Degree shocker for ODM aspirants

The Orange Democratic Movement is working to toughen its nomination rules as it seeks to reclaim the dozens of seats it lost in the 2017 General Election.

In a move that may not go down well with ward representatives, Orange House will only clear degree holders to run on the party ticket once the new rules are concluded. ODM chairman John Mbadi said the reforms began three years ago after its poor showing in the polls.

“This is not a journey we started yesterday but immediately after the 2017 elections. We lost many of our members because our nominations had a lot of pitfalls. We sat down and evaluated our performance and what we need to do ahead of 2022,” he said.

In the last elections, the party won just 67 parliamentary seats, down from 96 in 2013. To shore up grassroots support, the reconstituted National Elections Board (NEB) has been tasked to craft stringent nomination rules to address perennial complaints that mar primaries.

“We have trained the board early enough so that it can come up with new rules that will make our nominations flawless,” Mr Mbadi said.

Academic qualification

A bachelor’s degree will be the minimum academic qualification for aspirants seeking the party’s ticket to vie for Member of County Assembly. MCAs have a powerful oversight role over the hundreds of billions spent in the counties and must be well informed, said Mr Mbadi.

“They are no longer councillors. It’s sad to see some members sitting in the budget committee with no idea how a budget should be done,” he added. 

ODM secretary-general Edwin Sifuna cited a case in Nairobi where a nominated MCA had never stepped in the assembly since her nomination in 2017.

“These are the issues we want to address because if you are nominated to represent a particular group and you don’t show up, then you have no business being there,” Mr Sifuna said.

Although ODM remains one of the most popular parties, a task force its leadership commissioned after the 2017 polls gave very disturbing findings, which informed the NEB purge.

It blamed the waning popularity on the NEB, the secretariat and the National Executive Committee, which were accused of deliberately bungling party primaries. 

“The biggest concern with ODM is the failure to respect its own constitution and regulations. The party structures are clear and well defined from the grassroots to the top, but the implementation of the constitution and the functionality of the structures, particularly at the grassroots, is wanting,” read the report of the task force chaired by Catherine Muma.

We have honestly looked at ourselves.

And signalling all is still not well at Orange House is the recent outburst by Mr Raila Odinga Junior, who claimed the party has lost track of its reform agenda. Mr Sifuna is, however, hopeful ODM is headed in the right direction.

“We have honestly looked at ourselves and even commissioned a task force to look into what has been happening. The team’s report came with an indictment,” he said.

He cited the reconstitution of the NEB and the National Disciplinary Committee (NDC) among the reforms implemented. The new NEB is chaired by Ms Muma while Prof Ben Sihanya heads the NDC.

During the opening of its new office in Lavington last year, deputy party leader Wycliffe Oparanya urged the party leader to decisively deal with cartels at the secretariat, saying they bungle nominations each election cycle.

“ODM is still powerful at the grassroots but it has lost numbers both in the National Assembly and in the Senate, and we must ask ourselves why,” Mr Oparanya said.

ODM executive director Oduor Ong’wen said the party has already started implementing some of the recommendations by the task force.

“We have streamlined the operations of the secretariat. In addition, there is now proper coordination with our county coordinators,” he said.