HECKLING AS RAILA ATTEMPTS TO RESTORE KAJWANG PARTY BOSS

Cord leader Raila Odinga’s weekend trip to the South Nyanza region was met with mixed reception that the ODM supremo would very much like to forget the soonest when his pet was overwhelmingly rejected by the power of the citizens.

Raila and a team of his close confidants and political cronies visited Homa Bay county last weekend where they were among mourners who attended the burial of ex-Senior Chief Omolo Anditi at Wanyama village in Rusinga Island.

The team also attended the burial of the former Planning minister Dr Paul Adhu Awiti, at his Pala Kanjira village in Karachuonyo.

While enroute to Karachuonyo, Raila and his legion made a brief stopover in Homa Bay town where he made a futile attempt to restore ousted former county branch ODM chairman Senator Otieno Kajwang’ and was met with the wrath of the rowdy youth who shouted anti-Kajwang’ slogans, forcing Agwambo to climb down from the makeshift dais and dash to a waiting car.

The youth shouted “Ogin ogin”. Ogin is the name of the former Homa Bay MP, Martin Ogindo, the man who was recently elected by delegates from all eight parliamentary constituencies that forms Homa Bay county.

Then the entourage drove on to Karachuonyo and made another brief stopover at Kadel and Kandiege to drum up support for the ODM candidate Kennedy Ondiek, who was the ODM candidate in the Kibiri ward by-election. The shouting match then intensified in all the two stopovers with some of the youth saying “Ok wadwar bado kuna mapambano”(we don’t want  the inventor of bado kuna mapambano lyrics).

As if the three incidents of hecklings were not enough for Raila to learn that the Homa Bay senator is not popular with the party supporters, Raila repeated the same calls to the residents to endorse Kajwang’ to continue as the county branch chairman as Cord was preparing to battle with Jubilee, in the envisaged referendum.

While the Cord leader was witnessing the change of attitude displayed by the party hitherto loyal youth in Homa Bay town, Raila’s former chief of staff when Raila was prime minister Karoli Omondi was firing his first salvos at his former boss at a well-attended harambee at Magunga in Suba South constituency within the same Homa Bay county.

Omondi said Raila will not lead Kenya and will not be the president unless he drops his dictatorial tendencies of picking up unpopular candidates without allowing the electorate to vote for men and women of their own choice which is the true democracy.

He rubbished Raila’s close political confidants especially those who have been polluting the air with the now stale and endless lyrics of Bado Kuna Mapambano, adding that the party lost the last year’s elections to Jubilee because these close political associates of Raila had become irrelevant to the electorate and lost touch with the citizens.

At Kanjira home of the late former Karachuonyo MP, it was a total display of political might of the Odingas. Raila brought with him the entire Odinga family and their cronies and close political partners and associates in Siaya county. Among them, was his elder brother the nominated MP Oburu Odinga, Raila’s wife Ida, his sister Ruth Adhiambo who is the deputy governor of Kisumu county, his cousin and Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo, his close lieutenants Oduor Ong’wen, Siaya  senator James Orengo and Kajwang’ among others.

Speakers at Awiti’s funeral were discriminatively selected and chosen not by the bereaved family, but by Raila’s political surrogates, who seemed to have had instruction to sideline all the MPs from the South Nyanza region who were present with the exemption of the area MP James Rege and one ward representative and Kabondo Kasipul MP, Silivance Oselle. Those excluded from the list of speeches included Millie Odhiambo (Mbita), Opondo Kaluma (Homa Bay town) , George Oner (Rangwe), Rege and former MP, Phoebe Asiyo.

Ogindo the man who had ousted Kajwang’ from the county ODM branch chairmanship and a number of his branch team attended the funeral, but they were ignored and not even their names were mentioned.

At the rowdy Homa Bay meeting, dissenting voices of those objecting Raila’s leadership in ODM were heard loud and clear. Most of them shouted saying they were ready to ditch the party for another.

Three months ago, after refusing to call for the county ODM branch executive committee meeting, a group of politicians from all the eight parliamentary constituencies met at the Hom Bay Farmers Training School and voted Kajwang’ out. But in defence of Kajwang’, Raila argued that the meeting that ousted Kajwang from the branch leadership was unconstitutional because it was called by the branch secretary Rege whereas the party constitution is clear that it is the responsibility of the chairman to call such a meeting.