CORD rattled as ODM seeks clout ahead of by-elections

By  OSCAR OBONYO and STEPHEN MAKABILA

Political marriage involving former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka and Senate Minority Leader Moses Wetang’ula, faces its first major threat;  thanks to a storm kicked off by Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) legislators.

Whatever the reasons for the current push, the timing is curious. The squabbles are peaking at a delicate time when the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) partners are facing a series of by-elections in Mathare, Nyando and Bonchari constituencies. Shinyalu parliamentary seat and the Governor’s seat for Migori County are also on cards, although incumbents have petitioned their ousters.    

And the absence of Raila, whose MPs are on a warpath, has not helped matters. Raila is on a sabbatical leave in Boston, US, under a leadership programme for African retired Heads of State and Government.

The other two principals are reportedly puzzled by the latest developments, and there is disquiet within the coalition with some members claiming the Orange legislators may be acting on instructions.

 “They should tell us who they are speaking for, considering that the positions under discussion were not dished to us by ODM as a favour. Our Orange party colleagues must stop this reckless talk and tread carefully,” reacted Kiminini MP Chris Wamalwa, a close confidant of Wetang’ula.

The move spearheaded by the vocal Suna East MP Junnet Muhammed to renegotiate the pre-poll power-sharing pact has stirred a major controversy within CORD with some members from Ford-Kenya and Wiper Democratic Movement threatening to decamp to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee coalition.

Owing to its large numbers in the National Assembly and Senate, which surpasses the combined figures of Wiper and Ford-Kenya parties by a huge margin, Junnet argues that the Orange party has a raw deal in the power-sharing arrangement.

Rarieda MP Nicholas Gumbo shares this position and maintains it cannot be right for all parliamentary leadership positions to be held by minority partners, as ODM, which is the giant party within CORD, is locked out of leadership in both Houses.

The distribution of parliamentary seats within CORD is ODM 96, Wiper 25, Ford-Kenya 10, FPK 2, Kadu-Asil 1 and Tip 1. 

Wrong timing  

“Democracy is about the minority having their say, but the majority having their way. However, the current arrangement in CORD gives the largest party a diminishing stature. This is unacceptable,” says Gumbo.

The merits and demerits of these arguments notwithstanding, politicians from the three main member parties of CORD are in agreement that the timing is wrong.

Well aware of this fact, why then is a section of ODM legislators pushing an agenda that has been simmering for long at this point in time?

Is it that the Raila’s party feels weighed down by partners and wants to go it alone? Alternatively, has it got to do with the forthcoming by-elections?

Wamalwa, the official Opposition’s deputy parliamentary whip in the National Assembly, fingers the upcoming by-election in Nyando Constituency as the “real problem”. ODM, he claims, is trying to bully Ford-Kenya out of the race.

The Ford-Kenya allied legislator says their candidate, Jared Okello, is the most popular aspirant and he suggests the CORD family should carry out joint nominations to identify a stronger flag bearer. An opinion Kisumu Town West MP Olago Aluoch shares. 

“The way out is for ODM and Ford-Kenya to hold joint nominations but if that fails, then each party should go ahead and field a candidate. But I can assure you that even if we fail to field Okello, he can bolt out of CORD and still get the seat on another ticket,” states Aluoch.

Conceding that Okello is a stronger and more likeable politician than the immediate former MP Fred Outa, a South Nyanza legislator, who is close to the PM, claims the ODM party leader “did not mind working with Okello, who defected from ODM at the last minute to seek nomination on Ford-Kenya ticket.” 

But by rushing to endorse his candidature, the politician who pleaded for anonymity for fear of antagonising Raila, says the Nairobi County Governor Dr Evans Kidero seems to have spoilt it all for Okello.  Kidero, he claims, wants to humiliate the former PM by identifying candidates in Nyanza region, including the Migori County Governor Okoth Obado for re-election. “If these two win in the by-elections, Kidero would have succeeded in implanting the notion that Raila is no longer a political factor in Nyanza region and that he is the new boss who anoints the local leadership. This will not happen,” he charges.

Viewed from this perspective, the political headache is between ODM and Ford-Kenya and Wiper party officials are just passengers in a war that they neither understand nor are part of. But Gumbo points at another problem, which is the coalition’s weak leadership in the National Assembly.  The Senate, he observes, is relatively better under Wetangula, the Bungoma County senator. “Owing to his performance and because he is also CORD co-principal, Wetangula has cemented his position. But most of us have reservations about our brother Francis Nyenze, as Leader of Minority in the National Assembly,” he observes. According to Gumbo, at least Nyenze’s deputy Jakoyo Midiwo tries to up the game.

Deliberate move  

The only discomforting aspect, claims Gumbo, is that some view the effort as a deliberate move to overshadow Nyenze. Gumbo is, however, against what he regards as a lynch mob approach to the problem. ODM, he observes, should not bully its partners into submission but rather plead for their understanding in accommodating the party into parliamentary leadership positions.

But Wamalwa dismisses calls for the re-negotiation of CORD’s pre-election pact, saying those making such calls were doing it out of ignorance: “It is unfortunate that Raila lost the presidential contest, but ODM cannot now demand even the lesser positions Ford-Kenya and Wiper secured out of the intense negotiations that gave birth to the pre-election pact.”

 However, Gumbo says ODM legislators are being punished unfairly for the gesture extended to their party leader, Raila, to run for presidency: “But our man did not get the seat and his partners cannot continue riding on that arrangement, where they have their size potato as he and his team gets none.”

 Contacted, Junnet said the views expressed were personal, “I am just trying to help my party to ensure that we form government in 2017, otherwise the way things stand, we have weak leadership that might send us to oblivion before that period.” Amid the raging political storm in CORD, the future of the coalition rests on the three co-principals and the Executive Board that hammered the pre-election Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) deposited at the Registrar of Political Parties.

Wamalwa says it is upon Wetangula, Raila and Kalonzo who constitute the Summit on one hand, and the Executive Board  co-chaired by Kitui County Senator David Musila and Rongo MP Dalmas Otieno, to salvage the coalition from collapse owing to the latest storm. Other members of the Executive Board which negotiated the CORD MoU included James Orengo, Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o, Dr Paul Otuoma, Johnstone Muthama, Nyiva Mwendwa, the late Mutula Kilonzo, Wamalwa and Dr Eseli Simiyu.