By BRYAN TUMWA
KAKAMEGA, KENYA: Despite reiterating the fact that Kakamega County will be heading into the ODM party elections as a united front simmering infighting involving delegates could jeopardize this resolve.
The party’s leadership in the County has shown signs of sending separate delegations to the polls after a directive which required the branch to put its house in order, was not heeded early last year.
Cracks emerged after a section of delegates resolved last year to oust current chairman of the party David Malala and replaced him with Majanja Ligavo. A letter, which was written by the current Secretary General Anyang Nyongo acknowledging the resolve, directed Governor Wycliffe Oparanya to move in and resolve the dispute. In the letter dated April 2, 2013 Ligavo was also acknowledged as the acting party branch chairman.
Ligavo and Malala have both indicated that they will be sending separate teams to the elections with divergent resolutions.
“Malala has been pretending to be the chairman of the party in this county. Just because an individual poses as a pope and gets a few followers does not make him one. The opinions and endorsements made by Malala on behalf of the party are therefore null and void,” said Ligavo on Wednesday after a delegates meeting.
Kakamega County has a total of 116 delegates belonging to the ODM party who are expected to head into the party elections in two batches on February 28. Malala had earlier convened a separate delegates meeting in a Kakamega hotel endorsing individuals for the various positions with the Ligavo team endorsing a different list.
“All the delegates were supposed to have been summoned by the governor last year to deliver the verdict on whom the substantive chairman of the party is but that could not be done since there were petitions in court involving various elected party members so that exercise was temporarily put off. Unfortunately, the elections are here and we are still faced with that issue which is unresolved,” said Reuben Nyangweso, the county assembly’s majority leader.
The only position the two factions seem to share is that of supporting Oparanya to clinch the position of deputy party leader.
Nyangweso, who is allied to Ligavo’s team, will be facing off with Deputy Speaker Cleophas Malala, aligned to David Malala’s team, in the party polls for the position of secretary of devolved government.
“All the delegates are going to be led by the acting chairman who is Ligavo, as we head into the elections next month. The meeting Malala is purported to have held was not a meeting of delegates. The full list of genuine delegates is in our headquarters in Nairobi,” said Nyangweso.
Malala however dismissed Ligavo saying he was still the party chairman and that Ligavo was not recognized as one of the 116 delegates as far as he was concerned.
“Ligavo cannot purport to have replaced me as the party chairman since he does not appear in the original list of delegates that I have either from Shinyalu where he comes from or any other constituency for that matter,” said Malala.
