Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Homa-Bay Town.
PARTY hoppers, political-turn-coats and those known as common political gamblers this time round will not be welcome by the Orange Democratic Movement {ODM} to take part and contest the election in Ndhiwa constituency during the impending by-election.
ODM leaders in Ndhiwa and in the larger Homa-Bay County have resolved that that those aspirants who have been identified as party hoppers will not be welcome to contest the election in Ndhiwa by-election.
The Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission {IEBC} has called for the by election to be held on September 13.
The by-election is for the vacant Ndhiwa parliamentary seat. The seat fell vacant following the accidental death of the former MP for the area he late Joshua Orwa Ojode who perished in an helicopter crush at the Ngong Forest near Nairobi on June 10, 2012.
Ojode who was an Assistant minister for Internal Security lost his life together with his boss, the former Security Minister Prof.George Saitoti and their two police security bodyguard and two pilots.
However, there has been unusual influx in the number of the potential aspirants rearing to go for the seat. Some of them could be arguably classified as green-horns, while there are quite a number of experienced politicians who have contested the elections in the area before.
ODM party leaders and members in Ndhiwa are, however, seemed to be much concerned with the about three potential aspirants, who had stood and contested for the party’s tickets in the same constituency during the general elections of 2007.
The three have been identified as Mrs Monica Amolo, Augustine Neto Oyugi and the one time MP forNdhiwa Tom Okello Obondo.
The three were beaten hands down by the late Joshua Orwa Ojode and after loosing in the preliminaries jumped onto the bandwagon of Charity Ngilu led Narc Kenya and were eventually bundled to humiliating defeat by Orwa Ojode during the election proper.
There were also other candidates who lost to Ojode during the preliminaries, but they stuck to ODM and never ditched the party and had stayed on and contributed immensely towards the late Ojode’s victory.
One of the aspirants Monica Amolo cause uproar when she claimed that she had been rigged out of her victory and went as far as petitioning the court against Ojode’s landslide victory, and yet she pulled only 12,000 compared to the winner Ojodes 48,000. She had also lost the election
Tom Obondo who had represented the area for only one and half year in between 1992 and 1994 1992 on a Ford-Kenya ticket, and immediately had crossed the floor of the August House and went back to KANU for some reasons best known to himself. This is what is paved the way for Joshua Orwa Ojode’s easy victory on LDP ticket during the by-election of 1994.
Obondo has since became one of the notorious party hoppers in the region crossing back and fro to KANU an even joined Nicholas Biwott’s Vision Party of Kenya. At one time Obondo had teamed up with Biwott in a vain effort to wrestle KANU from its then national chairman Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, but the effort flopped but the latter triumphantly retained his sit.
The here have since trooped back to the ODM, and readily announced heir intention to take part in the impending Ndhiwa by-election. Now the party leaders in the region have set tough conditions for in any elective positions on the party’s tickets in future.
On of the leading contenders in the Ndhiwa by-election Ted Odero, made bluntly clear that here is room for political prostitution in Ndhiwa. “Gamblers who simply call the press and made some announcement about their intention of contesting the election in the by-election for the simple purpose of attracting handouts from partly and politicians are not welcome in Ndhiwa, “Said Odero.
Another prominent politician in Ndhiwa Jeremiah OwIti has called the ODM head office to ensure that there were strictest rules in place that are governing the readmission of those who had left the party and joined other parties.
They must bet thoroughly screened and vetted before they are welcome back,” said Jeremiah Owiti another aspirant the impending Ndhiwa by-election.
Meanwhile reports reaching us from Ndhiwa say that the widow of the late former Assistant Minister Internal Security the Joshua Orwa Ojode, Mrs Mary Ojode is also contemplating the idea of herself plunging into the race in the by-election.
A multiple sources have report that May Ojode has already hit the ground despite not having unanimous blessing from her late husband’s Kwabwayi clan home. She is reported to have made an extensive campaign tour of various trading center and marketplaces like Aora-Chuodho, Ratang’a and Wachara where he met with her supporters.
Mrs Ojode, however, could not be reached for the verifications of these conflicting reports. Her mobile phone rang, but there has been no answer.
Other unconfirmed reports says that Mrs Ojode would later this week visit the Orange House, the administrative headquarters of the OD in a tough lady who can fight for the set even against her men competitors on her own and even win.
Ends