‘Raila was not in charge of ODM during aborted polls’

By JUMA KWAYERA

A close ally of CORD leader Raila Odinga claims there was a plot to replace the former Prime Minister with Dagoretti South MP Simba Arati during the aborted ODM polls.

Homa Bay Senator Otieno Kajwang’ termed the disruption of the polls at Kasarani Stadium poll on February 28 a ‘blessing in disguise” to give the Orange party time to recover from the setbacks it suffered in the last General Election.

“The party leader was not in charge of the party. If he thought he was, he was mistaken; he was the target of humiliation. He should have asked himself the question: ‘How could Arati, the man who would have not been an MP without his (Raila’s) support, have the guts to run against him? It had been planned that Arati would beat Raila with the support from Rift Valley and Central Kenya delegates,” Kajwang, who was vying for post of vice chairman, told The Standard on Saturday.

An ODM MP from Nyanza, who declined to be named said it was obvious that Raila’s support for Kwale Senator Agnes Zani had battered the party. He claimed the former PM, who is on a tour in the US, would have been replaced as party leader.

“You may have noticed that since he left, the interim office he constituted has nothing to do. This takes away pressure from him and allows emotions to subside,” the first time MP says.

The party’s Suna East MP Mohammed Junnet concurs that Raila’s support for Zani had left ODM in bad shape.

Kajwang’ says it may take one to two years for the party to hold fresh elections. The idea is to wait for time when other parties are busy preparing for the next elections to minimise infiltration by rivals.

Quietly rooting

Raila has had to weather a storm in the party’s strongholds in Nyanza, Western and Coast to stay on course, despite his position looking precarious in the countdown to the polls.

Kajwang’ claims even the party secretariat was quietly rooting for Arati.

But in a hard-hitting rejoinder, the party’s Secretariat head Joseph Magerer accused Kajwang’ of being behind the hooliganism that disrupted the elections, besides tampering with delegates lists to allegedly give his side advantage.

“Kajwang’ should stop sideshows and focus on the future of the party. I planned the polls and the role of the Secretariat was to facilitate free and fair elections. The people who undermined the party leader are those who were opposed to the elections. He even interfered with party list of delegates from Homa Bay county,” the former Kipkelion MP says.

He says there was no way Raila was going to lose to Arati.

“He is very popular. I was a 100 per cent sure he was going win and he will still win any time we call elections.” he says.