writes Leo Odera Omolo In Homa-Bay Town.

STARTLING revelation has surfaced that Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta’s TNA party might have pated with colossal amount of money in excess of Kshs 5 million in the just concluded Ndhiwa by-election campaign, but shocking harvested only paltry votes of 216.

Other sources disclosed that when Kenyatta visited Ndhiwa a week earlier to drum up support for his party candidate Mrs Rumo before the poll date, those in is entourage were treated to an executive luncheon at the luxury and posh Ndhiwa Village Resort, which is owned by the former MP for the area the late Joshua Orwa Ojode.

Mr Kenyatta who is known to have been a close of friend of the late Ojode took his supporters national and local party officials to the hotel for lunch. His guests are sad to have incurred close to Kshs 65,000 in hotel bill, which Kenyatta I said to have paid promptly, but the hotel management has yet to receive any money. This was has been confirmed by Hesbon Omolo the party coordinator in Nyanza.

The campaign money which was made available for the by-election campaign logistics has caused a lot of jittery among the party national and local officials. Omolo confirmed of an incident when the group went to Kisumu Airport to see Kenyatta off to Nairobi.

Omolo, reported he shoved around by goons and almost got assaulted at the VIP lounge while he was briefing Mr Kenyatta about his trip to Nyanza.

He was shoved around by hired goons were acting on the advice and instruction of an unnamed one of the TNA national officials, who had his roots in Nyanza and was only rescued by the Embakassi MP Ferdinand Waititu who had accompanied Kenyatta during successful campaign tour of Ndhiwa.

On Tuesday this week the unpaid TNA’s polls agents had ganged up and threatened to lynch the candidates blaming them for having received the campaign money, but declined to disburse it to them.

The candidates travelled to Kismu City and met Hesbon Omolo who hurriedly arranged for a press conference so that they could explain the position. The aborted press conference was called at the Public Servant’s Club in the posh Milimani estate within Kisumu City.

But before the assembled journalists could take the notes, hired political goons suspected to have been hired by one of the national party official stormed the venue. Assembled journalists took to their heels and scampered in all direction for their safety while the goons menacingly hurled insults to Hesbon Omolo. The latter and the defeated candidates drove towards the Kisumu Police Station, with the goons in hot pursuit on boda boda motorbikes. Omolo and the candidates recorded statements.

An otherwise ugly situation was only averted after the timely intervention by he proprietor of the Club ho warned the marauding youths that he could have them arrested if they would dare to assault any of his guests and customers.

On Wednesday evening Mrs Debra Onyango Oloo, the wife of Onyango Oloo, the TNA’s Secretary General who drove a four-wheel Nissan double cabin van full of goons to the Ofafa Memorial Hall bar in Kisumu City where Hesbon Omolo and some friends were taking freshmen’s. The goons descended on Omolo with kicks and crude weapons. Omolo who sustained injuries on is left eye and reportedly suffered internal injuries following the beating. However, the hostilities between the two groups within Nyanza branch of the TNA continued unabated forcing both sides to record statements with the police.

By the time of writing this report no arrest was made by the police.of any member of the goons who had assaulted Hesbon Omolo at the Ofafa Hal and those who had violently disrupted the press conference at the Public Servants Club the previous day.

In the civic by-elections all held in the larger Kasipul-Kabondo, the TNA performed better than they did in the Ndhiwa bv-election where the party had harvested a paltry number of 216 votes which even fell short of the number of its 292 polls agents the part had hired to man its polling stations. In Wire / Migwa Ward in Kasipul, the NA candidate garnered 980 votes, while in Wang’chieng Ward, the TNA’s candidate polled 350 votes, the figure which was much better than what the party harvested in the Ndhiwa parliamentary by-elections.

Insiders confided to us tat TNA boss Kenyatta who is also the party’s presidential candidate seemed to have entrusted the campaign resources with some power brokers and political conmen who scrambled for the money and did no perform any meaningful campaign work for the party. Pundits sad they had expected Kenyatta’s party to perform better due to its enormous resources and campaign logistics it had ad put In place. The money is said to have evaporated and got into the pockets of individuals political conmen.

Ends