Plan B tickets ahead of ODM primaries

By Evelyn Kwamboka

A major showdown is looming in ODM strongholds amid reports that several aspirants have secretly acquired tickets from smaller parties as a fall-back in case they are locked out in the Orange party nominations.

The smaller parties have suddenly become a lifeline for many politicians of those who are not sure of winning in the Orange party’s nominations.

Investigations by The County Weekly show that some aspirants in Nyanza and Western regions, fearing they might lose in the nominations already have plan ‘B’ certificates in their pockets.

Sources say top ODM officials were already aware of plans by smaller parties to raid its strong holds and that could be the reason the party pushed its nominations to January 17, just a day to the official IEBC deadline.

Given the defection window  extended by 15 days through an amendment on the Elections Act, most aspirants in the region already have a plan ‘B’ in their bid to capture elective seats within the counties.

Huge support

The County Weekly also learnt that some of the aspirants with huge support in the counties have already negotiated with parties within the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) and minority ones to accept them if the ODM primaries are not held in a free and fair manner.

Already, some smaller parties are on the ground having talks with serious candidates on the possibility of having a plan ‘B’ for the seats they are vying for. They are doing this in order to have numbers in the counties.

In Kisumu County, The little known Farmers’ Party (FP) has mandated a politician to recruit on its behalf candidates wishing to jump ship after the big parties’ nominations.

 George Weda, Councilor who is vying for the Kisumu County senator seat, said he has already obtained direct nomination to face ODM’s Secretary General Peter Anyang Nyong’o  in the March 2013 elections.

“FP has already given me direct nomination and the go-ahead to recruit strong aspirants in this region,” he said.

Mr Enos Okolo Gundi has also been awarded direct nomination to vie for the Nyakach parliamentary seat. A copy of the direct nomination certificate obtained by The County Weekly was signed by the party leader David Kigochi and the Secretary General John Itungi Kahura on December 27, 2012.

Other parties

Kigochi said the party is set to give direct nomination on a  first come-first-served  basis, so as to avoid double nomination for candidates vying for the same seat.

“Our party is not in coalition with any other party and that is why we are encouraging those vying through our ticket to campaign for presidential candidates of their choice,” he said.

He claimed most of the bigger parties had already given direct nomination to some aspirants secretly, adding that FP was open in its decision to do the same.

However, some of the parties that had decided to hold their primaries after ODM’s in a bid to capture party hopping aspirants would have to go back to the drawing board.

“We agreed as small parties within CORD to have our own primaries independently, so as to create a level playing field,” said People’s Democratic Party’s Omingo Magara.

However, Magara pointed out that votes may be split within the counties where more than one CORD aspirants are to contest but this would not affect the presidential votes for Prime Minister Raila odinga.

“Even if Cord has more than one candidate, we have to work together to ensure Raila captures the State House seat,” he said.

Magara said PDP’s doors are open to aspirants who want to vie for county seats such as governor, senator, women representatives, parliamentary and county representative.

Just like other parties, PDP had set to hold its primaries immediately after ODM’s January 14 but this have now changed after ODM shifted its date to January 17.

This would now leave the party to only capture disgruntled Ford People aspirants, a party that has already announced it will hold its nominations on January 7.

In Siaya and Migori counties where elective seats have already been divided amongst ODM aspirants, some of those who have spent millions campaigning are set to go independently or use other parties.

Mr Odinga recently endorsed Kuria MP Wilfred Machage as the Migori County ODM senator aspirant, a decision that has made most candidates seek support from other parties.

It is a decision that made aspirants for the senator seat such former Rongo MP Oluoch Kanindo, Former East Africa Legislative Assembly MP Mbeo Ochieng to say that they would consider what direction to take if the same was not reversed. “We are watching very carefully how the issue is sorted out and will consider what direction to take if it is not reversed” Kanindo said.

He pointed out that there was no way anybody could just come and order them out of the race and yet they had invested their resources and assured their supporters that they were in it to the end.

This is the same position maintained by Mbeo who said he was still hoping the party will respect its constitution and reconsider the ‘Isebania declaration’ which gave the senate seat to the Kuria people.

In Siaya County, assistant minister Oburu Oginga who was vying for the senator seat stepped down for Lands Minister James Orengo. He instead indicated that he was going for the governor seat following talks by several MPs from Luo Nyanza.

However, Mr  William  Oduol who quit his lucrative international job to vie for the governor seat declined to step down for Oburu, saying they should meet at the ODM primaries.

Oduol said that if the nomination exercise is not held in a free and fair manner, he would defect to another party and face Oburu in the March 4 General Election.

As for Homa Bay County that is still coming to terms with how nominations were held in the Ndhiwa by-election, aspirants have already called on ODM to come out clear on how the primaries would be held.

Parliamentary aspirants in the county – Robinson Onyando of Ndhiwa,  Opondo Kaluma and Peter Agulo of Homa Bay Town and Tobias Odundo of Gwassi –said the assurance that was given by the party elections board that there would be a fair and transparent nomination was not enough.

“The nomination means a lot in Luo Nyanza becaue it is more competitive than the General Election. Let the elections board tell us what it is going to do to ensure the nomination is conducted freely and fairly,” Kaluma added.

Odundo expressed concern that many aspirants in the area are worried that the nomination might not be fair.

  “Almost every ODM supporter and aspirant is worried because the time of imposing leaders on the people had been overtaken by events. It is the responsibility of the board to build reputation of the party through action to ensure fair and transparent nominations,” Odundo added.