Owalo: Lengo Karisa Mdzomba awaiting Sh70,000
What you need to know:
- Mr Eliud Owalo alleged that they had evidence to prove that a senator gave Mr Lengo Karisa Mdzomba money to beat up the two leaders.
- According to the accomplice, Mr Owalo said, a further Sh70,000 was to be paid out after the job was done.
A Jubilee senator hired the man who caned Cord leader Raila Odinga and Kwale Governor Salim Mvurya last Monday, a senior Cord official has claimed.
Mr Eliud Owalo, the former head of Mr Odinga’s campaign secretariat, on Saturday alleged that they had evidence to prove that the flamboyant senator gave Mr Lengo Karisa Mdzomba money to beat up the two leaders to avenge disruption of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s state function in Migori last month.
“The truth has now emerged that a Jubilee senator in fact hired the man to commit the heinous act. Confessions have come forth from the man’s accomplices that he was given a downpayment of Sh30,000 to do the dirty job,” Mr Owalo said in a statement to the Sunday Nation.
“This revelation is not only shocking and actionable but also shows how low some politicians can stoop in their display of intolerance.”
According to the accomplice, Mr Owalo said, a further Sh70,000 was to be paid out after the job was done.
His statement came only a day after Mr Odinga said Mr Mdzomba must have been sent to humiliate him during the rally.
“The man is not mad, someone must have sent him and that is why we have called for his release so we can confirm from him who his master was. This is when we will clear the matter once and for all,” Mr Odinga said at the funeral of the father of his spokesperson Denis Onyango, Mzee Nelson Onyango, in Nyatike, Migori.
Through his spokesman earlier this week, Mr Odinga said he would neither apply for nor file P3 forms that the prosecution requires to proceed with assault charges against Mr Mudzomba as they were not keen on proceeding with the case.
“Instead, Governor Mvurya will seek out Mr Mudzomba to understand his problems and motives,” Mr Odinga said, appealing to Mr Mdzomba to get in touch with the governor’s office.
Mr Mdzomba pounced on Mr Odinga and Mr Mvurya last Monday — striking each of them twice with the cane before being wrestled to the ground by a supporter of the two politicians.
Despite indications by Mr Odinga that he would not press charges against Mr Mdzomba, the matter is still before a Kwale court and the case will be mentioned on Tuesday.
Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko is set to give direction on the matter although the accused has since pleaded guilty to the offence after disowning a lawyer from Kithi and Company advocates who had turned up at a Kwale court to defend him.
JUBILEE 'PROMOTING INTOLERANCE'
Mr Owalo accused the media of seeking to drown the truth around the incident by what he described as deliberate misreporting.
“In the local media, conflicting reasons were advanced for his action. In one media report, it was said that the man got worked up because he had missed handouts which were allegedly given to the people at the rally. There were no such handouts.
“Another media report stated that the man was mentally unstable and yet another one said he was fed up with the calls for referendum,” he said.
He accused Jubilee of promoting political intolerance in the country to diminish Cord’s push for the referendum.
“A few weeks before the Kwale incident, cases of political intolerance had been reported in other parts of the country,” he said.
“For instance, intolerance had been exhibited in Nandi County where a referendum supporter from the county government was attacked and injured. Several such cases of intolerance are being exhibited by officials of the Jubilee coalition as the referendum campaign gathers steam.”
As the debate on the Kwale incident rages, three MPs from Nyanza have called for a speedy enactment of the Retirement Benefits Bill that they said would accord benefits to Mr Odinga.
The author of the Bill, Mr John Mbadi (Suba), Mr Joseph Ndiege (Suna West) and Homa Bay Woman Representative Gladys Wanga want Majority Leader Aden Duale to table the proposed law in Parliament without further delay.
“I brought the Bill so that the incident in Kwale County in which a man bolted from the crowd and clobbered the Cord leader is never repeated or occurs to another leader of his stature in future. The Bill gives them proper security round the clock,” said Mr Mbadi.
Additional reporting by Elisha Otieno.
