Succession wrangles boil over in Raila’s home turf

Succession politics and the jostling for control of the all-important party primaries before the next General Election are causing the high octane confrontations involving virtually all senior politicians on Mr Raila Odinga’s home turf.

An ugly incident at a function in Siaya last week that saw supporters of ODM MPs Jakoyo Midiwo (Gem) and Opiyo Wandayi (Ugunja) go for each other’s necks is probably the first boiling over of the simmering tension in the former Prime Minister’s home county.

But the shouting match during a harambee at Simerro Secondary school in Mr Wandayi’s Ugunja constituency was also indicative of tension between long-serving legislators of the Orange party and some first-time MPs who are perceived to be gaining more clout.  

At issue is the jostling for Mr Odinga’s attention, and by extension a decision on who will call the shots in the party primaries.

The Sunday Nation has learnt that Mr Midiwo, who is the party leader’s cousin, has for some time now been pushed out of Mr Odinga’s inner circle and feels that younger politicians like Mr Wandayi have either overshadowed him or are too close to Mr Odinga.

But Mr Midiwo wants to show he is no pushover.

BEGNNING OF A LONG FIGHT

The feud, which promises to be the beginning of a long fight going into the elections and beyond, also has a local angle as it has roped in Siaya Governor Cornel Rasanga, a close ally of Mr Odinga’s. Mr Midiwo, who supported Mr Rasanga’s contentious candidature in 2013, has in recent months been one of his most vocal critics.

After the scuffle in Ugunja, Mr Wandayi addressed a press conference in Kisumu where he accused Mr Midiwo of an unhealthy dalliance with the Jubilee Government.

“It will not be business as usual. Mr Midiwo is not with us. We only see him at daytime, but at night he works with Jubilee,” he said.

Mr Midiwo’s long silence both in and out of the National Assembly appears to lend credence to reports that he is unhappy about the going-ons in the opposition party.

He is a third-term MP first elected in 2002, making him the senior-most politician after Siaya Senator James Orengo who has been in and out of Parliament since 1980, and Raila’s elder brother Oburu Oginga who was first elected in 1994 and served uninterrupted up to the last General Election. He is now a nominated MP.

Given Mr Midiwo’s experience and family ties, some in his corner believe he is best placed to succeed Mr Odinga if the latter decides to bow out of active politics post-2017.

Then there is two-term Rarieda lawmaker and Parliamentary Accounts Committee chairman Nicholas Gumbo, who is understood to be keen to succeed Governor Rasanga in 2017.

In the mix is also Mr Orengo – a key adviser to Mr Odinga – who has a checkered past with the opposition chief.

Publicly, however, Mr Orengo is keen to pacify matters, declining to comment on the ongoing fights into which his name has been dragged.

“Jakoyo is Orengo’s decoy. On these matters, whenever Jakoyo speaks, know that he is voicing what Orengo wants known,” an ODM county branch official told the Sunday Nation.

The official said Mr Orengo was unhappy with the apparent propping up of younger politicians in Siaya County.

And even though the Sunday Nation could not get the straight-shooting Gem law-maker for his side of the story, as he was said to be out of the country, Mr Gumbo fiercely defended him.

OUTSTANDING DEFENDER

“Nobody is qualified to cast a stone here. If you ask me, between the two, I think Jakoyo has defended Cord more than him (Mr Wandayi). He has been an outstanding defender of party positions,” Mr Gumbo said.

The other MPs from the county are Mr David Ochieng’ (Ugenya, ODM), Mr Gideon Ochanda (Bondo, ODM), Mr Omondi Mulwan (Alego Usonga, Wiper) and Woman Representative Christine Ombaka.

Home to Mr Odinga, the region’s kingpin, Siaya has seen intense jostling over who gets anointed as the pointman in the region as Mr Odinga is expected to begin focusing on national campaigns as 2017 approaches.

The position would give the holder immense latitude in a region where getting on the ticket of Mr Odinga’s party comes close to being elected.

Also, in as much as leaders from neighbouring counties like Kisumu and Homa Bay may not admit it, Siaya determines the political tempo of the entire region.

In an interview yesterday, Mr Wandayi dismissed the notion that he is a political greenhorn, saying he had served Mr Odinga consistently for the longest time.

He said he began working with Mr Odinga back in 1994 when he became the Ford-Kenya Youth and Students Congress chairman.

His supporters believe that this, coupled with a six-month stint in detention in 1997, has earned him a place in Mr Odinga’s high table.

His appointment as the ODM secretary for political affairs is said to have angered some of the MPs from Siaya who feel the position elevates him.

But to Mr Wandayi, it is unfair to look at him and his colleagues as merely being first- time MPs.

“I may be in Parliament for the first time, but I have been around. Even during the struggle for positive change in the country. Unbeknown to some, I was detained for six months by the repressive Moi regime for being part of the struggle for democratic space. My party leader does not doubt my ideological grounding as well as loyalty,” Mr Wandayi said.

It also appears that the ODM top leadership is reportedly unhappy with Mr Gumbo, also from the county, over claims he went against the party position and vied for the chairmanship of PAC when he was aware that Suba MP John Mbadi was being fronted for the seat.

The Rarieda MP yesterday, however, denied knowing that the party had a preferred choice. “Those are innuendos and sour grapes from those who think they were deserving of the seat. Leading a committee of Parliament, you must project a bi-partisan approach, this is not Cord’s or Jubilee’s but a committee of the House,” he said.