Corruption, abduction, murder: Linturi quits UDA, slams party’s moral collapse

Former Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi has resigned as a member of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) following a fallout with the party leader, President William Ruto.

In a statement sent to UDA Secretary General Hassan Omar and copied to the Registrar of Political Parties on Wednesday, Linturi explained that the ruling party abandoned the moral foundations it was built upon and hence is destined to collapse, much akin to the Biblical Tower of Babel.

He accused UDA of engaging in abductions, corruption, excessive taxation and the murder of the youth who had once believed in the party and helped vote it into power.

"I do not wish, nor would I ever wish that any Kenyan would belong to a party that is repugnant of its philosophy, a party that tolerates corruption, abduction and brutal murder of our young people, overtaxes Kenyans, a party that has no respect for women and children," Linturi remarked.

"A party that does not respect the Constitution and the rule of law. A party that does not listen to the people. It is in this realization that I, a patriotic Kenyan, tender my resignation as a member of the UDA with immediate effect.

Linturi now joins the growing list of politicians who once defended the ruling party but have since defected. 

On Monday, May 12, former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua formally resigned from the party, accusing it of taking the country in the wrong direction.

“The party has exhausted and wasted a Kenyan moment to take off economically, socially, and politically," Gachagua wrote.

“As a party, and millions of Kenyans, we believed and trusted him and this statement. It was a lie. No nation can be built on a litany of lies.”

Both Gachagua and Linturi have joined other like-minded politicians and coined themselves as the new opposition after Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader Raila Odinga signed a pact with the President this year.

These include People’s Liberation Party leader Martha Karua, Wiper Party's Kalonzo Musyoka, and DAP-Kenya’s Eugene Wamalwa, among others. 

The leaders, whose alliance resembles the Avengers, have vowed to remove Ruto, whom they liken to a political Thanos. The challenge, however, remains in determining who will be the presidential candidate.