Kisumu,15/10/07
 
ODM: SECRET PLOT TO RIGG OUT NEW PARLAIMENTARY ASPIRANTS IN LUO-LAND IN FAVOUR OF THE OUTGOING MPS REVEALED

By LEO ODERA OMOLO
 
The popular rumor currently making the round inside Luo Nyanza is that ODM top brass officials have already hatched a secret plot to rig out certain aspirants vying for various parliamentary seats.
 
The rumour alleged that the ODM party has earmarked a good number of the unpopular incumbent Luo MPs to be returned to parliament technically unopposed. Others will be opposed, but by only insignificant parliamentary aspirants whose credibility are questionable.
 
In the event of such unlikely political scenario, the man who stands to loose thousands of votes, is none other than the party presidential nominee Raila Amolo Odinga. This is because the supporters of the popular candidate who are perceived not to be loyal to ‘Agwambo’ will not vote for him in the event of their popular candidates being short changed and rigged out of the race by the party’s election  board.
 
The rumors have it that Raila Odinga had secretly pleaded with the ODM election board to ensure that his most trusted lieutenants get the party tickets by hooks and crooks even after loosing to their opponents during the ODM preliminaries.
 
Among the MPs Raila is said to have earmarked for the re elections include Dr. Paul Adhuu Awiti (Karachuonyo) Gerald Otieno Kajwang (Mbita) George Ochillo Ayacko (Rongo) Dr. Oburu Odinga (Bondo) Jakoyo Midiwo (Gem) and Prof. Peter Anyan’g Nyong’o (Kisumu Rural).The rest of the current 21 Luo MPs will be left to fight their own election battles
 
It is being rumored that some of the most popular aspirants in Luo Nyanza were currently being pressurized by Raila’s men to stand down or withdraw their candidacy in various constituencies in favour of the sitting MPs.
 
These aspirants according to a source in Kisumu are being given verbal promise and undertakings that in the event of Raila Odinga clinching the presidency, most of them would be absorbed on big jobs in the public service and in the parastatal organizations by the ODM government. Such rumours could not be denied or confirmed immediately.
 
Some of the aspirants are said to have flatly refused to buy or succumb to such suggestions and vowed to soldier on in their campaign race to parliament. A group of party power  brokers allegedly masquerading as Raila’s most trusted agents are said to be on the lose issuing intimidation and threats to those who are said to be reluctant to succumb to their pressure to abandon the race.
 
One of the most targeted for such schemes is the popular and youthful aspirant in Mbita constituency. Mr. Sammy Wakiaga, who is allegedly under pressure to vacate the race in favour of the unpopular Otieno Kajwang . Pundits say the MP cannot beat this particular aspirant and win the election on his own credibility.
 
Wakiaga is a senior public servant with a very attractive track record of active participation in the development of schools, medicares and other needy economic projects in Mbita.He is the darling of the electorate in Mbita.
 
Other rumors making the round in Mbita and its environs is that Raila Odinga is not comfortable with not only Mr. Wakiaga as a person, but he is said to be so much reluctant to work with anybody from the tiny Rusinga Island, which is the birth place of the Late Tom Mboya.
 
This is said to be on the account of the old rivalry between Raila’s father the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and the late Tom Mboya dating back to the KANU’s old days. And that is the reason why Raila would rather prefer to work with Kajwang, but not with Wakiaga.
 
This rumor whether it is true of false has enraged the electorate in Mbita. They too on the other hand are pressing Mr. Wakiaga to soldier on with his campaign and ignore those pressurizing him to opt out of the race in favour of Otieno Kajwang to be elected back to parliament, on a silver platter and yet he has done very little to the electorate in the area.
 
“We are not going to vote for an MP who will serve as a spanner boy for Raila Odinga, but we want to elect someone who will serve our interest.”  Said Mr.Ogweno Orwa from Mfangano Island.
 
Kajwang has failed to deliver the goods to the electorate ever since 1997 when he was first elected to   parliament on a Ford Kenya ticket. If Raila trusted him so much, then he should advice him to seek the election in a safe cosmopolitan constituency in one of the Kenya’s towns.
 
To us, he is a big liability than an asset to the electoral added Mr. John Onyango a resident of Rusinga East location in Mbita, Suba district. The same rumor says Raila is not comfortable with the candidacy of Mr. Shem Ochuodho (Rangwe), Dalmas Otieno (Rongo), Eng. James Rege (Karachuonyo)
 
One of the men who have been masquerading as Raila Odinga’s a right hand men in Luo Nyanza while peddling these rumours, Mr. Ted Odero who is also an aspirant in Ndhiwa Constituency. He has been heard spreading rumours about the name of the people ‘Agwambo’ wanted not to see the inside of the August House.
 
Odero hails from Kabuoch Central Location in Ndhiwa, Homa-Bay and used to work as Hotel waiter in Kisumu Town.He is currently working as the manager with Mbita ferry  a firm in which Mr.Wakiaga had some economic interests.
 
On one occasions he was heard telling people that Raila is not in favour of the Ndhiwa MP Joshua Orwa Ojode, who many people in Luo- Nyanza have credited to be the most loyal and trusted  “ Agwambo” disciple.He told this writer that Ojode has been blacklisted among those to be sidelined in his favour, but a recent tour to Ndhiwa revealed that Ojode is still a man of the people therefore a hard nut to crack.
 
Raila’s perceived power brokers have also gone solo campaigning against Dr. Shem Ochuodho, whom the electorate in Rangwe want to replace  the rapidly ageing Eng. Phillip Okoth Okundi the incumbent MP
 
Okundi, though being credited for having managed the CDF money properly is however, under heavy pressure of loosing his seat to the aggressive and dynamic Dr.Shem Ochuodho.The only hitch Ochuodho is facing is his independent mindedness.
 
In Rongo the shock waves of Dalmas Otieno is sending shivers down to the spine of the sitting MP Ochillo Ayacko, whose violently oriented supporters have spared no time without invoking Raila’s name in their utterances. But they have failed in pointing out and in explaining some of the out going MPs own achievements ever since he ventured into Parliamentary politics in 1997.
 
Pundits say Otieno’s candidacy would complicate matters worse to Ayacko’s chances of getting re-elected in the event of free and fair election being held in Rongo .The former Minister Otieno is bound to sail through with an overwhelming majority votes on the account of his past clean record in the field of development and commitment to serving the most exploited Sugar cane farmers in the area.
 
In Karachuonyo Dr.Paul Adhu Awiti is among the endangered Luo MP who is seeing the inevitable election defeat in their steps.
 
The waves of support for the former PS in the Ministry of Information and Communication Eng James Rege are sweeping the entire length and depth of the populous constituency. Pundits say Rege’s waves is unstoppable .He would win whether Raila preferred Adhu Awiti or not.
 
The fear persist that should the ODM election board headed by the retired Judge of the High Court Justice Otieno Kwach  made the simplest mistake of picking unpopular candidate in any constituency in Luo-land ,the resultant fallout could cut Raila’s presidential votes by half.
 
Ends
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