Will MP Atandi beat the Alego Usonga one-term jinx?
Alego Usonga MP Samuel Atandi displays his ODM nomination certificate.Political Parties Dispute Tribunal has nullified his nomination and ordered ODM party to conduct fresh nomination in Alego Usonga.
For close to three decades, Alego Usonga has had six MPs, the highest number compared with other constituencies in Siaya County but each of legislators served only one term.
Because of this, residents have coined the phrase “Ilogo dichiel,” which means “get elected once and go”.
Voters in Alego Usonga are not known to be kind to their elected representatives seeking a second term.
Since the constituency was established in 1963 only two legislators have served more than one term.
They are the founding MP Luke Obok (1963 and 1966) and former Education minister Peter Oloo Aringo, who served four uninterrupted terms between 1974 and 1988.
Mr Aringo lost to former political detainee Otieno Mak’Onyango in 1992 but he recaptured the seat in 1997.
But this time around he served for only one term.
In recent party primaries, the incumbent Samuel Atandi clinched the ODM ticket after defeating his closest challenger, Dr Nicholas Ochogo.
Mr Atandi received 17,789 votes, while Dr Ochogo, a former lecturer at the University of Nairobi, had 3,350.
By clinching the ODM nomination certificate, Mr Atandi had come close to breaking the three-decade tradition of voters in Alego Usonga keeping their MPs for only one term.
Compared with 2017, when he made his political debut, Mr Atandi, a close ally of ODM leader Raila Odinga, is facing hurdles in his re-election bid this time around.
Dr Ochogo challenged his victory first at the party tribunal, where Mr Atandi’s victory was upheld, and subsequently at the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal (PPDT), which nullified the results, citing irregularities, and called for fresh voting through universal suffrage.
No end in sight
The timelines given by the PPDT to conduct fresh polls lapsed on April 4 but no attempt has been made to resolve the stalemate.
But Mr Atandi has expressed confidence that he will bag the ticket and get to serve Alego Usonga residents for a second term.
“My opponent is wasting time and he knows he did not win the primaries. The National Elections Board (NEB) conducted a very transparent process and I won. I am confident that I will get the ticket and be elected to serve Alego Usonga for a second term,” said Mr Atandi in a phone interview with Nation.Africa.
He added: “I believe I have delivered all my promises to the residents and based on this I will be re-elected to serve a second term. I still have many projects that I want to complete in my second term.”
The stalemate at Orange House on who won the party primaries in Alego Usonga has stalled many of the party’s activities.
Dr Ochogo said he was ready to engage his political nemesis in roundtable talks in order to break the stalemate.
“We shall have a consensus meeting with guidance from the ODM party officials to break the stalemate,” said Dr Ochogo.
Besides in Alego Usonga, the PPDT also called for fresh nominations in Bondo constituency after the incumbent Gideon Ochanda’s main challenger Andiwo Mwai challenged his win.
