Following
serious power struggle in ODM Meru, the party mashinani leaders are now calling
on its leader Raila Odinga to abandon his planned visit to Meru to pave way for
resolving party wrangles in the area.
Already,
two factions are fighting over the control of party affairs and with leaders of
each faction claiming to be in charge of Raila’s tour. One faction is led by
county secretary Robert Kinyua while the other is led by MPs Mpuru Aburi
(Tigania East) and Kubai Kiringo (Igembe Central).
The
bone of contention is that local party leaders and followers claim that the two
leaders have abandoned the party and are
working closely with Jubilee coalition.
But
Aburi and Kiringo have denied allegations of abandoning the party terming it as
malicious and accused the Kinyua faction of dividing the party followers in the
Meru region. Sources now say plans are underway to appoint Mike Mutembei aka
Makarena as the Meru ODM chairman but this has been rejected by the Aburi
faction. Also sucked in the leadership row is the ODM Mashinani youth
coordinator in Meru Jeremiah Mutethi who is said to be opposed to the two MPs.
The
power struggle has completely divided the ODM Meru county branch. Sources
allude that there are four factions claiming to be bona fide officials of the
ODM party branch.
Whereas
the MPs are opposed to handpicking of party officials, majority are said to be
backing Makarena to serve as ODM chairman because of his track record. They
claim that he is capable of uniting the warring parties and bringing in more
members.
Mpuri
and his team are now said to have petitioned the party headquarters to call for
fresh party elections to give the party a new face in the region. The petition
comes barely a week after the other faction declared that they are ready to
install Makarena as the chairman and asked the party secretariat to endorse
their choice.
Back
to party loyalty, those opposed to the two MPs now say that they have abandoned
the party yet they hold those positions because of the party. “Mpuri and Kiringo will only be allowed in
ODM as members. Their loyalty is questionable because they got over 20,000
votes in their constituencies yet Raila got 3,000 only. We wish them well in
their courtship with Jubilee,” Kinyua said.
Another
bone of contention is that as each faction tries to be in charge of Raila’s
visit, it is emerging that there have been complaints that every time when
Raila visits Meru, he is flanked by Ameru from Nairobi who steal the show from
grassroots leaders. They are demanding that party headquarters should recognise
the grassroot party officials to be in charge of the visit and not the MPs or
Nairobi-based politicians from the region.
Analysts
now say that Raila must be having a hand in Mpuri’s political nightmare in the
county. The picking of Makarena who hails from Mpuri’s backyard, into ODM
politics is seen as party’s bid to neutralise Mpuri’s influence as he has been
accused of disloyalty.
Mpuri
has been on record of late claiming that Raila has been attempting to push him
out of party. He is now threatening to boycott Raila Meru tour if he was not
allowed to take charge of the tour. He is also on record for rejecting Cord’s
calls for referendum while his opponents have pledged support for the
referendum calls by Cord and council of governors.
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