Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Homa-Bay Town.
SCORES of people sustained bodily injuries while other are believes to have escaped with knives stab wounds when fighting erupted at an ODM “Mashinani Raila Odinga Campaign rally in Homa-Bay town last Sunday.
The famous walking fly whisk, which is usually used by the Immigration and Registration of Persons Minister Gerald Otieno Kajwang’ is believed to be one of the most important items which is believed to have got lost during the melee that followed free-for- all as the rowdy youth invaded the VIP dais.
Several leaders were floored including Minister Otieno Kajwang’were floored to the ground. They include the stout Rangwe MP Martin Otieno Ogindo
Four MPs attended the rowdy meeting which was called by the ODM Homa-Bay County branch whose chairperson is Minister Otieno Kajwang’who is the out-going Mbita MP. Also present were Eng.James K Rege [Karachuonyo} Joseph Oyugi Magwanga [Kasipul-Kabondo} and Martin Otieno Ogindo [Rangwe}. The nominated MP Millie Odhiambo arrived at the rally late after the fracas had long ended and left the venue immediately.
The Mashinani Campaign for Raila Odinga was called by the ODM Homa-Bay County branch as one of the series of public rallies being organized by the party at the various parts of the country mainly and specifically for the purpose of campaigning for the party leader Raila Odinga’s presidential election campaign to market and boost his popularity in the presidential race.
The rally was attended by nearly all the aspirants vying for the various elective positions within the Homa-Bay County governance such as senate, governorship, parliament and civic wards in the County. It comprises of different delegates from all the County’s seven parliamentary constituencies, which forms parts of the expansive County.
Earlier on the rally had burst into thunderous applause and cheers which lasted for several minutes following the triumphant entry at the meeting venue by Kajwang’s populist ‘rival the contest for Homa- Bay County Senate seat Hilary Ochieng’Alila.
Alila who has been missing from the political scene in the region for well over one month returned home last week from overseas business tour mission and declared that he was still in the race for the Senate set and sounded an early warning to Kjwang’to get prepared for as bruising election campaign battle.
The constituencies included Mbita, Gwassi, Ndhiwa, Rangwe, Karachuonyo and Kasipul-Kabondo and the two new constituencies which were among the 80 additional parliamentary electoral areas created by the IEBC an endorsed by an act o Parliament. The two newly created constituencies included Kabondo-Kasipul in Rachuonyo South district and Homa-Bay town within Homa-Bay district which was curved out of the larger Rangwe constituency.
According to the account of several eye witnesses, the fighting erupted when rowdy youths who were ferried in two school-buses from Oyugis Town to Homa-Bay Town-Bay made an an attempt to violently eject two ODM party branch officials from Kasipul-Kabondo who they aimed were note facto branch officials any longer an that then two had been ousted in a Kangaroo ODM elections recently hatched by the area MP and a few of his cronies at a meeting held at Dudi- View hotel in Oyugis Town and later purported to have been held at Sikri Center about six kilometers out of Oyugis town.
The two school buses which had ferried and conveyed the youths to Homa-Bay belonged to Wang’apala Secondary School in Kabondo Division and Nyang’iela Secondary School in Kasipul West.
Other youths who were said t have been armed with axes and machetes and other crude weapons, according to unconfirmed reports were ferried the CD vehicles from C office in Oyugi town, while others had travelled in a second-hand pajero four-wheel-drive car which is believed to belonged to the Kasipul-Kabondo MP Joseph Oyugi, Magwanga.
This particular group of hired p0litical goons while chanting obscene songs later visited a small cafeteria restaurant in Oyugis Town, which is owned by an aspirant in Kasipul parliamentary seat Charles Ong’ondo Were and threatened to beat u the customers
The two who the youth tried to eject out of the VIP dais violently were Zacharia Muga and Evans Ndege. The attempt sparked off the fighting which started at the VIP dais and spilled over spread into the otherwise orderly crowd of people in attendance. Fearing for their dear lives the crowd fled in disarray scampering in all directions during the melee and before the meeting was reconvened after peace and order was restored and the meeting continued. The knife which was aimed at the head of Mr Muga accidentally struck the wrong person whose identity remained unknown, but he is believed to have been delegate from the Suba region.
The incident has been roundly condemned by leader in the region who called upon those intend to convene similar rallies to strictly confine themselves to the agenda and purpose of the meeting which is the “Mashinani Campaign” for the Prime Minister Raila Odinga and not to allow the rallies to be used as the campaign platform for the aspirants aspiring for the various elective political offices, which was the source of the trouble at the weekend Homa-Bay meeting.
The alleged lost of Kajwang’s fly whisk could have a stigma and repercussion after the word went around the lost which is the Luo traditional symbol of leadership is said to have been given to him as gift by the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga during the clamor for the multi-party system of politics of the early1990s,which was championed by the doyen of the oppositionist politics in Kenya. Therefore its loss could spell the impending doom and bad omen for Kajwang’s future political leadership unless the Flywhiskis retrieved with uttermost urgency.
The Minister is said to have left the Homa-Bay venue of the rally a disappointed man. Both Kajwang’, Rege and Ogindo are the top officials of the ODM Homa-By County branch who were the joint conveners of the disrupted rally.
Other leaders have pointed an accusing finger to the Kasipul-Kabondo MP Magwanga for being allegedly responsible for the in Kisumu ODM County office and it ended peacefully.
On Monday this week close to 50 political persnlities from the greater Southern Nyanza, particularly Homa-Bay County visited Kisumu and held a series of discussions with top security men in the Nyanza Province concerning the upsurge waves of political thuggery in the region with great emphasis being laid in Rachuonyo South district where the campaign activities in the two parliamentary constituencies of Kabond Kasulandkasiul is becoming nasty and life threatening, which require the increased rigorous police surveillance and patrols.
Other leaders in Homa-Bay County have called upon the ODM party headquarters in Nairobi to instill and introduce strict disciplinary rules against any leader MP or an aspirant who is engaging in the war-like political activities which are likely to case a breach of peace I the region thereby causing bodily injuries to the innocent members of the pubic and party supporters the and urged the party to take stern action including barring such leaders fro contesting any elective office on it ticket.
Ends