“Yes, there are people like Asman Kamama who decided to vote for Odoyo because they were with him in the previous Parliament and thought he was a good candidate. This was not about tribalism,” Keter said.
But an MP from Nyanza claimed Odoyo was used as a bait to enhance chances of the other candidates ODM was interested in. “ODM would like to make it very clear that it is happy with its nominees elected into the Eala by Parliament,” said party Secretary General Anyang’ Nyong’o.
Nyongo said all the nine candidates presented by ODM were strong enough for the competition.
“However, it is unfortunate some members from the Rift Valley, now grouped under the so called URP, conspired to vote against Ng’eny on purely parochial grounds,” Nyong’o said.
ODM officials Jakoyo Midiwo and Ababu Namwamba are said to have led a team of party think tanks into several strategy meetings to get the party candidates to victory and to have a strategy coined by the advisors implemented as sketched.
Mr Abisai was enlisted to test Mr Mudavadi. The rejection of the only Luhya candidate nominated by the party would have cast Mudavadi in bad light in his Western backyard. It is the same card that the party played on Ruto by nominating Ngeny.
In Central, the region stuck to its principles of uniting for its interest irrespective of political opinions when they voted Ngaru despite her religious support for Raila.
Other candidates who sailed through were Abubakar Abdi Ogle (Narc-K), Abubakar Zein Abubakar (ODM), Judith Pareno (ODM) and Sarah Bonaya (Kanu).
Apart from Ms Bonaya, all the other MPs currently serving at the assembly will now have to retire after the swearing in of the new team including nine each from the other member states.
