Why Raila is against status quo in ODM

By MARTIN MUTUA and JUMA KWAYERA

There is more than meets the eye in the determination by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga to ensure that positions in the Orange Democratic Movement “are evenly distributed nationwide,” The Standard on Saturday can authoritatively report.

Away from the ODM party elections, President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto have made several visits to the Coast region where they have met area leaders, a move said to have jolted the former PM into action.

In the last General Election, the region overwhelmingly voted for Raila and CORD leaders in other positions.

Impeccable sources told The Standard on Saturday that the former PM is determined to keep ODM intact in areas where it has enjoyed overwhelming support.

And to fight the Jubilee infiltration in the region, the ODM leader is said to be keen on ensuring that party leaders from the Coast get key national positions in the party.

Front runner

Already nominated Senator Dr Agnes Zani is seen as a front-runner and a clear favourite of the party leader to capture the powerful seat of ODM Secretary General, which Prof Peter Anyang Nyong’o has declared he will not defend.

Also seen as a front-runner for the position of ODM deputy party leader is Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho who enjoys considerable political support in the Coast.

The recent visits by the President and his deputy are said to have resulted in the appointment of several leaders from the region to various parastatals.

The latest is the appointment of former Garsen MP Danson Mungatana to chair the Kenya Ports Authority Board where top businessmen from the Coast believed to be aligned to the former PM are said to wield substantial influence.

The recent push by a section of Coast leaders to ditch other parties and form their own in preparation for the 2017 elections is also said to have jolted the ODM top leadership into the recent action.

“The move to form a party at the Coast which is being driven by majority of ODM members has been cause for worry and is being viewed as a move to destabilise the support the party enjoys in the region by the Jubilee government,” added our sources.

O t h e r sources that attended meetings that Uhuru held with several leaders at the Coast last month, say that the President put the leaders on the spot over “development of their people”.

The President who is said to have promised his support in ensuring the coastal people benefit from resources in the region demanded action by the leaders to ensure that the benefits trickle down to the people.

“Leaders at the Coast have been shaken by the President’s blunt talk on how we carry out development projects for our people and who controls what. They have been soulsearching following those meetings at State House, Mombasa early this year,” said a source privy to the meetings.

Amid this backdrop, Raila is said to have held several meetings with those seeking top positions in the party at his Karen home in the last two weeks as well as other areas to impress upon them on how to go about the polls.

And shaken to the hilt by would be repercussions of their brazen push to defy the party leader, youthful MPs from Nyanza have been dropping out of the race in rapid succession making the outcome of the race almost predictable.

However, Raila is said to have reciprocated the Nyanza leaders’ willingness to give way to other regions by acceding to a raft of administrative and party constitutional reform proposals, which if implemented will scale down the micro-management of party affairs by its leader.

Equally, the downsized line-up for national positions provide insights into the ideological inclination of the party, which Prof Larry Gumbe says will seal the pitfalls that cast Jubilee coalition as an ethnic partnership between the dominant communities in Central Kenya and Rift Valley.

Speaking to The Standard on, The Standard on Satarday parastatals Prof Gumbe said that distribution of party and Government appointments nationally is a constitutional requirement, which ODM seeks to uphold.

“We have had meetings with the MPs. They now know that Luos make up just 10 per cent of the National Delegates Convention. The NDC is dominated by Central Kenya and Rift Valley. So if voting were to be on tribal lines, they would miss out on all positions,” he explained.

However, the former Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD) chairman would not confirm or deny the envisaged changes in the ODM administrative structure and constitutional amendments as part of a negotiated package that has cooled the tension that was building up to the NDC.

However, The Standard on Saturday has established that after parrying a flurry of accusations of dictatorship and arbitrariness in party decisions and stemming a possible revolt, Raila is said to have caved in to pressure from a group of young leaders to manage succession within the party properly to avoid an implosion.

Pressure

The pressure for administrative restructuring and party constitutional reforms stems from the last General Election that was preceded by chaotic ODM nominations with Raila being accused of favouritism and an iron-fisted grip on the exercise.

A proposal some senior members of the party shared with The Standard on Saturday, Raila, if elected party leader during the February 28 poll, will be stripped of the powers to run ODM affairs almost single handedly.

Homa Bay Senator Otieno Kajwang dropped the initial hint that reforms in the party were afoot when he disclosed that the party was in need of continuous consultations on key issues to avoid a revolt as was the case in the wake of the bungled primaries.

“The party should be national in membership and leadership to reflect the face of Kenya. We want to block infiltration by our rivals. The NDC will ensure decisions are not made without consultations in the party,” Kajwang said.

A member of the team that has been looking into structural reforms in the party admitted that the former Prime Minister’s “free range” role in the party had subdued independent thinking, which in turn has subdued internal democracy.

The predecessor “The ODM party constitution is an adoption of (its predecessor) the Liberal Democratic Party, which in itself is a mosaic of constitutions of the African National Congress and Communist Party of South Africa, Tanzanian’s ruling CCM, and the Labour Party of Britain. The ODM constitution does not differentiate clearly the role of the chairman and that of the party leader. Raila chairs ODM meetings and had Henry Kosgey been a strong chairman, he would have clashed with the party leader,” our source says.