Raila to Shake Up ODM Team

Isaac Ongiri


---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nairobi — There is a scheme within Prime Minister Raila Odinga's ODM Party to edge out Secretary General Prof Anyang Nyongo and Executive Director Janet Ongera, the Star has learnt.

Multiple sources with details of boardroom strategies said a resolution has been made to instal a new team at the party secretariat which can appeal to all members including party rebels from Rift Valley led by Higher Education William Ruto.

Party Leader Raila and Deputy Leader Musalia Madivadi are said to have endorsed the scheme by which Ongera may land a public appointment as an exit plan.

Multiple sources within the party said the PM and Musalia want to prevail upon Nyong'o to resign and give room for a new secretary general to be elected.

"The PM and his deputy are reacting to feelings that the secretariat is currently repulsive and not attractive to its dissenting membership. The two want an office that can accommodate a hostile party membership like the one in the Rift Valley," said an operative close to the PM.

Nyong'o is tough on MPs opposed to the party positions and recently called for the sacking of Ministers who campaigned against the new constitution. Ruto campaigned against the new constitution in the lead-up to the August 4 referendum.

A recent ODM Parliamentary Group meeting recommended that disciplinary action be taken against Ruto and MPs who were in the Red camp.

There were calls to drop Ruto both as a minister and as ODM Deputy Party Leader.

After the PG meeting, Nyong'o was quoted as having said, "spare the rod and spoil the child", in apparent reference to the possibility of ODM sparing Ruto and the rebel Rift Valley MPs from being sacked.

Sources said the PM and Musalia are planning to prevail upon the vocal party head to resign. The party's National Executive Council, according to one member, will then replace both Nyong'o and former Treasurer Omingo Magara, who voluntarily quit the party early this year. Magara then contested the South Mugirango parliamentary seat on a different ticket and lost three months ago.

If the scheme against Nyong'o works, it could lead to another fallout within the party and a second one between the former professor of politics and the PM.

In 1997, Nyong'o was one of the senior politicians from Nyanza who declined to follow Raila to his newly formed NDP. Nyong'o joined Charity Ngilu, now Water minister, to form the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Nyong'o was the secretary general and Ngilu the party's presidential candidate in the 1997 General Election.

In the elections, Nyong'o lost his Kisumu Rural seat but secured a party nomination through SDP before he found his way into the Raila fold when the National Rainbow Coalition was formed in 2002.

Nyong'o became the interim secretary general of ODM towards the 2007 elections before he was confirmed at the National Delegates Conference the following year.

Vihiga MP Yusuf Chanzu, a close ally of Musalia, yesterday questioned the secretariat's handling of the referendum and described it as "wanting".

He said action should focus on the head of the secretariat Ms Ongera whom he described as having performed "below average in coordinating the party at the referendum".

"I am not pleased with the way the secretariat managed the referendum, we have a lot of issues to discuss in regard to the way this secretariat ran the referendum, we only survived," Chanzu said.

Our sources said those pushing for Nyong'o's removal were yet to agree on who should replace him.

"Honestly no name has been agreed on, but people are looking for a person who is diplomatic," said our source.

Nyatike MP Omondi Anyanga said he was aware of complaints regarding the secretariat and increasing disquiet with some of its members.

"Yes I have heard complaints about the secretariat and disquiet about Nyong'o but that is all," Anyanga stated.

Assistant Minister Orwa Ojode agreed with plans to reorganise the party secretariat arguing the party needed cross-cutting agents who can negotiate when there is a crisis.

"I think this is the time that ODM got a personality with the ability to talk to both friends and perceived enemies; what we have at the secretariat is a group keen on chasing others from the party," Ojode said.

He warned that a clique pretending to be so close to the PM were busy chest thumping with arrogance at the expense of Raila's 2012 election plan.

"I am true friend of the PM and I can never let him down but we have a group of on and off people who are here to strategically settle old scores.We must know who is betraying us and who is building us," Ojode stated.

Roads Minister Franklin Bett defended Nyongo saying he had done his best to run the party.

"Nyongo has been firm and strong, our party needs men like him, those who want to kick him out maybe are looking for people with manipulateble traits who say Yes and No at the same time, running a party is not easy," Bett said.

Kasipul Kabondo MP Oyugi Magwanga warned those pushing for Nyong'o's removal to consider the party's cohesion and stated it will take a coup to kick the professor out of the party

"We really need peace in ODM. We already have Ruto and his men quarrelling their way out. It is important to have a moment of peace," Magwanga said.

He revealed that a number of MPs who have failed to take control of party leadership in their constituencies have regrouped to heap blames on Nyongo.

"I think some people who have issues with the electorate on the ground are turning blames on him. But personally if you ask me I will tell you Nyong'o has done his best,"Magwanga said.

Yesterday our attempt to reach Nyongo for comment failed to bear fruits as his phone went unanswered Ms Ongera was also said to be out of the country.