A
serious power struggle in the Coast ODM leadership is now threatening to split
the party that is slowly losing its popularity in a region where it won two
thirds of elective positions in the last general elections.
Last
Saturday, 10 MPs said that they were ready to abandon Cord and jump into a new
ship. Cord has lately seemed to struggle as it moves to consolidate its Coast
power base by replacing Gideon Mung’aro as a signal to other rebels what is in
store for them.
After
streamlining events in Coast, the next region to move on is Kisii where party
allied MPs have been playing hide and seek games, especially when it comes to
by-election.
Mistrust
and turf wars among Coast leaders are now playing out with a section of ODM
politicians in the region adopting a new political strategy in their dealings
with the party’s leadership following a major fallout between Mombasa Governor
Hassan Joho and a number of party MPs across the region.
All
is not well in the ODM coast region over Cord’s removal of Gideon Mung’aro as
the minority whip in the National Assembly. Some ODM MPs have defied the
coalition and are now threatening to take unspecified action should Mung’aro be
ultimately removed.
Investigations
however, reveal that a number of senior politicians from the Coast region had
been secretly pushing for Mung’aro’s removal. One name that is being mentioned
is that of Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho.
Joho
and Mung’aro have never had a good relationship and even during the last
general elections, Mung’aro is said to have campaigned against Joho. He was one
of the ODM members who were in Suleiman Shahbal camp.
Another
coast politician believed to be behind Mung’aro’s political woes is Kwale
Governor Amason Kingi. Kingi fell out with Mung’aro after he declared that he
will contest against Kingi in 2017. The announcement was not received well by
Kingi and his allies. It is against this background that he teamed up with Joho
to clip Munga’ro’s political wings ahead of 2017 elections.
The
Kingi-Joho camp that is now fighting Mung’aro and MPs allied to them is now
threatening ODM’s support in Coast region. What is even more worrying to the
ODM top leadership is that the rebel MPs are known to be working closely with
Jubilee.
The
anti Kingi-Joho MPs in the forefront are Likoni MP Mashood Mwahima, Rashid Bedzimba, Kisauni, Suleiman
Dori of Msambweni, Khatib Mwashetani of Lunga Lunga, Gunga Mwinga of Kaloleni,
Hari Kombe of Magarini, Zainab Chidzuga of Kwale and Jones Mlolwa of Voi and
Abdulswamad Nassir, Mvita. But what is worrying ODM supporters most is the
fallout between Joho and his successor Bezimba. Bezimba was once a great ally
of Joho. Changamwe MP Omar Mwinyi and Awiti Bolo are the men doing damage
control for Joho and Kingi.
We
have information that the Joho-Kingi camp is secretly pushing for Wundanyi MP
Thomas Mwadeghu to take over from Mung’aro. What is not clear is whether other
Coast MPs allied to ODM and who are currently in the middle ground will support
Mwadeghu.
Investigations
reveal that the fallout between Joho and ODM MPs is so big that majority of MPs
are planning to quit at the end of their parliamentary term. Over 10 MPs last
weekend threatened to quit Cord and form a new party.
Those
being seen to be in the middle ground but had at one time shown willingness to
work with Jubilee include Kwale governor Salim Mvurya, Kwale Senator Boy Juma
Boy, Taita Taveta women rep Joyce Lay, Kinango MP Gonzi Rai, Mwashetani, Kilifi
women representative Aisha Khamis, Kilifi South MP Mustaffa Iddi, Mwatate MP
Andrew Mwadime, Malindi MP Dan Kazungu and Matuga MP Hassan Mwanyoha.
With
two camps now emerging in Coast region, ODM might be required to go back to the
drawing board if it is to retain its numerical strength in the 2017 elections.
But Joho and Kingi according to our sources enjoy the backing of top ODM
leaders including party leader Raila Odinga.
Last
week, Cord parliamentary group meeting threatened to crack the whip on
dissenters it views as too friendly to the ruling Jubilee coalition and warned
them that they risk stern disciplinary action, including losing their seats in
parliament.
Sources
say targeted were a section of Coast MPs fighting the push for a referendum and
who have previously declared they would work closely with the Jubilee
government. The warnings came barely a week after some ODM MPs from the coast
skipped the Iftar (dinner to break the Muslim fast during Ramadhan) organised
by Joho, and attended by Raila as well as Moses Wetang’ula, Senator Hassan
Omar, Changamwe MP Omar Mwinyi and his Nyali counterpart Hezron Awiti. Sources
say Raila was angered after majority of Coast MPs snubbed him.
It
was during the dinner that Joho asked local politicians known to have a foot in
the government and another in Cord to quit and seek a fresh mandate if they
think they are strong on the ground.
In
the entire Coast region, Cord took most National Assembly, Senate,
gubernatorial and county assembly seats. It is also important to note that
there is not a single elected Jubilee politician in Mombasa county which like,
Kwale, Taita Taveta and Kilifi counties, is dominated by the Cord affiliate
party ODM. In Kwale, Gonzi Rai, the Kinango MP is the only Jubilee MP among
Cord senators, MPs and ward representatives. Jubilee’s only leader in Taita
Taveta is Taveta MP Naomi Shaaban of TNA while Tana River has TNA’s Ali Wario
in Bura.
The
fallout in Cord started last month when Ruto visited Kwale and Kilifi counties
to preside over meetings before President Uhuru Kenyatta visited Taita Taveta
last.
Back
to the Mung’aro ouster, a Coast parliamentary group meeting to deliberate on
the matter ended in disarray after Jubilee allied lawmakers from the region,
including national assembly deputy majority leader, Naomi Shaban, joined the
gathering and termed the move to sack Mung’aro as dictatorial.
Sources
that attended the closed-door meeting said anti-Joho MPs led by Nassir
dismissed the Cord decision as “unlawful, biased and discriminatory”.
No comments:
Post a Comment