ODM strikes deal on interim officials

From left, ODM MPs Abdullahi Diriye, Ken Okoth and Agostinho Neto during a press conference at Parliament buildings yesterday in Nairobi.  They criticised the Government for holding meetings in expensive hotels. [PHOTO: BONIFACE OKENDO/STANDARD]

By JAMES MBAKA and Felix Olick

Kenya: ODM has brokered a leadership deal that will see the two warring camps that bitterly contested the bungled polls share plum positions.

After days of intense negotiations spearheaded by Party Leader Raila Odinga, governors Hassan Joho (Mombasa) and Wycliffe Oparanya (Kakamega) will now co-chair the party’s Transitional Interim Executive Committee (TIEC) until elections of substantive office bearers are held.

The party also named a five-member team that will investigate the chaos that scuttled the polls last Friday when a gang dressed in black suits destroyed election material.

This happened as calls for negotiations in picking the party’s leadership gained momentum.

Raila, who unveiled the team at Orange House yesterday, declined to reveal the tenure of the officials heightening speculations that the Orange party might vouch for negotiated democracy after all.

“There is no timeframe because the task ahead is enormous but I ask the team to expedite the process,” said the former PM

The team is tasked with the mandate to spearhead the process of preparing elections. In the new deal, political protagonists Agnes Zani and Ababu Namwamba will now serve as joint secretaries in the interim team expected to chart the party’s new future. Dr Zani, a nominated senator and Namwamba, Budalangi MP, have been locked in a vicious battle for the party’s secretary general’s position.

Zani’s team will be represented in the TIEC by Homabay Senator Otieno Kajwang’, MPs Timothy Bosire (Kitutu Masaba) and Abdikadir Aden (Mbalambala) while Namwamba’s side will have Turkana Governor Josphat Nanok, MP Adan Keynan (Eldai) and political activist Rosa Buyu. Wundanyi MP Thomas Mwadegu and Funyula MP Paul Otuoma will be alternate representatives for governors Joho and Oparanya respectively.

The party also named a team of five neutral persons to sit in the taskforce that will investigate the chaos that marred the National Delegates Convention.

Charged polls

The taskforce, which will be chaired by Jotham Nyukuri, will inquire into and make recommendations on the circumstances that the led to eruption of violence that saw the elections of new office bearers called off.

Other members of the task force are Harold Kipchumba, Isaih Mandala, Jotham Arwa and Mtalaki Mwashimba. The taskforce is expected to investigate the chaos at Kasarani and make recommendations on how the party could avert a repeat. Top on their agenda would be to unmask the goons, who were dressed in black and allegedly hired by some aspirants to bungle the polls. Yesterday, ODM Executive Director Margerer Langat admitted that the party had outsourced security during the charged elections.

He said the secretariat had hired 50 youths who could offer supportive security duties but was aware that some individuals could have taken advantage to sneak in goons to disrupt the process.

Nominated Senator Isaac Mwaura who has also been blamed partly for triggering the Kasarani fiasco warned that that fighting for the positions through the ballot could leave the party more divided and the aspirants thoroughly bruised.  “We must now go for negotiated democracy and discard strong stands. We are one family,” the legislator told The Standard yesterday.