ODM rolls out new campaign strategy

Cord presidential flag bearer Raila Odinga addresses resident of Nyamira. [PHOTO: FILE]

By Obote Akoko

KENYA: The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has unleashed a new campaign strategy in the Nyanza region as the party races against time to heal the wounds inflicted by the messy primaries ahead of the March 4 General Election.

Alarmed by growing hostility towards its candidates in the region where it has enjoyed unparalleled support   for years, party strategists have roped in church leaders, elders and respected opinion leaders to convince the voters to respect Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s call for a six-piece voting pattern.

They are also using Dholuo radio stations to call for support after it emerged that candidates who defected to other Cord–friendly parties were overshadowing ODM candidates in the campaigns.

Hot embers

Observers have warned that the fallouts triggered by direct issuance of nomination certificates to a clique of politicians was posing a big threat to the party and  was also likely to affect Mr Odinga’s presidential bid.

They say that hostilities exhibited by the voters when Mr Odinga visited Migori and Homa Bay two weeks ago was proof that ODM wave is deteriorating in the region.

But now, top party leaders are on an intensive mission as they try to convince the community not to reject the party in the coming elections.

Cabinet ministers Dalmas Otieno, James Orengo and Otieno Kajwang’ have been to local stations and political rallies, pleading with the voters to give Mr Odinga a sixpiece suit and their moves appear to be slowly paying dividends.

“Our people have understood our message. We are seeing a change of heart. Although we acknowledge there was a problem during the nominations, we must forgive each other and ensure Mr Odinga wins the presidency with a parliamentary majority,” says Bishop Washington Ogonyo Ngede, one of those spearheading the campaign.

Bishop Ngede says Mr Odinga’s opponents were cashing in on the confusion to sabotage the party.

The newly-launched Cord Effect lobby group has been traversing Nyanza to help cool post-nomination tempers.

The team, led by Sports minister Ababu Namwamba toured Kisumu before Mr Odinga waded through the hot embers in Homa Bay two days later.

One party official tried to test the waters by suggesting that only ODM candidates be voted in on March 4.

He was immediately shouted down, forcing the team to leave the city, amid hostility from the crowds   at Jomo Kenyatta Sports Ground.

After a few days of intensive campaigns, proponents of the six-piece pattern now believe Nyanza voters are finally embracing the idea.

As the official campaign period for the 2013 General Election kicked off last week, our investigations reveal that it would only take a miracle to stop Mr Odinga’s ‘six-piece suit’ from carrying the day at the ballot.

ODM strategists, according to our sources, have devised a three-pronged approach to selling what locals now refer to as the ‘suit’.  Mr Odinga is the referee’s whistle to kick-start the six-piece campaign.

Selling the idea

 Each team would pick up the baton from the other in the campaign chain and influence those opposed to the idea.

By last weekend, youth who were initially stung by the ‘six-piece suit’ were praising it as ‘Agwambo’s only guarantee for a majority rule’!

According to our sources, ODM strategists advised that Luo Council of Elders, party officials and key speakers drawn from the Nyanza CORD Alliance base be engaged in selling the idea.

The diversity of media, forums and personalities would be used to amplify its effect within the shortest time possible. The six-piece suit was ranked among ODM’s fast-moving goods!

The faster it sold out, the more it would project the image of another Odinga magic pulled off in times of supposed crisis.

And it appears to have worked. Through party candidates and officials, the message was one: vote six-piece!

Some Cord affiliate parties have protested the six-piece campaign saying it disadvantaged them yet they were also campaigning for Mr Odinga.

Clergymen led by Bishop Ngede, have lent their voice on live radio programmes by calling for peace and forgiveness, and pleading with the electorate to give the PM people he can work with.

The clerics sought to cool the temperatures raised by bitterness over the bungled party primaries. The powerful servants of God are expected to be instrumental in spreading the ‘six-piece gospel’ too.   

Every corner

A second strategy for selling the ‘suit voting’ was through the Luo Council of Elders (LCE).

While some LCE officials appeared to have taken up the job with gusto, others preferred a cautious approach.

One of the Council’s executive committee members Mzee Odungi Randa confirmed that he had started leading by example through his team’s six-piece campaign in Nyando constituency.

‘As I speak to you, we have finished the meeting where we resolved to spread the six-piece suit’ message to every corner of Nyando and elsewhere in Nyanza,” he said on phone.

 Mr Randa, a former personal assistant to the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, was emphatic that the Council fully supported the PM’s six piece call.  

Tame their anger

However, speaking from his Awendo home in Migori County, another elder, Mzee Adera Osawa said people were willing to forgive and forget but not that fast, especially in a case where the ODM candidate never won the party nominations but was handed a ticket.

 ‘‘We are telling voters not to use the nominations issue against the Prime Minister and ODM. We are advocating for them to tame their anger, vote peacefully and wisely on March 4,” he said.

The third strategy that has turned the tide in favour of the six-piece voting pattern involves civic education through Bunge La Wananchi, pseudo-parliamentary structures doting urban and peri-urban locations where party supporters gather to discuss the politics of the day.

Since each is an ordinary people’s parliament with a life of its own, those who patronise the Bunge are respected, influential and transact party businesses with religious commitment.

Popular song

Nyalenda Bunge La Wananchi chairman, Paul Ouru was effusive about the way youth in Kisumu had quickly embraced the six-piece suit.

‘So far its acceptability has grown above 80 per cent. We marshalled teams to explain the value of voting for ODM candidates in the coming polls’’, he said, adding that the youth were then tasked with spreading the message to other voters in their neighbourhoods’’.

According to Silas Ang’ano, a legal expert and youth officer, the people now understand why the Cordpresidential candidate deserves a majority of elected representatives  from county assembly to the senate. That’s why the six-piece suit has become a popular song.