By Anderson Ojwang
As the dust of death of the Enigma, Raila Amolo Odinga begins to settle, questions are emerging why his trusted lieutenant who was omnipresent in his life did not travel to India to collect his body.
And why he presided over the leadership change in the party hardly 12 hours after Raila’s death and did not wait to honor the mourning period of his boss before the changes were made ?
Raila’s known closest ally, Junet Mohammed, who is also the party Director of Elections is on the spot over allegedly betraying Raila in death.
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua raised the storm when he claimed that the day Raila died and delegation went to India to bring his body Junet and ODM National chairperson Gladys Wanga were plotting on how to “sell’ the party to President William Ruto.”
“William Ruto has bought ODM. It was sold by Junet and Wanga. They have already received the deposit of sales on the day Raila died. Junet used to be with Raila throughout, he never went to collect his body. He reached at the Jomo Kenyata International Airport and pretended to be sick. And was left behind selling ODM” he said.
But Junet denied Gachagua claims saying he was sick and had undergone a medical procedure.
“I was supposed to be in the team that was supposed to go India but I was still not feeling well. I had a procedure actually. And the records are there. Don’t listen to people like Gachagua who are saying things of gutter. They can say anything. Those are people who belong to the gutter,” he said.
ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna said in a recent interview that Junet was scheduled to be in the flight but excused himself that he was not feeling well and so did not travel.
“I remember getting into that flight and I looked around I could not see enough of Raila friends. I was very hungry. I was wondering who are these people going to fetch Mzee,” he said.
Ironically, at the Airport while waiting for the body of Raila to land, Oburu Oginga said Junet broke to him the news of his appointment as the new acting party leader.
“Oburu said he never campaigned to be made the party leader and was shocked to be informed of his appointment as the leader.
Mokuongo nyocha ok atimo campaign mondo chama oketa mondo abed kaka party leader. An Chieng no bende ema oyudo ka jakom ne onindo. Ndege bende oor gi Odhiambo odhi ome to ndege no bende kiny duogo gokinyi (Firstly, I never campaigned to be made the party leader.. That was the day Raila died. A plane had been scheduled to go and bring his body at home)”
Koro saa mane wadhi e airport ne awinjo ni party national executive committee ne romo. To saa apar ga ariyo ma okinyi eka gibiro e airport (On the day of the body arrival, I went to the Airport but I had the party national executive council (NEC) was meeting at 6.00am)
Koro an ka adhi e pap to junet ema openja nip ok iyudo wach ni in e party ? apenje ni party leader nade? Party leader abedo nade. Wach ni ne obuoga. Ne ok angeyo. Okona ni gino ne okadhe nec unanimously ma onge ngama oppingo. Kendo ni governor ma Mombsaa ema ne o proposa (I went to the Airport and Junet came and asked me : Are you aware you have been made the party leader? I shocked and I didn’t know. He told me I was unanimously appointed. That I was proposed by the Mombasa Governor Abdulsammad Nassir)
Apenjo junet to into iparo nade. Okona ni en achiel kuom joms noitiere bura mane okadho gino (I asked Junet about his feelings on the same and he told me he was among the people present at the meeting who voted to appoint me)”
Suba South MP Caroli Omondi gave an insight of what could be happening in the party and the emergence of a mysterious hand pulling shots in the party.
“There was a very quick transition even before Baba’s body arrived. When Mzee Oburu announced that he had accepted to be the party leader, he said he did not even know that there was a process to make him party leader.
What that implies is that, that call came from somewhere else. And that worries me a lot. This is because, it therefore seems that ODM is getting directions and controls from somewhere else,” he said
Betrayal at the Airport and Stadia
Sifuna said chaos witnessed at the Airport and Kasarani international stadium were as a result of absence of party leadership and availability of public address system at the facilities.
“I was angry at Nyayo stadium that Baba even when he was the prime minister, there used to be fight about him getting police escort and suddenly we have these police outriders in front of his casket, which should have been his tour of inauguration when he was going around the stadium.
Things that were denied to Raila during his life time. I was totally hungry that they blacked out his party colors at the Nyayo stadium.
I was very angry that they didn’t even mention his political party and because we used to drape people coffins in party colors and they did not allow us to drape his coffin in party colors.
I feel the state mismanaged the arrival of the body at the airport, if there was a public address system outside the airport and the leadership of the party were there to calm the people down, we couldn’t have witnessed such scenes, because members of the party want to see familiar faces in those times,” he said.
