RAILA AND BALALA

Raila Odinga is about to reconstitute his political team in the Coast province ahead of 2012 by replacing Tourism minister Najib Balala with Kisauni MP Ali Hassan Joho as the ODM boss for the region.

Balala, who was Raila's key point man in the region during the last election, is seen as not doing enough to popularise the party, according to close allies of the Prime Minister.

Balala was a member of Raila's Pentagon team in the 2007 election along with Water minister Charity Ngilu, Co-operative Development minister Joseph Nyaga, Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi and Agriculture minister William Ruto.

Balala who had declared his interest in the ODM ticket for the presidency in 2007, stepped down in favour of Raila at the last minute during the party's National Delegates Conference.

Yesterday, a Cabinet minister and a Pentagon member who is close to both Raila and Balala said that the PM felt that Balala was not doing enough to win support in Coast.

'Balala expected that the PM will continue to treat him the same way he treated him when we were campaigning. That was not possible because when Raila became PM his status changed. He became our boss but Balala did not realize that,' said the minister.

Joho confirmed that he had assumed his new role as ODM team leader in the region and promise to deliver the region to the PM in the next election.

'Our party leader needs young vibrant and energetic people like myself who appeal to the masses to help him deliver victory in 2012. My abilities are not in doubt and even the ODM party hierarchy recognized that last December when they elected me the party's organizing secretary,' said Joho.

Kingi, East Africa co-operation mionister, also confirmed the new arrangement.

'Raila, two other MPs and I, have agreed on a strategy that will ensure that the regions remains solidly behind ODM. With other regions we can deliver victory to the party so that we can continue rebuilding the country,' said Kingi.

But Balala denied reports that he had been sidelined and that Joho had replaced him as the region's top man.

He insisted that he still enjoyed good relations with the PM and dismissed reports of a fall out as 'figments of a fertile imagination and a creation of the media'.

'You people read too much into everything. Raila is my friend and my party leader. When he was in Mombasa in August, I happened to have been held up in meetings in my ministry in Nairobi. If there are any changes in the way I relate with Raila, I promise you will be the first to know,' said Balala.

The relationship with Raila and Balala has reportedly cooled since the two joined the coalition government with Balala quietly complaining that the PM does not hold him in high regard any more.

When ODM held elections last December at Bomas, Balala was not given any national seat but Joho was elevated to the position of organizing secretary.

Assistant Minister for Environment Ramadahan Kajembe, a close Joho ally, was given the position of assistant secretary while Malindi MP Gideon Mung'aro was elected the region's representative.

Apart from Joho, the PM has also identified East Africa Cooperation minister Amason Kingi and Mung'aro as his other key operatives in the Coast region that overwhelmingly voted for ODM in 2007. The party won 12 Parliamentary seats as well as hundreds of councillors elected to local authorities in the region.

Its main rival PNU only managed three MPs followed by Narc-Kenya which secured two. Kanu has only one MP from the region, Special Programmes minister Naomi Shaban.

There has been no dominant political leader in the Coast since the death of former Local Government minister Karisa Maitha in 2003. Transport minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere has been trying to take over the mantle with little success and his influence has largely been restricted to his Matuga constituency.

Last week, Raila met Joho in his Treasury office where they are reported to have discussed ways of maintaining the party's popularity in Coast.

'Yes, I can confirm the meeting and although the discussions, which lasted almost an hour, were private between the two, the agenda was ODM and the Coast region', said Kingi.

'Raila's side feels that Balala is no longer reliable. Since his decision to support Ruto, things have never been the same and I can tell you the realignment in the Coast region will take shape very soon,' said Kingi.

Raila apparently held separate talks with Mung'aro before he left for the US about how the party was going to maintain the support of the Mijikenda community which forms the majority in Coast.

The rivalry between Joho and Balala was played out at the civic elections held in August where a mayoral candidate sponsored by Balala was trounced by Mombasa Mayor Ahmed Mohdhar.

Modhar, one of Balala's sharpest critics, has since declared his intention to ignore Balala and work with Joho ' because the PM has given him the big role of ensuring that ODM remains popular in the area'.

The re-organization in party leadership in the region is part of a wider scheme by the PM to not only maintain his support but to win more hearts and minds as he prepares to contest the Presidency for the third time in 2012.

Raila has also been reaching out to elders from different parts of the country. Last weekend, the Langata MP played host to the influential Meru council of elders which is better known as Njuri Ncheke in his Bondo home and his handlers say the Luo Council of Elders have also been tasked with the mission of visiting their counterparts in other parts of the country to appeal to them to vote for Raila in 2012.