ODM Reloaded team faces disbandment

ODM Reloaded team faces disbandment

MONDAY, 13 AUGUST 2012 00:03 BY MOSOKU GEOFFREY

SOMBRE: Raila Odinga at the launch of the Kisumu urban project in April. Photo/FILE

One of Prime Minister Raila Odinga's campaign teams, ODM Reloaded, is facing uncertainty with fears it may have been disbanded.  Several sources in the Orange party indicate that Raila may have caved to pressure from his wife Ida to disband the team, after tension emerged between Reloaded and Ida's Sibandunki lobby. 

According to the sources, Reloaded has been replaced by ODM Mashinani. "When the party Parliamentary Group met last, it announced the formation of ODM Mashinani. Unknown to many this was a polite way of disbanding the Reloaded team," a senior ODM member said. A member of the Reloaded team also further claimed that Orange House and the presidential campaign secretariat have not been facilitating the team's programmes as they had been doing before, saying this was proof it has been wound up.

The Reloaded brigade comprises MPs Margaret Wanjiru, Ababu Namwamba, Rachel Shebesh, Manson Nyamweya, Millie Odhiambo, Hassan Joho, Josephat Nanok, Joyce Laboso, Magerer Lang’at and John Mbadi. Some members of the team, especially women MPs, claim Ida is seeking to control Raila's campaign machinery after a group of women allied to her won the disputed ODM women league elections last month. Ida has since refuted this claim.

Yesterday Raila Odinga Presidential Campaign secretariat director of communications Barack Muluka denied that Reloaded has been disbanded. "You should treat this report as rumours. Whoever is giving you this should be ready to be quoted," Muluka added. He also denied that there was a rift between Ida and some members of Reloaded, saying that Ida was only interested in promoting her Sibanduki lobby, which is supplementing campaigns for Raila.  "Ida is not interested in any campaign strategy except her Sibanduki initiative. Through Sibanduki, Ida will perform campaign duties that can only be done by a spouse," Muluka added.

The last time Reloaded team was engaged in a campaign activity was last month when they attended the homecoming party of EALA MP Judy Pareno in Mashuru, Kajiado Central. Since then, the team has been dormant leading to speculation. Reloaded even missed last week's trip by Raila to Nyandarua and Laikipia counties. The group has normally been preceding the PM on his tours across the county with road shows a day or two before Raila's trip. "We have retreated for strategic reasons and you shall see us back soon," Muluka said of Reloaded. However, he declined to reveal the next campaign activity for the MPs' team.

Ida does not have a formal role in the PM's presidential campaign team but according to Miguna Miguna in his book, Peeling Back the Mask, she is the most powerful of the Raila's advisers. ODM supporters fear that should these turf wars among the various campaign lobby groups escalate, Raila's campaign will be hurt.