Daggers drawn as Ojaamong and Otuoma battle for top county seat

Paul Otuoma, MP for Funyula constituency PHOTO: STANDARD

The resignation of Funyula MP Paul Otuoma from his ODM vice-chairman’s position kicked off a fierce battle for the governor’s seat.

Publicly, Otuoma and some western ODM leaders, including Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba, who, too, quit as party secretary general, protested at the region’s interests being taken for granted by the party leadership.

But another concern that prompted Otuoma to drift away from the Orange party was his apprehension that the party leader favoured Busia Governor Sospeter Ojaamong and that party primaries wouldn’t be free and fair.

The race for the seat promises to be a hotly contested race between the incumbent and Otuoma.The duo are likely to square it out in the ODM primaries for the party ticket.

The battle has been spiced up by the recent changes to the electoral law to block aspirants who lose out in party primaries from either defecting to another party or running as independent candidates.

It means should the two go for ODM’s ticket, then one would surely be out of the contest even before voters go to the polls to elect their governor in next year’s General Election.

The changes, rammed down the throats of defiant MPs by party chiefs determined to ensure losers in party primaries do not present competition for their chosen candidate at the polls, will ensure politicians do some soul-searching before presenting themselves for nominations.

It is against this backdrop that the recent endorsement of Ojaamong by Raila has thrown the spanner into the works.

According to Otuoma, it was wrong for Raila to declare his support for Ojaamong, arguing it should be left to the voters to decide who becomes governor.

The lawmaker says there should be a level playing ground during the party primaries for all aspirants.

“The decision to elect any governor lies with the electorate. Endorsing candidates at the moment is inconsequential because we have not even conducted nominations,” said Otuoma.

ODM commands huge support in the county and managed to capture three parliamentary seats — the governor’s, senator’s, woman representative’s seats and a majority of MCA posts.

When he toured the area recently, Raila urged locals to deliver all seats including the Teso North and South that went to Deputy President William Ruto’s United Republican Party.

UNDER ATTACK

“You must vote for the ODM presidential candidate, governor, MPs, woman rep, senator and MCAs in the coming elections,” said Raila.

Ojaamong has come under scathing attacks over his style of leadership. ODM leaders accuse him of reneging on a pre-election negotiated power sharing agreement, not initiating any tangible development record and skewed distribution of resources.

“The current county leadership has failed to implement development projects that were in their campaign manifesto,” claimed the Funyula lawmaker.

Nonetheless, the Governor maintains he has played his role effectively and banks on his development scorecard for his re-election.

“We have initiated several development projects in infrastructure, early childhood development classes, health and in agriculture sectors. We target to create 10,000 jobs through the private sector,’’ said Ojaamong

Ojaamong further says health personnel in the county has increased to 400 and he has equipped Level 4 hospitals.

“Health personnel especially the technical staff has increased. I believe with more time and resources we can improve a lot as a county. We have revolving bursary funds to support bright but needy students,’’ added Ojaamong.

Others who have declared their interest in the seat include Lucas Meso (Managing Director of Agriculture Finance Cooperation), Humphrey Nakitare (Kisumu County Secretary) and Engineer Vincent Sidai who challenged governor Ojaamong in the last polls on UDF party and emerged second.

Ojaamong insisted that anyone is free to challenge him in 2017, adding that there are no differences but just political rivalry.

“People are free to declare interest for any political seat because it’s their constitution right. But I want people to be judged by their performance. They should be judged on what they have done and not just mere rhetoric. We don’t have differences, it’s just political rivalry,’’Ojaamong told this writer in a previous interview.

Otuoma has been traversing the county and meeting stakeholders and leaders in a bid to popularise his candidature.

“I believe I have what it takes to propel Busia county to greater heights and my quest for the governor’s seat is unstoppable,” he said.