential candidate, swiftly distanced himself from the meeting, saying the two were not representing the party.

“ODM-K did not send Mutula to talk to Moi. He went there as his lawyer and there should be no speculation about the meeting,” he said. “Personally I was not aware of the meeting until I was asked about it by journalists in Mombasa.”

At the launch of the ODM-K campaign in Nairobi last Sunday, Mr Musyoka announced that he had the backing of Baringo Central MP Gideon Moi, the former President’s son.

Today, the younger Moi was by his father when the ODM-K officials called at their Kabarak home.

The meeting lasted  one hour, after which Mr Moi left for State House, Nakuru, where President Kibaki is staying during his Rift Valley tour.

Although, he denied it, Mr Maanzo is said to have attended the Kabarak meeting alongside Kanu executive officer Julius Sunkuli.

Mr Sunkuli, contacted by the Nation, also denied that he was in Kabarak.