By Anderson Ojwang
The dust over the role played by Azimio La Umoja Secretary General Junet Mohammed in the coalition presidential candidate Raila Odinga’s loss has refused to settle and continues to gather storm.
Former Secretary General of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), Cleophas Malala, on Tuesday added fuel to the fire by claiming that Junet was UDA presidential candidate William Ruto’s ‘agent’ in Raila’s team and that he gave them ODM agents’ data.
Junet was the Secretary General of the Azimio La Umoja coalition and has recently come under attack for allegedly bungling Raila’s 2022 presidential election.
“Junet Mohammed has been Raila’s right-hand man for a very long epoch. He was the one managing and ensuring Baba took his medicine on time. He was closer to Baba than even his children. Baba entrusted Junet with his life. Sadly, he is the one who has caused Baba to lose all the elections. The other day, you, Sifuna, claimed that Junet misappropriated monies meant for agents. I want to confirm here, in this interview today, I was William Ruto’s right-hand man. We were in UDA; at night Junet used to come to see William Ruto, brief him on everything. We even had the list of agents for ODM across the country. We knew who was going to be an ODM agent in which place courtesy of Junet. Junet did not pick our calls or respond to our text messages over these allegations. That guy started betraying Baba when he was still alive,” he said.
Recently, ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna accused Junet of misappropriating agents’ funds and bungling Raila’s campaigns. Sifuna also accused the party’s Director of Elections, Junet Mohammed, of allegedly failing to pay presidential agents.
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,” Sifuna said.
Sifuna, who spoke at a funeral in Mt Kenya, demanded a thorough audit of the 2022 presidential campaigns.
“The day we will start the audit of the 2022 elections, it is good you have started the debate. Let everyone say their contribution in the 2022 general elections,” he said.
However, Junet denied the accusations and instead blamed former President Uhuru Kenyatta, whom he accused of appointing his blood brother, Muhoho Kenyatta, to manage the agents’ funds.
“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 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 Patrick Mburu to come clean on the matter and deny his claims.
Similarly, the Azimio La Umoja Volunteer Board, through one of its members, Ronny Raburo, accused Junet of shedding crocodile tears when he failed to address the Central Kenya agents’ issue.
Raburo, who met with the late Raila at breakfast ahead of the elections over the emerging presidential agents’ issue in Central Kenya, said the former prime minister tasked Junet to urgently handle the matter.
Ronny Raburo said that despite addressing the agents’ issue with Raila at a breakfast meeting and Raila tasking Junet to urgently handle it, the latter went mute.
“Raila called Junet and told him to handle our issue as a matter of urgency. We went downstairs with Junet to meet Julie Nabwera 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.
Raila’s chief agent during the August 9 elections, Saitabao Kanchory, claimed that Raila only listened to one person — Suna East MP Junet Mohamed.
“We could not have lost this election if it weren’t for three people. The first one is Junet Mohamed, 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 it was clearly wrong.
“The only person Baba would listen to without question was Junet. Even if you had truth and you told Baba, and Junet came with darkness, Baba would side with Junet. Junet Mohamed is one man who purported to know everything and nullified everything everyone said. He also ensured that people who could have helped Baba were kept at arm’s length,” he said.
Uriri MP Mark Nyamita recently demanded that Junet resign as Director of Elections after he failed to deliver the presidency in the 2022 general elections.
“I told Junet that in a mature democracy, when you are Director of Campaigns and Director of Elections and you fail in that election, the honourable thing to do is to resign,” he said.
Nyamita blamed Junet for bungling Raila’s 2022 presidential bid and said he should never be allowed to dictate and control community politics.
“Donge ngani ema okethonwa gigi kod gimiel moko matindo tindo. We are in pain as a people. Wan gi rem kaka oganda. Kendo koro sani odwa pango wango. Nyasaye achiel wangni wabiro deal kodi,” he said.
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.
Azimio spokesperson Prof. Makau Mutua, in a statement, wrote: “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.”
