ODM crafts strategy to deliver first round win

By ABDIKADIR SUGOW 

Faced by the prospect of a tough electoral battle against The National Alliance (TNA), ODM has carried out an internal reorganisation to effectively meet the challenge.

Orange strategists are working on a three-pronged plan to win the presidential race pitting flag bearer Raila Odinga against TNA’s Uhuru Kenyatta, in the first round of the ballot.

With opinion polls by IPSOS Synovate indicating that Raila could lose against either Uhuru or Musalia Mudavadi of the United Democratic Front in a second round vote, the ODM think tank has crafted a strategy to thwart the TNA/G7 front by guiding their candidate to victory in the first ballot.

The party political hierarchy has kick-started and lined up a number of campaign strategies and programmes to give rival parties a run for their money.

“We have the best strategists and we are confident of victory. The other parties can only follow us to try and copy what we are doing,” a top official in the ODM secretariat who requested not to be named said.

New Polls team

First, to address the concern raised by many candidates regarding its nomination processes, which has elicited heated protests in the past, ODM has inaugurated a new national elections board headed by Col (rtd) Henry Muthee Kathurima.

And in a signal that it is breaking away from the past characterised by candidates’ complaints of favouritism and collusion during nominations, the ODM Elections Board last week dropped Dr Joseph Misoi and Peter Kuguru, who had served in the previous board chaired by Phillip Okundi.

On Wednesday, the party’s independent eight-member elections board invited all aspirants seeking the party tickets for governor, senator and MP seats to Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi for a consultative and morale boosting meeting.

Dr Kathurima reiterated the board’s assurance that the ODM primaries would be free, fair and that no one, including Raila, would be given preferential treatment so that democracy prevails within the party.

The Kathurima team has pledged that the abnormalities and loopholes that rocked the 2007 party nominations and the recent by-elections in Ndhiwa constituency had been sealed and would never be repeated.

Party organs

Unlike before, the ODM Elections Board will now operate outside the party headquarters at Orange House as it prepares for the primaries, in order to remain independent and autonomous from other top party organs.

Secondly, the ODM strategists have opted to conduct a brisk pace of its pre-election activities starting with the dates for its National Delegates Convention (NDC) on November 30 and party primaries from December 4 to 6, leaving other political parties to follow from behind.

However, Abdulsamad Shariff Nassir, an aspirant for the Mvita seat currently held by Najib Balala and a son of former Cabinet minister Shariff Nassir, urged the top party organs to reconsider the dates.

He expressed fears that they may coincide with the school terms and examinations and could also pose logistical problems, since polling takes place in schools as he also alluded to the security issues prevailing in the Kwale, Kilifi and Tana Delta.

Normally, political parties keep secret or unveil the dates of their party nominations at a later stage to avoid party hopping by those who lose during primaries or infiltration by other party operatives.

But ODM has decided that staying ahead of the pack could be the party’s trump card in the battle to win the presidential race in the first round on March 4, next year. To fulfill this aim, ODM has formed 13 regional coordination centres countrywide to galvanise popular support.

Well aware that the next election will be a game of numbers and regional balance on a national scale, each of the centres will conduct a massive membership drive and all aspirants who attended the Bomas meeting were given 2,000 cards each to recruit members into the party.

Thirdly, and in what it believes to be its most potent weapon, has reactivated its popular presidential campaign team dubbed ODM Reloaded initiated by its party MPs including Youth and Sports Minister Ababu Namwamba.

Second liberation

The Budalang’i MP, who delivered a fiery speech at the aspirants’ meeting, said ODM will not stop looking back at the past and asked where the other presidential challengers were when Raila was detained for eight years and when he was fighting for multi-partyism and the Second Liberation.

ODM Reloaded will be backed by the ODM Mashinani (grassroots) teams, which are expected to work alongside the 13 regional co-ordination centres, the presidential campaign secretariat and other supporting lobby groups like Friends of Raila and Ida Odinga’s Sibanduki na Raila.

The goal of the three-pronged campaign strategy will be to ensure that these campaign teams jointly work together under one central command to recruit millions of members to vigorously campaign for the party flag-bearer and candidates.

By capturing the numbers and portraying itself as a reformist party with a national appeal and the candidate most capable of implementing the Constitution, the ODM strategists believe the millions of voters will tilt the balance in favour of Raila in the first round to avoid a run-off.

Addressing the thousands of aspirants, Raila said ODM is not keen on forming another coalition. Drawing on the lessons from the Grand Coalition, the PM said ODM wants to win the General Election and form a government to implement its policies without compromising on issues dear to the party. He said ODM’s policies and ideologies set it apart from its rivals and must not be compromised.

“We need to form a government in which we can implement radical programmes at a much faster pace than a coalition could allow. We want to implement ODM policies, not an amalgamation of programmes that include policies we would never touch. I believe we have a real chance, not just a fighting chance, of forming the next Government,” said the PM.

Ahead of the pack

The 13 ODM Mashinani teams to lead party door-to-door campaigns were launched in Nairobi to be followed by other counties in rapid succession so that they stay ahead of competitors.

The elections board reassured aspirants that nomination would be free and fair and asked them to be acquainted with party election rules on the vetting of candidates, the Constitution, the Political Parties Act, the Elections Act 2011and the mode of nominations.

Nicholas Gumbo will lead the Nyanza grassroots campaigns, while North Rift will be co-ordinated by Prof Margaret Kamar, Central Rift by Musa Sirma, South West Rift Franklin Bett, and Maj Gen (rtd) Joseph Nkaissery, the Maa regions of Kajiado, Narok, Samburu and Laikipia counties.

Farah Maalim will lead North Eastern, Alfred Khang’ati Western, and Joe Nyagah Embu, Meru and Tharaka Nithi. Ali Dida will head campaigns in Eastern region (Isiolo and Marsabit) and Fred Gumo will lead Nairobi. Dhadho Godhana will co-ordinate Tana River, Thomas Mwadeghu Taita Taveta, Gideon Mung’aro Kilifi and Malindi, Omar Zonga Kwale and Ramadhan Kajembe will cover the Mombasa region.

The ODM brigade is astutely but robustly preparing for what has been billed by some political pundits as a “two-horse race”. ODM’s presumed greatest challenger, TNA, followed their erstwhile opponents with an aspirants’ meeting at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani on Friday.

The leaders of the two parties, Raila and Uhuru, are hoping that they have marshalled and mobilised their lieutenants in their first strategic conventions for those who will be contesting in the party primaries and what is expected to be a bruising General Election.

And as the power games go a notch higher with the two front-runners spoiling to outdo one another, both parties will be warmly receiving defectors from different political parties.

It was certainly an interesting week in the build-up to the much-anticipated 2013 elections as the two political party giants prepare to battle for the ultimate prize – the fourth President of Kenya.