The dissenting voices and simmering discontent from leaders from Western Kenya within the ODM party is no longer mere talk as the threats are now being put into actions as its national vice chairman Dr. Paul Otwoma has become the first official to resign from his position.
Speaking while announcing his resignation at Bukalama resort in Nambale constituency, the vocal legislator who is also the member of parliament for Funyula constituency said that he has since resigned as the party’s national vice chair citing undermining and trivializing of his position among other reasons.
Otwoma cited a recent move where he and the party’s Secretary General Ababu Namwamba led a host of legislators from the region to raise their discontentment in the running of the party affairs only to be dismissed by some other leaders in the party who are deemed not to embrace any changes.
“When I speak something and you do not listen to me and you say that I am the vice chairman of the party and when I speak you think I have just talked nonsense then I have no business holding such a position and from now I have resigned as the national vice chairman of ODM and I am going to deliver my resignation letter to the party,” said a bitter Otwoma.
The legislator who was accompanied by the party secretary general Ababu Namwamba and former Westlands MP and minister Fred Gumo said that whatever he and the other members of ODM in Busia were speaking was not about Luhya or Luo communities but was on behalf of the entire ODM family in Busia who feel offended by the party.
“I cannot be speaking as a vice chairman of the party and you think I am just making noise yet whatever we are raising are serious issues” Otwoma said.
However he insisted that he had just resigned from the position he held in the party but he remained as an ODM member.
On his side Ababu Namwamba who was the main speaker as the team met ODM delegates from all the seven sub-counties also raised similar plight that the people of Busia and himself as the secretary general had been looked down upon in the Orange party despite being major stakeholders since the party’s inauguration in 2006.
Ababu who fell short of announcing his resignation repeatedly told the crowd that he will no longer allow himself to be a general with a gun that has no bullets noting that he was ready to return the gun to its owner.
He noted how he had suffered a great deal as he popularized the party in Busia and the entire country through various initiatives that he initiated as a senior member and later as a secretary general yet he later faced resistance from some quarters in the party.
“My problems in ODM started on the day I announced that I wanted to be the party’s secretary general and there has been concerted efforts to frustrate me as an SG and as a senior member of the party who has contributed a lot to its existence,” he said.
He pointed out that the people opposed to his position started branding him and other members of his team that are not satisfied with the leadership of the party as moles and sell-outs who have been bought to disgruntle the party.
The Budalangi legislator said that he is determined in his moves to bring change in the party and at the same time he was moving on with consultations with his people of Budalangi and Busia in general on the way forward and revealed that he is set to meet over 3500 delegates of the party in Bunyala in his constituency to chat the way forward.
Gumo in his speech also raised concern how the ODM leadership has failed in its mandate and called on the party leader to give direction and leadership and stop being misled by a clique of people surrounding him.
The leaders raised a number of issues that are rocking the ODM boat among them the flawed party nominations that have seen many popular candidates be denied tickets to vie for seats as the unpopular ones are offered tickets on the highest bidder basis.
The nomination issue played out in speeches of many speakers at the forum who pointed on it as the major undoing that will contribute greatly on the failure of ODM in the coming elections especially the 2017 polls.
Gumo pointed out that the same situation that is now being experienced in the party is what led to the exit of former party leaders including the current deputy president William Ruto and ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi among other members of the then Pentagon.
“There is a serious problem in ODM as a party and if the party leader does not put his house in order then we are not going to achieve anything even in next year’s elections because there must be order in all structures of the party just like in a home if the leader cannot give direction and order then such a home will definitely crumble,” said Gumo
Gumo further retorted at those who claim that the Ababu and Otwoma team who are raising issues in the party have been bought wondering how much can a leader of his caliber be bought with.
Interestingly all the speakers at the forum insisted that they should fight from inside the party and many of them were against leaving the party.
Jubilee taking over Kakamega County
As the ODM boat is getting more unstable from Busia county that is perceived to be the county that had full support more than any other county in the country, in neighboring Kakamega County where the party had also enjoyed overwhelming support, the ruling Jubilee party of president Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto is relentlessly doing all that it can to wrestle the populous county from the opposition.
A few weeks ago one of governor Wycliffe Oparanya’s county executive committee member – CEC for Culture and sports Retired Major Suleiman Sumba resigned from his position and immediately announced his intention to vie for the seat of the governor against his former boss.
One week later, Sumba led a big number of people from the county claiming to be Jubilee supporters to announce how they are determined to get rid of ODM in Kakamega and paint it with Jubilee colors come 2017 elections.
They vowed to sweep all the seats in the county in a move seen to be a Jubilee strategy to pour cash in the county and sway the support from ODM to Jubilee that has been involved in endless efforts to win the county.
Many believe that Sumba is being used as the point man of Jubilee in Kakamega to ensure that he weakens the strong support that Oparanya and the ODM party enjoyed in the run to the 2013 elections.
By ODM losing Busia and Kakamega and to some extend Bungoma counties, them it shall be a bid blow to the party leader Raila Odinga who is determined to give his final attempt at the presidency in next year’s polls against Jubilee of Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto.
In the previous elections in 2007 and 2013 Raila had enjoyed substantial support from the region and all along the region has been dubbed an opposition zone that many think it is being taken for granted by the ODM leadership who believe it is automatic to get support from the region.
