More battles lie in wait for brazen Ababu

“This is politics at play, politics from within my own home and politics from rivals.” This is how National Assembly’s Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Ababu Namwamba summed up his debacle last Thursday.

Nambale MP and a member of the PAC, John Bunyasi, cannot agree more: “There were definitely other factors at play (during the unsuccessful bid to kick out Namwamba as PAC boss) but the issue of corruption was simply overplayed.”

Namwamba’s problems, opines Bunyasi, have little to do with his ability to manage affairs at PAC but everything to do with political competition, within and without his Orange party.

Emerging from the said meeting, a triumphant Namwamba said a cocktail of politics and vested interests triggered these events. He, however, said he was ready to be subjected to any inquiry.

While there might be serious graft-related issues in the PAC leadership saga, the primary diagnosis by Namwamba that “hii ni siasa tu (this is all about politics)” amplifies the magnitude of challenges ahead of the Budalang’i legislator.

On his way up, Namwamba has stepped on many toes. At the peak of the heated Orange Democratic Movement campaigns for national positions last year, for instance, Funyula MP Paul Otuoma described Namwamba as a pampered child.

The import of Otuoma’s sentiments is that Namwamba has over the years enjoyed unlimited favour from ‘Baba’, ODM leader Raila Odinga. As a first term MP in 2008, he was made spokesman of the party’s parliamentary group and later promoted to Cabinet minister, notwithstanding the fact that the tiny Busia County already enjoyed another Cabinet slot.

The agreement between the former prime minister and Namwamba, which eventually handed the latter the position of secretary general at ODM, the single largest parliamentary party, just served to add more enemies for the MP.

For instance, in Western Kenya, where he hails from and where the Orange party enjoys a huge following, Namwamba can only flourish politically at the expense of Senate Minority Leader and CORD co-principal Moses Wetang’ula and his (Wetang’ula’s) Ford-Kenya party.

Although the Bungoma senator has not exhibited outward political hostility towards the Budalang’i MP, it is unlikely that Wetang’ula can join Namwamba’s cheerleaders.

In the run up to the ODM national elections last year, Namwamba ran an electrifying campaign, criss-crossing the country with a set of helicopters. Then, MPs from the rival camp claimed a top Jubilee politician was bankrolling Namwamba.

This politician, according to some ODM legislators, was Deputy President William Ruto. And for most of the campaign period, Namwamba was regarded by rivals as a mole within the Orange party.

Electrifying campaign

When this writer confronted him last year over his relationship with the DP, Namwamba said: “All of us in ODM who have been in ODM since its founding have a shared history with the Deputy President. My relationship with him today is that he is in government and I am in the Opposition. I will do everything possible to turn tables on him... send him into the Opposition, and get us into government!”

But some ODM MPs claim the relationship between the DP and Namwamba is only on the rocks because the legislator may have failed ‘to deliver on his part of the bargain’. The MPs attribute Namwamba’s woes to Ruto, who reportedly whipped up MPs allied to United Republican Party (URP) into voting against the ODM spokesman. The Standard On Sunday was, however, unable to independently ascertain the MPs’ claims.

Similarly, Namwamba was in a brief political marriage with Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua and ousted ODM chief executive Magerer Lagat in what looked like growing rebellion within CORD. But afterwards, Namwamba broke ranks with his colleagues, regrouped with Raila and was made ODM secretary general.

This apparent string of betrayals has seemingly earned Namwamba many political foes. At a personal level, Teso North MP Arthur Odera remembers playing a key role in Namwamba’s campaign for the position of PAC chairman. “But once safely in office, I stopped being of any value to my brother. He neither conferred with me on anything nor sought any related help. He even faced the PAC challenge solely because he had lost favour with many friends along the way,” says Odera who also hails from Busia County.

Describing his Budalang’i counterpart as eloquent, confident and hardworking, Odera nonetheless regrets that Namwamba’s bossy and know-it-all attitude is his undoing.

“His inability to keep friends is particularly most worrying. That even some of his colleagues in ODM voted against him is quite telling,” observes Odera.

But the Teso North MP is among the few who are willing to openly say what they think of the ODM spokesman. Most of the MPs, who variously describe Namwamba as cocky, over-confident, arrogant, restless and overambitious, would rather hide their identity.

However, Bunyasi argues that Namwamba is purely a victim of envy owing to his efficiency and ability to draw the attention of bigwigs from both sides of the political divide.

"Truth be told, Ababu is thoroug, efficient, articulate, colourful and totally on top of things at PAC," says the Nambale legislator.

Prof Amukowa Anangwe, who teaches political science at the University of Dodoma, Tanzania, says one can only disregard the MP at his peril. Anangwe singles out Namwamba’s strategy of openly confronting Raila while maintaining loyalty to him and the party as a smart approach.

The former Butere MP focuses on Namwamba’s previous attacks on Raila — including after the botched ODM national polls at Kasarani Gymnasium — where he claimed Raila had denied members of his Luhya community an opportunity to lead ODM.

By whipping the tribal card, Anangwe says, Namwamba appealed to his tribesmen and women. And stung by the remarks, Raila gave Namwamba a hearing.

It is also at the same time that the Budalang’i MP played host to President Uhuru Kenyatta of the rival Jubilee Coalition.

Namwamba applied the same tactic in the late 2009. Then, he was momentarily allied to Ruto, who was already leading a breakaway from the Orange party.