Don't hold another election, ODM delegates say

A section of ODM delegates have asked the party’s top decision making organ not to call for another election following the chaos that disrupted Friday’s polls.

They instead want the party to endorse one of the two line-ups, which they said were favourites before chaos erupted during the event.

(Read: AS IT HAPPENED: ODM elections called off after chaos)

The delegates from Turkana, Samburu, Bomet and West Pokot who met at a city hotel Saturday, said delegates should not be made to travel to Nairobi for another election, adding that the National Governing Council should endorse the Joho-Namwamba line-up.

We are done with elections now and the party top organ in its decision on Monday should endorse officials who are popular with the delegates,” said Turkana ODM chairman Mr Lazaro Ekeno.
The party’s top decision making organ is expected to meet Monday to conduct a post mortem of the chaotic delegates meet.

It is expected to chart the way forward for the party, which remains without officials after former secretary general Prof Anyang Nyong’o and former chairman Henry Kosgey announced they had stepped down.

On Saturday, the more than 100 delegates met at a small city hotel on Tom Mboya Street, where they were met by aspiring ODM vice chairman and Mombasa governor Hassan Joho and candidate for Chairman’s position Josphat Nanok, who is also the Turkana Governor.

The governors, who insisted they were not to speak at the meeting but wanted journalists to hear from the delegates themselves, later provided logistics to the delegates to return to their homes.

The delegates complained that the ODM party had not provided them with transport to Nairobi, and that they had raised money on their own so as to travel to Nairobi to vote in their favourite candidates.

The delegates exonerated ODM party leader Raila Odinga from blame following the chaos at the Kasarani gymnasium that scuttled voting by secret ballot saying the people around him were responsible for the violence and it was time to inject fresh leadership into the party.

“We still want Raila to lead the party but if he is willing to remain with party spoilers, then he can opt out and leave us to run the party,” said the agitated party official.

The meeting resolved that the party’s top leadership deal with politicians and other party officials believed to have been behind the violence on an individual basis.

Should the party’s top organ decide to call for another election then the elections should be held at the counties, said another delegate Lomodo Samuel from Samburu, an indication that the delegates had been shocked by the violence perpetrated by goons in dark suits, who broke tables and ballot boxes, moments after voting had started.

The delegates’ endorsement of the Joho-Namwamba line-up, which would see Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba take the powerful secretary general’s post is a boost to the line-up against their rivals, led by nominated senator Agnes Zani.

Mr Namwamba’s group seemed to have had the upper hand during the stormy ODM delegates meeting, receiving huge cheers when their names were read out by party officials