Zani likely to take over should Namwamba be forced out

What you need to know:

  • If Mr Namwamba does not resign, the party will have no option but to edge him out “for he cannot continue destabilising the party from within”.
  • Namwamba said he was ready to lose his party position if that is the price to pay for his push to have reforms within the party.
  • Namwamba's exit will also force Mr Odinga to reconstitute the top hierarchy to stem a likely backlash resulting from a forceful ouster of the ODM secretary general.

ODM Secretary General Ababu Namwamba could be on his way out after taking on party leader Raila Odinga in public.

The Sunday Nation has learnt of plans to call a National Executive Committee in the coming weeks to initiate disciplinary proceedings against him for disregarding party organs by going public with his grievances. One such meeting is planned for Wednesday, although it was not immediately clear if that is the agenda.

An influential NEC member says if Mr Namwamba does not resign, they will have no option but to edge him out “for he cannot continue destabilising the party from within”.

The accusations against Mr Namwamba and other senior party officials include abdication of duty, underwhelming performance and reckless announcements outside the party structures and organs.

ODM’s director of elections Junet Mohammed said the party cannot be held hostage by individual interests.

“ODM cannot remain stuck at (the 2014 elections in) Kasarani unless we want to make the party moribund. We want to move on and capture power, which is the cardinal aim of any political party all over the world. We must align ourselves to the battle ahead in 2017,” said the Suna East MP.

Balambala MP Abdikadir Aden could also join Mr Namwamba through the exit door. During the recent Madaraka Day celebrations, he ought to have been at the front in organising the Uhuru Park prayer rally. Instead, he was at Afraha, Nakuru County, where President Uhuru Kenyatta led the national celebrations.

Early last week, Mr Namwamba, the Budalang’i MP, led a team of MPs from Western Kenya to castigate Mr Odinga and party chairman John Mbadi for bullying, frustrating and wrongly profiling them.

In the event the ouster happens, his succession is already fashioned out. Nominated Senator Agnes Zani, his bitter rival for the seat in the botched February 28, 2014 elections, will be promoted, party insiders have told the Sunday Nation. In response to the move by MPs coalescing around the Budalang’i MP, Mr Odinga will tomorrow lead the ODM brigade to a thanks-giving ceremony in honour of Busia Women’s representative Florence Mutua who was among the eight MPs detained by police over hate speech allegations last week.

The aim of the Busia rally could be to take the war to the doorstep of the beleaguered secretary general in a show that the region is solidly behind ODM regardless of his standpoint. Dr Zani is favoured for what sources say is her “loyalty and maturity.”

But on Saturday, a furious Namwamba said he was ready to lose his party position if that is the price to pay for his push to have reforms within the party.
“The position of SG is really not a life-and-death matter for me. I have previously served my party superbly without any official portfolio. Indeed, I would rather be an ordinary member in an ODM that remains faithful to the high ideals that brought us together in the first place than be SG where fidelity to the social democratic philosophy that binds us becomes doubtful.”

Were Mr Namwamba to be ousted, the party will open another internal war-front, with the real possibility of scuttling Mr Odinga’s dream of crafting a winning team similar to the one he had in the run-up to the 2007 elections when he missed the presidency by a whisker after Mr Mwai Kibaki was controversially declared winner. 

Mr Namwamba says the step to come out in the open and say all is not well should be taken positively. But it will certainly cause reverberations within the Orange party in what could see factions loyal to Mr Namwamba decamp from the party on whose ticket he has been elected to Parliament twice since 2007.

FORCEFUL OUSTER

The move will also force Mr Odinga to reconstitute the top hierarchy to stem a likely backlash resulting from a forceful ouster of Mr Namwamba.

The plan to strip Mr Namwamba of his seat has also been linked to the war over control of nomination certificates, an almost sure guarantee to an elective seat in the party strongholds.

“My drive to bring order to the nomination process has ruffled feathers and annoyed cartels, caused voter apathy in our bastions, costing our party leader the presidency,” he said.

While presiding over a ceremony at the invitation of Nyando politician Jared Okello, nominated Senator Janet Ong’era, a former ODM executive director, said Mr Okello indeed won the nomination but they were prevailed upon to give the ticket to the current MP Fred Outa.

This was the clearest confirmation by a party insider that certificates were issued at the whim of party honchos. The supremacy wars at the secretariat have since seen Mr Judy Pareno, whose National Elections Board had been disbanded, returned to office under unclear circumstances. Mr Namwamba had disbanded it.

The secretary general denied reports he was preparing to lead an exodus to Labour Party of Kenya associate Prof Julia Ojiambo, with whom they come from the same county, Busia.

“We have sounded the alarm and will keep on until something is done from within ODM,” he said.

The statement was a culmination of long running grievances supported by majority lawmakers in the region but lately triggered by, among other things, the accusation that Mr Odinga had given his co-principal in Cord, Mr Moses Wetang’ula, who is the Ford-K party boss, a free-hand to crisscross their constituencies unchecked. This has made it more a fight for survival for the MPs, who feel Ford-K could run away with their seats next year.

After launch of his presidential bid in April, Mr Wetang’ula has increased his activities in Western with a view to making the region his party’s stronghold.

Butere MP Andrew Toboso said that whereas MPs from Luhyaland have issues affecting them that they want Mr Odinga to address, he did not agree with the approach adopted by the nine MPs.

“The party has not handled our issues like they should but I don’t think Mr Namwamba and his team exhausted internal party structures before going public. His is like an open market tirade. You lose it when you start becoming emotional yet you are supposed to be the general,” he said. Mr Namwamba is often referred to as the general in ODM circles.

CREATE POWER CENTRE

But Mr Namwamba appeared to suggest that his efforts to raise the issues internally had not borne fruit.

Lawyer Edwin Sifuna, whose “attempted coup” on Friday to take over Mr Namwamba’s seat aborted, is among those being considered to deputise Dr Zani alongside another loyalist and nominated Senator Elizabeth Ongoro.

The elevation of Dr Zani could, however, open another war-front for ODM at the Coast as some politicians are said to have opposed her initial bid for secretary general in 2014, fearing it could create another power centre in the region away from what they are accustomed to.

Party Secretary for Political Affairs and Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi, one of the beneficiaries of reduced powers of the office of the secretary general brought about by the Naivasha Accord that ushered in the new office, said the grumbles by Mr Namwamba and his colleagues were not unusual, especially now that elections are approaching.

“Politicians are anxious. It is, however, important to acknowledge that ODM has evolved into a people’s movement with the capacity to withstand any commotion and distress. The current tumult will end. In the fullness of time, the party will emerge stronger,” he said.

Chairman John Mr Mbadi, Mr Namwamba and Mr Aden in particular are said to have grossly underperformed and may be the subject of the impending NEC meeting.

Mr Namwamba has been exposed by his absence at major Cord and ODM events in recent months — including the “Baba while you were away” hype that surrounded Mr Odinga’s return from a long stay in the US and subsequent Saba Saba rallies in 2015, the protests against the electoral commission, and at the funeral of murdered businessman Jacob Juma. The ODM secretary general is also accused of having maintained close ties with Jubilee, especially with Deputy President William Ruto.

Other than the complaints of interference in local politics in Western, Mr Mbadi, who is also facing the axe, has faced similar claims in Luo Nyanza, sharply disagreeing with Rarieda MP Nicholas Gumbo in public.