Solidarity: ODM leader Raila Odinga with some of the Coast MPs and other party leaders after a consultative meeting at Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nairobi yesterday.
ODM party leader Raila Odinga yesterday met ODM rebel MPs from the Coast region who are threatening to ditch his party.
This weekend he will meet rebel MPs from Nyanza. He wants to reach out to disgruntled leaders and reach a deal that will allow them remain in ODM after the party elections set for February 28 and March 1. Yesterday President Uhuru Kenyatta named Rongo MP Dalmas Otieno as a special envoy to Sudan.
Otieno is understood to be the leader of a group of Nyanza leaders who are rebelling against Raila and want to form a breakaway United MPs alied to Raila have accused Jubilee of working underground to break up ODM by sponsoring rival candidates to the party elections.
Yesterday afternoon Raila met MPs from the Coast region at Crowne Plaza Hotel at Upper Hill in Nairobi. He assured them that the party will not replace parliamentary Minority Whip Gideon Mung’aro (Malindi). Some ODM members want Mung’aro kicked out for working with Jubilee but the Coast MPs had threatened to ditch the party if he is replaced.
On Monday Otieno Kajwang and Ababu Namwamba exchanged bitter words in front of Raila in a Naivasha retreat after Kajwang claimed that some candidates were Jubilee moles. Yesterday Raila played down the exchange and said, “there are neither rats nor moles in the party.”
At Crowne Plaza yesterday Raila pleaded with the MPs to “hold on to the party as your interests are well taken care of,” according to internal sources. “We have had a meeting with the party leader and presented our position on the issue of the Minority Chief Whip.
On his part he pleaded with us not to leave the party as our issues will be resolved,” said an MP who attended the meeting but did not want to be named.
The MPs were called by an SMS reading, “you are invited to attend the meeting with party leader Raila Odinga at Crowne Plaza without fail”. In Naivasha last weekend ODM MPs from Nyanza allegedly asked Raila to sack Mung’aro as “he is increasingly tilting towards Jubilee and being used to frustrate the coalition’s legislative business”.
Yesterday, after a three-hour meeting at the small dining hall in Parliament, 10 Coast MPs led by Mung’aro warned of dire consequences if he was sacked. The MPs said Mung’aro was still loyal to ODM.
“We have no problem with the party leader Raila Odinga or even the party itself. All we are saying is that if Mung’aro has not performed or is not loyal to the party, he should be reprimanded within the party, not removing him from the position,” said Ganze MP Peter Shehe. Changamwe MP Omar Mwinyi said Coastal MPs cannot be prevented from working with the Jubilee government.
“We have friends within Jubilee. We can meet President Uhuru Kenyatta or his deputy William Ruto. We also have the freedom to visit State House when we have issues to discuss with the president,” Mwinyi said. Raila has also been put at a crossroads as a section of Luo MPs have declared their support for Budalangi MP Ababu Namwamba who wants to replace Anyang Nyong’o as ODM secretary general.
Raila apparently prefers Agnes Zani for the post. MPs Ken Obura (Kisumu Central), Agostino Neto (Ndiwa), Kenneth Ogoth (Kibra), David Ochieng (Ugenya), George Oner (Rangwe), Silvance Osele (Kasipul Kabondo) and Millie Odhiambo said Namwamba would be best. “We unreservedly put our weight behind Ababu Namwamba for the position of Secretary General of the party.
He has worked tirelessly for the party and has stood as a distinguished general and helped galvanize the party not forgetting his championing of the party agenda on the floor of the House,” they said in a press statement.
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