Lead team to end rows, ODM tells Raila

ODM leader Raila Odinga and a small team of prominent leaders from western Kenya have been tasked to stem an internal rebellion led by the party's secretary-general Ababu Namwamba.

The resolution was reached on Wednesday when ODM held its central management committee meeting.

Mr Odinga used the meeting to call for a truce in the party which has in the recent past been dogged by rebellion by legislators from the western Kenya and coast regions.

Wednesday’s meeting was attended Mr Namwamba, also the Budalang’i MP and MPs Paul Otuoma (Funyula) and John Waluke (Sirisia) who have both sided with the party Secretary-General who has accused the party of sidelining legislators from western Kenya.

Dr Otuoma and Mr Waluke are not members of the central management committee but attended to help it address the concerns that they had raised.

Mr Odinga, who was said to have struck a reconciliatory tone, was understood to have cautioned against the growing dangerous political posturing which could be used by opponents to undermine the party. He urged the MPs who had issued a statement accusing him and ODM chairman John Mbadi of frustrating them to use internal mechanisms to solve their differences.

RAILA TO NAMWAMBA: DON'T 'SULK AWAY'

The party leader also took issues with Mr Namwamba and urged him to find a way of placing his grievances on the table every time they arose instead of “sulking away”.

After the closed-door talks, Mr Odinga told the press: “We have discussed a number of issues of interest to the party. But there will be another meeting later”.

Sources at the meeting revealed that Mr Namwamba, Dr Otuoma and Mr Waluke stood their ground, and called for a “framework” that would guide the resolution of the issues they raised.

The framework will be agreed upon during a meeting with “some prominent Luhya personalities” that will be attended by the nine lawmakers and Mr Odinga within the next two weeks.

Mr Namwamba told a press conference at the party headquarters that issues related to their grievances were not discussed because they were not part of the agenda.

However, the Nation obtained a programme of the meeting that had listed the “resolution of emerging issues” as the first item that was to be discussed.

Mr Namwamba said: “We have talked about the matter to do with the select committee that will be dealing with the IEBC issue among other matters”.

NAMWAMBA, OTWOMA PALS AGAIN

Sources who attended the meeting revealed that Mr Namwamba raised some of the issues they were concerned about and Dr Otuoma called for leadership in tackling matters surrounding the party’s internal elections.

Mr Waluke is said to have made very minimal or no contributions at all during the meeting.

In an interview with the Nation, Dr Otuoma said: “We have agreed to have another meeting to deal with some of this issues in details in two weeks’ time”.

The Funyula MP said the party has had a culture of ignoring members’ concerns only to regret it after losing elections.

“This is a party that has lost elections twice for making obvious mistakes. We must show our members that we are able to do things differently,” he said. “We must fix things or we get fixed.

“When we raise some of these issues, no one should tell us we are doing so because of Governor Ojaamong. There is nothing special about the governor. He is a product of negotiated democracy anyway,” Dr Otuoma said.

Commenting on murmurs within the party to have him replace Mr Namwamba as secretary-general, Dr Otuoma said: “The matter of party offices and who should take what is now water under the bridge. We should be able to have structures that can work perfectly for everyone”.

Although Dr Otuoma had initially opposed the appointment of Mr Namwamba as secretary-general and even opposed his campaigns before the abortive 2014 National Delegates Convention, the two have since forged a working relationship.

On Wednesday they drove to and from the Orange House meeting in Dr Otuoma’s car.

Besides the legislators from western Kenya, ODM has also been facing a rebellion by its leaders from the coast. The group, led by Kilifi North MP Gideon Mung’aro, this week said 11 ODM lawmakers would decamp to a new party ahead of the 2017 election.

On Monday, Mr Mung’aro criticised ODM deputy party leader Hassan Joho, accusing him of assuming the role of regional kingmaker.