By Anderson Ojwang
The political noise-makers and excitement by a section of leaders after the death of Raila Amolo Odinga in Luo land must come to an end to allow the community to retreat and recollect.
The community must now retreat, become a mysterious entity, and allow the internal forces to reorder community politics. This will erase from the community noise-makers and opportunists parading themselves and cheapening the Luo community.
Equally, the baseless invoking of Raila’s name with unfounded messages, claims, and a supposed will to the people is an act of betrayal to Raila and should be avoided at all costs.
If anything, such statements are basically an act of betrayal to Raila by the opportunistic tendencies of a clique of politicians geared towards serving their selfish ends.
Rarieda MP Otiende Amolo has come out to inject sense into the community and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), saying the future must be determined by the living and not the dead.
Otiende told off those who claim to know what the departed hero Raila told them in secret, saying they cannot be trusted.
He said the public should only trust what Raila said in public when he was alive.
“People Raila never spoke to are saying Raila told me this in private. Do you hear and listen to them around?
The only thing that you can believe is what Raila spoke in public, and what somebody comes and says he told me in my ears, ignore them,” he said.
Otiende said that on the broad-based arrangement, Raila said they would be in the arrangement up to 2027 and that it was incumbent upon the living to determine the future going forward.
“The only thing Raila said is that we will be in this government up to 2027, and beyond 2027 it is us who are still alive to determine,” he said.
Otiende said it would be incumbent upon party members to decide whether to stick with President Ruto or seek an alternative arrangement.
“Nobody can come and tell us that beyond 2027 we are still with Ruto. No. We can or we cannot be, depending on the arrangement,” he said.
The Rarieda MP questioned why the community was so excited over piecemeal Cabinet and Principal Secretary appointments while the Kikuyu community, with the majority of appointments, remains silent.
“The Kikuyu community has more numbers in government than the Luos. We only have two Cabinet Secretaries, namely John Mbadi, Cabinet Secretary for Treasury, and his Energy counterpart, Opiyo Wandayi, while the Kikuyu have eight, namely Lee Kinyanjui, Mutahi Kagwe, Rebecca Miano, William Kabogo, Eric Muga, Alice Wahome, Mercy Wanjau, Geoffrey Ruku, and Deputy President Kithure Kindiki.
We have four Principal Secretaries while the Kikuyu have 12. Do you hear them talk and make noise? Why are we so noisy and loud?” he asked.
Recently, Suba South MP Caroli Omondi revealed that Raila only allowed and permitted Mbadi and Wandayi to champion President Ruto’s second-term agenda.
He said that Alego MP Sam Atandi asked Raila for permission to occasionally talk about Ruto’s second term by virtue of his position as the Budget Committee chairperson.
“Raila told us not to say two term. And if any MP wants to contradict that, let them try and we will tell them where they were told.
Only Alego MP Sam Atandi raised his hand as the chairman and member of the Budget Committee and asked Raila to allow him sometimes to say two term.
Baba’s instructions were that only Mbadi and Wandayi should say two term; the rest were a no,” he said.
Currently, ODM is split right in the middle over the broad-based arrangement, with ODM party leader Dr Oburu Odinga, National Chairperson Gladys Wanga, Junet Mohammed, among others, leading support for an alliance with President Ruto in 2027.
The other group wants structured negotiations and is open to any political formation, and is led by Siaya Governor James Orengo and Secretary General Edwin Sifuna.
Orengo said that while other ODM strongholds have remained quiet, the civil war was being waged in Nyanza and specifically by the Luo.
“I see an attempt to try and drive ODM to become purely regional and, if not, a Luo party. The elements of the party from other regions are fairly quiet when we have this civil war within the party,” he said.
But Junet, speaking over the weekend, claimed Uhuru was enticing some ODM leaders with financial support to revitalise the party in order to join the united opposition.
“If you want to be party leader, go and form your party. There are people who want to take over our party. There are people who are being paid by former President Uhuru Kenyatta. We want to tell them, if they think Dr Oburu has no ability, we are his foot soldiers and we will fight to the bitter end,” he claimed.
Junet promised that 2026 would be an all-out battle and that there would be premium tears, and that they would not be scared by cheap threats.
“Call us brokers, call us thieves, we are not leaving the broad-based government. It is you who is going to leave ODM. Uhuru Kenyatta failed to make Raila president despite having the instruments of power,” he said.
He said it was only the party leader, Dr Oburu, who is mandated by the constitution to run for the presidency.
“There are some within ODM who say that ODM must have a presidential candidate. The constitution says the presidential candidate is the party leader. Dr Oburu is the one who will tell us if he wants to be the presidential candidate or not. This is not a party of drunkards,” he said.
