Wanga weeps rivers for Were, roasts Ruto's UDA

Homa Bay Governor Gladys Wanga and Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma arrive to slain MP Ongondo Were's home in Kachien village in Kasipul constituency on May 3,2025. [James Omoro, Standard] Gladys Nyasuna Wanga, the governor of Homa Bay, has not been her bubbly self. She recently lost one of her fiercest defenders, Kasipul Mheshimiwa Charles Ong'ondo Were, felled by an assassin's bullets. Her eyes no longer carry joy, but tears that would fill several jerrycans. Wanga is convinced Were's killing was related to her county's succession politics. She speaks as though she knows the people behind the assassination but is too afraid to smoke them out. You cannot blame Wanga, though. Even Raila Odinga, Agwambo himuselefu, dares not reveal the names of the killers, whom he, too, claimed he knew during Were's funeral Saturday. The weight of the loss has brought the good governor to her road to Damascus moment. Wanga, who months ago was too eager to board President William Ruto's wheelbarrow, recently banned the mentioning of "UDA" (the United Democratic Alliance) in her county. And she would threaten doom for the broad-based government if the masterminds of Were's murder were not arrested. "We have said we are working together, but we did not sign up to the assassination of our members," she stated. "This Homa Bay County and the entire region is an ODM zone... the next time I see what I saw... where my party leader is seated and some people are shouting UDA - we will not agree. It will not happen!" To many who have followed Wanga, who is the ODM chairperson, in recent months, her utterances must have been startling. Wanga has fiercely defended Bwana Kasongo in ways the President's loyalists have not. She has convened press conferences demanding that the Head of State be respected. Last September, Wanga responded to an interview by then Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, who had claimed he had been removed from the President's WhatsApp group. It is worth noting that the ruling UDA party never reacted to the interview, with Wanga looking as though she was grieving more than the bereaved. Unlike Tinga, who has blown hot and cold over his positioning at the Kenya Kwanza dining table, Wanga has been proud to declare that her party was firmly in the government. It has a lot to do with rumours that Deputy President Kithure Kindiki was warming the seat for her. Few politicians would pass up the chance to be Deputy President. In Wanga's case, she could go down in history as Kenya's first female Number Two. If wishes were horses! Wanga's newfound disdain for anything UDA lasted briefly, as like the Biblical Lot's wife, she could not resist the urge to look back. On Friday, she threw her weight behind the broad-based arrangement that she threatened to wreck days earlier. Wanga would claim to have been misunderstood and 'clarified' that she meant she would defend ODM and did not mean any bad to Ruto. "We support the broad-based because that is the promise we gave to Baba and the President," she stated. This incarnation of the celebrated Atoti, who Gidigidi and Majimaji praised for her talent for going this way and that way, is not your typical Wanga. Wrongly misunderstood to be a flip-flopper, Wanga is hardly one. She is resolute in her single stance: whatever Baba says. A soldier in the Jeshi ya Baba brigade, Wanga is among those who swore unquestionable dedication. If Baba says right, their mantra goes, 'we go right!' Being who he is, Agwambo is bound to change his mind often. One minute, he will be on a ruling administration's neck. In the next, he will be dining with former foes. It is easy to paint Baba's followers as flip-floppers because of their changing opinions, but they are mostly consistent as they go where their master leads. National Assembly Minority Leader Junet Mohamed equated opposition lawmakers as following Tinga like "cows." And so the only strange remark Wanga made was her threat to ditch the broad-based government, a thought that had not been sanctioned by her party's leader. The good governor knows better than to contradict her boss, as her loyalty has blessed her immensely. For instance, it granted her the top seat in Homa Bay and the Woman Representative position before that, where she left a mark with her chanting skills. Had Wanga not been a politician, she would have thrived in the car-wash business. She showed great skill spilling water on her colleague's faces, hardly missing a spot!

Wanga weeps rivers for Were, roasts Ruto's UDA

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