Rough ride: How State House slap exposes Junet's troubles

Suna East MP Junet Mohamed when he hosted President William Ruto in his constituency. [File, Standard]] Suna East MP Junet Mohamed is under siege following the bickering and squabbling that has rocked the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party lately. It appears Junet's support for the pary's cooperation with President William Ruto and his UDA party in the broad-based government is putting him at loggerheads with those opposed to it. The opponents of the UDA cooperation are led by Suba South MP Caroli Omondi and ODM secretary general Edwin Sifuna, who is also the Nairobi County senator. The proponents, on the other hand, are led by party leader Oburu Odinga and national chairman and Homa Bay governor Gladys Wanga. So personal is the feud against Junet that a physical fight between the two sides broke out at a meeting in State House recently. Over the years, Junet has also fought off claims that he scored a D in his O-Level exams at Lenana School. Caroli told The Standard that Junet tried to intimidate him at State House by demanding to know how he had gained entry without the latter's knowledge. Caroli says the rift between him and Junet started just after the broad based government was formed. "I was at State House talking to head of civil service Felix Koskei. When Junet found me in deep conversation with Koskei, he got angry and asked how I got there without his blessings," Caroli told The Standard. Caroli says he told Junet he and Koskei were discussing important things and would call him later but Junet got so enraged and started talking about how he was the kingpin and any Luo leader must pass through his office to get to State House. "This upset me so I held him by the collar and gave him a hot slap. He was saved by a senior ODM female official," says Omondi. It is is alleged that Junet later reported the beating in State House to President William Ruto but the President ignored him. Efforts by The Standard to get Junet's comment on the scuffle were unsuccessful as he did not respond to calls and text messages sent to him. His close friend and ally, Alego Usonga MP Sam Atandi, however, neither denied nor confirmed the fist fight happened. "Nothing like that happened, and if there is any slapping that happened, it is Caroli who received it." After recent fiery exchanges with Sifuna and receiving heavy backlash from a section of party leaders and supporters, the man who also serves as the Leader of Minority in the National Assembly appears to have beaten a retreat from the public. Controversy has followed the three term MP since 2013 when he first sought the ODM ticket to vie for the Suna East seat against then incumbent John Pesa. Mr Pesa went to court to challenge the ODM certificate Junet was claiming to have, yet he had been given the genuine document. In January 2013, Pesa filed a petition before the Kisii High Court seeking to have the nomination certificate dated January 18, 2013 issued to him by ODM Party to contest for the seat declared as the only one that was valid and lawful. "I am praying for this court to order a judicial review to compel the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and the Suna East constituency returning officer to accept the nomination papers I have presented and issue a certificate in my favour for the purposes of contesting for the seat," Pesa pleaded before Justice Ruth Sitati. Forged document The argument was supported by senior officials at the ODM elections board led by secretary Judy Pareno, who confirmed through an affidavit that the party had conducted a nomination exercise on January 17, 2013 and declared John Pesa as the National Assembly nominee for Suna East Constituency. "The ODM Party prepared and issued a valid nomination certificate dated January 18, 2013 and signed by officials Franklin Bett, Janet Ongera and myself who were the authorized officers for the party in line with the Political Parties Act to John Pesa as the candidate for Suna East," Ms Pareno testified. Pareno also averred that, upon concluding the exercise, the party had reasonably expected the IEBC returning officer to clear Pesa as the duly nominated candidate for the 2013 general election. Pareno further told the court that ODM did not issue any certificate of nomination to Junet and that if he purported to hold such a certificate then the same is a forged document and should have been investigated. "If Junet Mohammed is purported to have presented a certificate of nomination allegedly issued to him by the ODM party, then it is a forgery or a forged document fraudulently and illegally obtained which cannot and must not be used in a serious constitutional process such as an election," Pareno told the court. Pesa told the court that he presented himself before the Suna East constituency returning officer on January 31, 2013 with the nomination papers duly issued by the IEBC and the ODM party for purposes of being cleared. To his surprise, however, he said, the returning officer refused to accept the nomination papers contending that the petitioner had not been validly nominated by ODM and that it was Junet who had been nominated for the seat. The IEBC told the court that prayers of judicial review sought by Pesa had been overtaken by events and any orders issued by the court in that regard would be orders issued in vain. The commission also argued that Pesa did not demonstrate the process by which Junet was nominated was flawed in any way whatsoever. In her ruling, Justice Sitati said Pesa did not exhaust the internal party dispute resolution mechanism and held that the instant petition was therefore prematurely brought before the court. That is how Junet got the ODM ticket. Caroli, who served as chief of staff in the office of Prime Minister Raila Odinga, now deceased, says some documents were illegally removed from the court file before the judge could see them. "I have shared this affidavit in support of free media. I know for a fact that the ODM party never issued any certificate of nomination as required by law to Junet Sheikh Nuh Mohamed in respect of Suna East National Assembly seat who purported to have been cleared to contest as the ODM candidate at the said elections," Caroli said. The Pesa - Junet case was not unique, according to Caroli, because several false, fake, fraudulent and falsified nomination certificates were circulating in the country and were in the public domain. Several cases were reported to the police, arrests made, IEBC returning officers suspended and certificates recalled. Once in Parliament, Junet quickly allied himself to Raila through frequent press statements in support of the party and its leadership. He also became a good source of news for the media because of his availability as a voice of the opposition. Some ODM MPs now say, once in Parliament, Junet ruthlessly leveraged his closeness to Raila to blockade access to the party leadership. Last week, Sifuna opened a Pandora's box when he raised questions over how Junet allegedly handled campaign money donated by former president Uhuru Kenyatta during Raila's 2022 presidential bid. He was responding to claims made earlier by Junet that the money Uhuru donated never reached them because some of the former president's allies and family members kept it to themselves. "You were 'eating' Uhuru's money instead of paying agents... were it not for you, Junet, we would be in government now. You cannot scare me. They say you should not insult an old sponsor just because you have found a new one," Sifuna said. In a swift rebuttal, Junet accused Sifuna, who he said moonlights for the former president within the party, of challenging him to explain why agents in the 2022 General Election were neither paid nor present at their designated polling stations. It is now emerging that Junet is loathed and liked in equal measure by opposing camps in ODM amid the rapidly growing rift, with the likes of Caroli claiming that he has led a reign of terror as their leader in the National Assembly. "Luo MPs feared him because he used his closeness to Baba to decide their fate. Anyone who questioned him was kicked out of influential House committees and taken to the inconsequential ones," Caroli says. He describes Junet as a vengeful man who was welcomed as a compromise candidate despite the controversy that surrounded the nomination process in 2013. Caroli traces Junet's entry into politics back to 2005. "The party wanted someone educated to be nominated as councillor in Migori. That is how Junet ended up becoming Migori mayor before running for Parliament in 2013," says Caroli. But Atandi, who is the chairman of the Budget Committee is accusing Junet's opponents of peddling falsehoods. "It is a fact that many leaders fought Junet when Baba was alive but they all failed. Baba trusted Junet because he is a strategist, a thinker and bold executer of plans, so these fights are a continuation of what has been going. But they will not succeed," Atandi told The Standard.

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