ODM leader Raila Odinga flew to Kisumu Sunday in a quest to calm tensions in his Nyanza backyard ahead of President Kenyatta’s visit to the lakeside city next week.
The tour also comes as tensions continue to grip the region following last week’s Bonchari by-election in which ODM accused government officials of using police to harass its supporters.
Mr Odinga, who landed with his sister, Ruth, aboard a private jet from Malindi where they had been on a week-long holiday, is expected to hold a series of fire-fighting meetings in the region ahead of Mr Kenyatta’s visit to preside over Madaraka Day celebrations on June 1.
The ODM leader is also keen on cooling down the public and the business community in the lake-side city, which has witnessed demolitions that have hit thousands of traders.
Today, the local ODM leadership and MCAs have been invited for a breakfast meeting at Sunset Hotel in Milimani by Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o, a gathering Mr Odinga is said to be likely to attend.
In his meetings with residents, Mr Odinga is expected to neutralise any possible political backlash against Mr Kenyatta, his Handshake partner. This is after he accused some unnamed government officials of orchestrating impunity in Bonchari, as well as being threats to the March 2018 peace deal with the President.
His statement came barely 24 hours after ODM threatened to review its relationship with the ruling Jubilee Party ‘if it continues to undermine it’.
ODM National Treasurer Timothy Bosire said: “If what we saw in Bonchari is what Jubilee is calling BBI, then ODM is not a party to it. We shall face our opponents with or without amending the Constitution.”
It’s on the backdrop of the fierce statements that insiders in Odinga circles told the Nation the ODM leader is keen on “calming the ground ahead of next week’s Madaraka Day celebrations in Kisumu.”
Within ODM, Mr Odinga still has to put his house in order as his troops continue to trade barbs following the High Court BBI thunderbolt.
“At times like this, you hear some asking where Orengo is but they’ll be the first people to castigate me on false allegations that I am fighting our party leader,” Mr Orengo said in Siaya.
But on Sunday, in further escalating the anti-Orengo-Otiende sentiments, former Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo told off Mr Orengo, accusing him of double speak.
“Orengo must stop betraying Raila. We need him in court, but he must not use that to betray Raila. I can read through him. We love him so much as one of our prominent lawyers, but he must stop the betrayal. Only fools are stupid. We will take him back where we got him,” Mr Midiwo told the Nation on the phone yesterday.
Mr Odinga’s visit, therefore, comes at a time of fears of division in his party over BBI and its fate, but also what his Handshake with the President means and whether or not it is still viable.
