DPM Musalia Mudavadi at his Namanjalala home in Kitale accompanied by the Shinyalu MP Kizito Mugali(R) Mr Agoi(L) who is preparing to take over the Sabatia parliamentary seat on a UDF party . PHOTO | Leonard Wamalwa | West Fm]  

Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi has strongly come out to support the ongoing protests against the recently released nomination payments for aspiring candidates for various elective seats in the next general elections saying they are not necessary.

Mudavadi who is also a presidential aspirant on a United Democratic Forum -UDF party said that he does not see the essence of the high nomination fees yet the electioneering process has fully been funded by the government through the taxpayers' money.

In an interview with journalists at his Namanjalala home in Kitale the DPM said that the women's protests are justified because when the commission raises the fee then it is becoming an obstacle to democratic processes in a way.

"Already the taxpayer is funding the election process to a tune of Kshs 18 billion and therefore when you peck the nomination fees to be too high then you are also again becoming an obstacle to democratic processes," said Mudavadi.

The Sabatia Member of Parliament who was accompanied by Shinyalu MP Kizito Mugali said that it is important that democracy is not made too expensive for other people to participate in that process.

"I can see the women's concerns because they have a valid point here because we should not make democracy too expensive for other people to participate in the process," he noted.

On alliances with other parties he said that UDF is more cautious on the matter pointing out that the party shall take its time to read and understand the manifestos of other parties before choosing on which ones to team up or engage with depending on the compatibility of their missions and visions.

He said that different parties have their own styles of approaching things and therefore, UDF shall not engage them for the sake of engaging but should understand them first.

"There may be a time yes when we shall say we want to team up with certain parties but it has to be done systematically because we can't just engage for the sake of engaging we have to analyze their concerns and policies so that we can decide if there are more or less similar or compatible with ours before we decide to engage them in a coalition or an alliance," said the DPM.

On the issue of the divisions perceived to be arising within the Luhya community through the number of presidential aspirants the politician said that people should not tie themselves on tribal cocoons but look at national perspective.

He cited the Central region and even Nyanza saying that the PM Raila Odinga and Rafael Tuju are vying for the same seat from Nyanza and many others including Uhuru Kenyatta, Martha Karua, Peter Kenneth among others from Central who are not seen as dividing their communities so are Luhyas.

The minister noted that everybody from Luhya land has a right to vie for a seat of his or her own choice but at the end of the day it is the voters who will decide who to vote for.

"We should not always tie ourselves in a tribal cocoon that so and so is contesting, because if I am seeking to be president am not seeking to become president of a Luhya nation but to be president of the republic of Kenya," he said.

He pointed out that the many aspirants are giving the electorate a wider range of choices to decide on after looking at the choices at their disposal and therefore urged the people to graduate from the notion that when there are many aspirants then they are dividing their people.

The DPM had been meeting leaders and opinion leaders from different aspects from Trans Nzoia at his home.