By Anderson Ojwang
The storm is raging, and Azimio La Umoja Secretary General Junet Mohammed finds himself in an unfamiliar situation, with a volunteer group asking him to stop shedding crocodile tears and instead own up.
This comes hot on the heels of ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna’s demand for an audit of the 2022 presidential campaign, in which he accused Junet of misappropriating agents’ money.
The Azimio La Umoja Volunteer Board, through one of its members, Ronny Raburo, wrote, “You know what, we are just too strong watching Junet cry crocodile tears and chest thump…”
Raburo, who met the late Raila Odinga at breakfast ahead of the elections over the emerging issue of presidential agents in Central Kenya, said the former Prime Minister tasked Junet to urgently handle the matter.
Raburo said that two days to the eve of polling day, while attending the last agents’ training at the Kenya School of Law in Karen, they were informed from the ground that there was not a single agent in all the Central Province polling stations for IEBC briefing, and they sensed trouble.
At the breakfast meeting, after detailing Raila on the emerging situation in Central Kenya, he directed Junet to handle the concerns raised by the group.
Raburo had met Raila over concerns that in the Central region, the presidential candidate did not have agents.
“Raila called Junet and told him to handle our issue as a matter of urgency. We went downstairs with Junet to meet with Julie Nabweara and Jackie (members of the volunteer board), after our brief on the situation in Central Kenya.
Junet gave me his number to call him later in the day to meet him at the Kenya School of Law, Karen. Junet is yet to receive my calls to date,”he wrote.
The group had made a fallback plan just in case Azimio presidential agents fell short in any area, noting that they were ready to send volunteers who were present across the entire country to cover the gaps.
Sifuna lit the fire after accusing the Secretary General of Azimio La Umoja of misappropriating agents’ funds and bungling Raila Amolo Odinga’s bid to become the fifth President of Kenya in the August 2022 elections.
Sifuna, speaking at a funeral in Mt Kenya, demanded a thorough audit of the 2022 presidential campaigns.
Equally, Sifuna also accused the party’s Director of Elections, Junet Mohammed, who was the Secretary General of the Azimio La Umoja Coalition, of bungling Raila Amolo Odinga’s campaign by failing to pay presidential agents.
“The day we will start the audit of the 2022 elections, it is good you have started the debate. Let everyone say their contributions in the 2022 general elections.”
Sifuna accused Junet of derailing Raila’s presidential bid and blamed him for Azimio La Umoja’s failure to form the government.
“Some people feasted on then President Uhuru Kenyatta’s money. I know, as the Secretary General, the huge chunk of money we used in the campaigns came from Uhuru Kenyatta.
You were eating Uhuru’s money instead of paying agents and allowed Wamunyoro (Rigathi Gachagua and President William Ruto) to defeat us.”
Sifuna said Uhuru bankrolled Raila’s campaign and wondered why Junet had now turned against him.
“Uhuru Kenyatta supported Raila’s campaign in all manner. But now there is one man, Junet Mohammed, who has woken up from sleep and realised how Uhuru Kenyatta’s money is now bad.
I want to ask Junet Mohammed, when did Uhuru Kenyatta’s money start to be bad? Those days you used to take Uhuru’s money, and some you didn’t bring to the party, and some you squandered,”he said.
However, Junet denied the accusations and instead placed the blame on former President Uhuru Kenyatta, whom he accused of appointing his blood brother, Muhoho Kenyatta, to manage the agents.
He said Uhuru released the agents’ funds to his brother and not to the secretariat.
“The answer is simple, clear and verifiable: former President Uhuru Kenyatta released the funds meant for election agents to his blood brother, Muhoho Kenyatta,” he said.
Junet said Muhoho Kenyatta appointed one Mr Patrick Mburu to take charge of the recruitment and payment of agents.
“Mr Mburu presented himself as an IT expert, claiming he had the capacity to detect and prevent any manipulation of results by the IEBC.”
Junet claimed that at the time, Muhoho Kenyatta operated from an office in Westlands that was so restricted that even Raila Odinga, the party’s presidential candidate, could not access it freely.
“It is from this office — out of bounds for nearly all of us — that they claimed to handle the agents’ payments and other logistics. These are facts, not conjecture. I challenge Uhuru Kenyatta and Muhoho Kenyatta to publicly deny these facts,” he said.
Sifuna blamed Junet for undermining Raila’s chances of forming the government in the 2022 general election.
“We are now mourning. If it was not for you, we could have formed the government.”
Junet said that once Muhoho took charge, they never procured any agents for Raila Odinga, neither in Mt Kenya nor in Luo Nyanza, describing it as a long con game.
“Let the record also be set straight: Hon Raila Odinga would have had no reason whatsoever to appoint me — Hon Junet Mohammed — as the Leader of Minority in the National Assembly if I had truly betrayed him.
For years, I handled all the delicate assignments from our late dear Party Leader with fidelity and diligence,”he said.
He challenged Uhuru, Muhoho and Mburu to come clean on the matter and deny his claims.
After the general election, the Azimio La Umoja Coalition dismissed allegations that some members of the secretariat squandered money budgeted for agents in the August 2022 elections.
This followed claims that top officials at the secretariat misused the funds, forcing some polling stations to miss out on agents.
Azimio spokesperson Prof Makau Mutua, in a statement at the time, defended Junet, who was on the receiving end of criticism.
“I have seen scurrilous attacks on Junet Mohammed accusing him of misappropriation of campaign funds meant for agents. Let me state without equivocation that Hon Junet was a campaign leader in the field supporting Hon Raila. He at no time handled the money meant for the agents, nor did he have anything whatsoever to do with the management of the agents,” the statement read.
Raila also came to Junet’s defence, saying the Suna East MP did not misappropriate campaign funds.
Raila’s chief agent in the August 9 elections, Saitabao Kanchory, claimed that ODM only listened to one person — Suna East MP Junet Mohammed.
“We could not have lost this election if it were not for three people. The first one is Junet Mohammed, the second is Joe Mucheru and the third is Makau Mutua. These are people I have worked with and respect, but in terms of responsibility, they take the highest responsibility,” he said on NTV.
According to Kanchory, Junet ran a one-man show, and the former Prime Minister sided with everything he said, even when he could clearly see it was wrong.
“The only person Baba would listen to without question was Junet. Even if you had the truth and you told Baba, and Junet came with darkness, Baba would side with Junet,” he said.
“Junet Mohammed is one man who purported to know everything, nullified everything everyone said, and made sure he kept people who could have helped Baba (Raila) at arm’s length. He ensured nobody came close to Baba who would have helped him.”
