I will run for President, says Okoth Obado
Migori Governor Okoth Obado.
Migori County Governor Okoth Obado has reiterated that he will be gunning for the country’s top seat in 2022 on the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) ticket.
Speaking in an interview on Ramogi FM, the outgoing county boss said Wednesday he had ditched Raila Odinga’s ODM party to focus on strengthening his new political outfit, adding that he was not out to divide the Luo community that has for decades supported the former premier.
“My exit from ODM is not in bad faith. I have taken a short break to strengthen my party that steered me to the governorship. It is the bus that ushered me into active politics and I’m back to end the journey that I started,” he said.
The Migori Governor, whose murder trial alongside two of his aides resumes in July, told off leaders linking his latest political moves to Deputy President William Ruto, adding that his political alliances would come to light at the right time.
“There is no link between PDP and Ruto’s UDA. In fact, the party was coined recently after we had formed PDP…We have always been isolated in one cocoon and any attempt to break the barrier is met with reprisals. Let them not politicise this issue of PDP, we are not at war with any party, we are only advocating for our agenda,” Mr Obado noted, adding that PDP will also field candidates in other elective positions.
“PDP is not meant to divide the Luo community as alleged by some people. It is a party with a national outlook and I will be using it to vie for the presidency. Having many parties is not a crime, let us unite and strengthen it.”
Mr Obado expressed concern that though the late Jaramogi Odinga, the country’s first vice-president, fought hard to bring multiparty democracy, some people in the Nyanza region have not allowed democracy to thrive.
“We need to embrace changes as they come. It is absurd that despite Luos fighting for multipartism, some people have bluntly refused to accept democracy to thrive in the same region. If you try to come up with a party, you are called names and even branded as a mole,” he said.
BBI push
He also faulted the push for constitutional amendments through the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), calling it a scheme to burden taxpayers by creating unnecessary political slots.
“I have always had a lot of reservations with BBI. Even now, I’m convinced that the push for constitutional amendments will pose a huge economic burden to Kenyans,” he said.
“I had been moving around with the BBI secretariat to get a clear picture of what was in the document but I made an about-turn after realising that it was complete hogwash.”
The governor claimed that he was branded a Jubilee mole in 2013 when he made his first stab at the Migori governorship on a PDP ticket and that it was not unusual that he was now being branded an ally of the DP when he has chosen to consolidate his support base.
“Those that branded me a Jubilee mole are the same ones who are now working closely with Jubilee. Now that I’m seeking a top office in the PDP, they now call me Ruto’s point man,” he said in reference to the March 2013 handshake that saw Mr Odinga get into closer working ties with the Jubilee administration.
'Distributing wheelbarrows'
Governor Obado’s relations with ODM became frosty when he ditched the party for PDP earlier in the year, with Mr Odinga accusing him of being used by Dr Ruto to dilute the ODM’s influence in South Nyanza.
Mr Odinga told off Mr Obado in public for working with Dr Ruto “to undermine Nyanza unity” during the funeral of former Ndhiwa MP Owigo Olang’ in Nyatike on January 23.
“I also saw Obado distributing some wheelbarrows somewhere,” Mr Odinga said.
Wheelbarrows are associated with UDA, which uses the farm implement as its party symbol.
Mr Obado, who has lately been drumming up support for PDP amid talk of a budding alliance with the Dr Ruto-linked UDA, claimed he was forced to chart his own political path after “constant frustrations and betrayal” by political bigwigs in ODM.
“Those people (ODM) lured me into joining their party during my second term, but little did I know that they were taking me out of the frying pan and straight into the fire,” he said, urging Migori residents to reject inept ODM leaders at the ballot.
He noted that the party had launched a massive membership recruitment campaign and was open for alliances with like-minded parties that will steer them to form the next government.
Looming murder trial
But even as the county boss makes plans for his political career beyond 2022, he will be facing a murder trial in July this year after more than a one-year hiatus.
Mr Obado is charged alongside his aides—Michael Oyamo and Caspal Obiero—with the murder of former Rongo University student Sharon Otieno. The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) has lined up 37 witnesses to testify against the accused.
The case had been scheduled for hearing from March 16 last year but was halted following the scaling down of court activities to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Sharon was brutally murdered and her body dumped in a thicket in Oyugis, Homa Bay County, in September 2018. She was stabbed eight times while seven months pregnant. Her parents, Douglas Otieno and Melida Auma, previously said they were hopeful justice would prevail.
Sharon was a second year student pursuing a degree in medical records and information. During the second anniversary of her death on September 4, 2020, her family urged the prosecution and the courts to fast-track the hearing to put the matter to rest.
Sharon and journalist Barrack Oduor were abducted moments after being lured out of a hotel in Rongo Town and bundled into a waiting car.
Read: Timeline: How Nation journalist Barrack Oduor was attacked
The journalist, however, acted fast and jumped out of the speeding vehicle at Nyangweso market on the Homa Bay-Kisumu Road.
A post-mortem report indicated that Sharon had been stabbed four times at the back, three times on the neck and once on the left side of her abdomen.
Additional reporting by Ruth Mbula
