Cabal around Raila is to blame for his election loss, ally now says
Rarieda MP Otiende Amolo. He says there are individuals around Azimio leader Raila Odinga who kept lying to him that all was well while it was not.
Rarieda MP Otiende Amolo now claims a series of blunders by dishonest individuals around ODM leader Raila Odinga led to his humiliating defeat in last month’s elections.
They not only messed up the nominations, leading to low morale, he said, but also had a rosy outlook when things were far different.
His sentiments were shared by Alego Usonga lawmaker Samuel Atandi.
Dr Amolo said ODM must retreat and reflect on the loss so as to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
“We as the Orange party must go back and ask ourselves where the rains started beating us. There are people who cheated Mr Odinga till the last minute, we know them and she shall ask them,” Dr Otiende said.
He added: “When the time for getting positions in the national assembly and nominations for the county assemblies is reached, sadly they are the same people who want to continue with the same trend.”
He also faulted nominations for positions in the Siaya County Assembly.
“In the Siaya County Assembly, where there were 12 nomination slots, the process was skewed to the extent that Rarieda constituency, where I am the legislator, had none allocated,” he said.
“Ideally, each should have two nominees from all the six constituencies. Together with other leaders, we shall fight against this trend.”
Rewarding cronies
Mr Atandi condemned some leaders in ODM, saying they changed nomination slots for the benefit of their cronies.
“We have problems in ODM, especially on the nomination. We fought to ensure that we got seats for the party in the August elections and it is sad that some people are out to frustrate our efforts when it comes to nominating people,” he said.
The two legislators also claimed that the names of nominees were changed in Nairobi and replaced by other people.
“Every region is complaining about the skewed nomination process, be it Garissa, Kakamega and other areas where the Orange party had nomination slots,” Mr Atandi added.
There have been murmurs that some operatives around Mr Odinga squandered money meant for presidential agents, forcing Azimio spokesman Makau Mutua to issue a statement denying the reports.
The political brawl in ODM, especially in Siaya County, began after the April nominations, when some leaders felt there was a plot to deny them tickets though they had won the primaries.
Mr Atandi, Dr Gideon Ochanda (Bondo) and Mr Elisha Odhiambo (Gem) had to go through rigorous court processes to get the party tickets even after being declared winners.
Mr Odhiambo declined to take part in a rerun after ODM’s National Elections Board (NEB) nullified the Gem nominations.
In Bondo, the NEB unsuccessfully called for fresh nominations twice.
