Act now and fix ODM, Kalonzo tells Raila

“Act now, and act decisively!” That is the message Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka sent out to his CORD co-principal and ODM leader Raila Odinga following Thursday’s attack on his party’s Executive Director Magerer Lang’at.

An incensed Kalonzo said the attack on Magerer was symptomatic of a fast-creeping culture of political indiscipline which must be nipped in the bud through decisive action by relevant actors.

He spoke as ODM insiders opened their hearts on the incident, whose roots can be traced to the aborted National Delegates Congress of February where the “mole” narrative was framed.

During the NDC held in February, men dressed in black descended on the ballot boxes, splitting them up with kicks and blows to protest alleged infiltration by “moles” and “outsiders”.

“ODM clearly has an image problem arising from the incident and this boomerangs on us as a coalition. They are dealing with it and we are assisting them. I have asked them to be very decisive the same way we in Wiper have been decisive in sorting out the mess in Machakos and Makueni,” Kalonzo said.

The Wiper leader commended Raila for cracking the whip on his security man who defied his order to stop the attack. He said the defiance was feeding into a wrong impression that the former PM was behind it.

Luo affair

“He did the right thing by firing his security man who insisted on protecting him despite the order to stop the attack. It was a cruel way of handling the matter, a crime which happened right before our eyes and which must not go unpunished,” Kalonzo said. He attributed it to “indiscipline within parties” and urged party leaders, registrar of political parties and the media to help stem the tide of turning political party culture into a mockery of democracy.

He said the indiscipline was eating into the core of democracy owing to what he called the “acquiescing philosophy” where parties, authorities and leaders wish away everything, including rebellion, indiscipline and disregard for the law.

“We cannot live on like this, otherwise our political scene will turn out into a noisy market place where the highest bidder takes the day. It’s immoral, it’s mercenary, it’s a fraud on our people,” he said. “I would rather go to the next war with a few disciplined soldiers than with a tyranny of undisciplined soldiers ready to auction their souls to the enemy.”

Kisumu Central MP Ken Obura agrees that the Thursday attacks have further dampened the image of the Orange party. “The attack on Magerer was really bad because the impression created is that we want to make the party a Luo affair, a rather bad impression for the most popular party in the country,” he said.

The MP said previous attacks in Kasarani, on Ugenya MP David Ochieng’ and Kibra’s Ken Okoth have not been addressed. “If they do not comprehensively address this one, we will confirm our worst fears that the top party leadership is behind the pattern of violence.”

Obura said the fact that attackers chose to deal with Magerer during a NEC meeting and in full glare of the media is a pointer to sabotage on their party. “Magerer sacrificed his ambitions for the sake of the party... and everyone knows this,” a fuming Obura said. According to a party official who pleaded anonymity in order to freely discuss the matter, said the attack on Magerer was necessitated by Raila’s failure to “decisively” deal with “moles” out to wreck his ultimate stab at the presidency.

“The problem is Raila’s own tolerance of what ordinarily ought not to be tolerable. He has aged in wars and does not appear interested in new wars. He is focused on the main price oblivious of what these small wars might cost him,” the official said. The official affirmed that the attack on Magerer was necessary in the circumstances. He said this is just the beginning until all “enemies within” are ejected. Asked if his group minds the party image and standing of the party leader, he said: “We cannot keep quiet and let the party go the UDF way. The first thing is to own the party and control it. If anything, we need to intensify the clean-up. Ultimately, the party leader would need the signature of some of these people to run for the presidency, what if they deny him?”

Tarnished image

Magerer has blamed his woes on unnamed “senior political leaders”.

Budalangi MP Ababu Namwamba, who has previously carried the “mole” tag, refused to comment on the Magerer attack when prodded by The Standard on Sunday. The official who refused to be quoted had identified him as one of the so-called “moles”.

Nominated MP Isaac Mwaura, who bitterly protested what he saw as outright rigging at the Kasarani NDC before the men in black descended on the ballots, said the violence against Magerer has “completely tarnished” the image of the party. “The impression being created that people from other tribes are moles who should not be allowed to creep in or entrench,” he said.

Other members of the party like Rongo MP Dalmas Otieno do not however appear to think highly of the party and its prospects. “There is no future in ODM. I already have a party and we are working hard at grassroots level to promote it.”

National Assembly Minority Leader Francis Nyenze said the attack on Magerer is indicative of frustrations Kenyans are going through.