Raila Odinga names 11 more to campaign team

Governors, academics and long-time allies are the other 11 members of ODM leader Raila Odinga’s presidential campaign board chaired by Laikipia Governor Ndiritu Muriithi.

Mr Odinga on Wednesday named Mr Muriithi the board’s chairperson and former Kenya Revenue Authority commissioner Elizabeth Meyo the secretary and chief executive. 

The team will be pivotal in crafting his manifesto. Yesterday, the names of 11 other members emerged, including governors Anyang’ Nyong’o (Kisumu) and Charity Ngilu (Kitui), and professors Peter Wanyande, Makau Mutua and Karuti Kanyinga. 

The others are business mogul Samuel Macharia, former Nyeri Woman Representative Priscilla Nyokabi, Seth Kakusye, Betty Montet, and Kanchory Saitaboi. Veteran journalist Ben Agina is also a member of the team.

Mr Macharia, who is the proprietor of Royal Media Services, has accompanied Mr Odinga to major meetings, including with the Mount Kenya Foundation that has backed his bid. Prof Mutua and Prof Wanyande are long-time backers of Mr Odinga.

Ms Nyokabi is a commissioner of the National Gender and Equality Commission.

Yesterday, Ms Nyokabi told the Daily Nation, “Baba (Mr Odinga) reached out to all the board members and all of us have accepted this task.”

Endorsed Mr Odinga

Mr Kakusye is a Kibwezi West politician and currently a member of ODM Disciplinary Committee. In 2017, Mr Odinga persuaded him to step down in support of Mr James Mbaluka, then-Wiper’s candidate.

Mr Saitaboi is a lawyer who once handled the case between Deputy President William Ruto and Mr John Koech who were tussling for the leadership of United Democratic Movement (UDM). Mr Koech has since died.

Prof Wanyande is a scholar of political science at the University of Nairobi (UoN) and once served in the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution. 

He is also instrumental in Mr Odinga’s social protection fund programme in which he has pledged poor households will receive Sh6,000 monthly if he is elected president.

“We want leaders who will govern with conscience, who will respect the poor, respect every Kenyan, because every Kenyan matters,” Prof Wanyande said last year when he accompanied Mr Odinga to a public forum at the UoN.

Prof Mutua is a legal scholar and human rights activist who has since endorsed Mr Odinga for the presidency. He has always described the former prime minister as a personal friend and political soulmate.

Prof Kanyinga is a research professor of development studies at the Institute for Development Studies (IDS), UoN. Ms Montet is an advocate of the High Court. 

Radical reforms

Announcing Mr Muriithi’s appointment, Mr Odinga praised the governor for playing a key role in the elevation of major towns in Laikipia county and the empowerment of small medium enterprises. “Governor Murithi was instrumental in the drive to have the derelict Nairobi-Nanyuki and Gilgil-Nyahururu railway lines rehabilitated. 

“Upon his election as governor of Laikipia in 2017, Mr Muriithi embarked on radical reforms of the county public service to make it professional and globally competitive. These efforts have been rewarded with unmatched growth of the county's own-source revenue, which has doubled since the 2016/17 financial year,” said Mr Odinga. 

“Mr Muriithi is also credited with modernising key towns of Laikipia under his Smart Towns Initiative funded partially by the World Bank's Urban Support and Devolution Support programmes.”

Ms Meyo is currently consulting with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and has over three decades of administrative and strategic experience.

“Mrs Meyo will be the overall chief executive of the campaign, implement its strategic and key decisions, head the campaign secretariat, and make all vital decisions. She will be the sole campaign spokesperson,” Mr Odinga said in a statement announcing her appointment.

It had earlier been reported that former television journalist Dennis Onsarigo would handle the media and communication at the secretariat.

Alongside Mr Onsarigo is Mr Odinga’s long-serving spokesman Dennis Onyango, who remains instrumental to the Azimio leader’s communication.