Onyango Oloo claims State House tried to stop him from defecting to ODM

Former TNA secretary-general Onyango Oloo at a past event. He has claimed that State House attempted to stop him from defecting to ODM. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • He told Mr Kiunjuri that he was not on the run and dared him for a legal duel over his corruption claims.
  • Mr Oloo had served as the chairman of the Lake Basin Development Authority before he was replaced by former Rarieda MP Raphael Tuju.

Former TNA secretary-general Onyango Oloo on Friday claimed that State House made futile frantic calls to block his Wednesday defection to ODM.

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s former point man in Nyanza and one of his chief strategists disclosed how State House tried to impress upon him to rescind his decision to decamp from the ruling Jubilee.

“I received several phone calls from State House imploring me not to defect, but I told them I had made up my mind. They even tried to entice me with [an] undisclosed big appointment, which I declined,” Mr Oloo said.

He accused Devolution Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri of displaying Jubilee frustrations following his defection by attempting to link him to non-existent scandals.

Mr Kiunjuri had claimed that investigations against Mr Oloo over corruption claims during his service under his ministry were at an advanced stage.

“Politicians run to their villages for community protection. I want to remind Oloo that I have a secret dossier as he created a mess in the ministry,” Mr Kiunjuri had said.

CORRUPTION CLAIMS

But a defiant Mr Oloo, speaking on a vernacular radio station in Kisumu on Friday morning, questioned why the minister had to wait until his exit from the government to raise corruption queries against him.

“If you have a scandal, do you run to the government for protection or you move out of the government?” posed Mr Oloo.

“If this is the [practice] by Jubilee that your scandals are only unmasked when you leave them, then how many scandals do we have in Jubilee that are still hidden under the carpet? If I were a thief I would not have moved from government even if I was made a sweeper.”

He told Mr Kiunjuri that he was not on the run and dared him for a legal duel over his corruption claims.

“I am not on the run. I will accompany Raila to Homa Bay today (Friday) and on Sunday I will be in Nairobi,” he said.

Mr Oloo had served as the chairman of the Lake Basin Development Authority before he was replaced by former Rarieda MP Raphael Tuju.

'DEN OF THIEVES'

On Friday, he instead sensationally claimed Mr Kiunjuri had hatched a plot to auction off the Sh4 billion mall to his kin from central Kenya.

“The minister was shocked to see the mega project in Luoland. It is the only mega project in east and central Africa owned by the government. They now want to auction it [off] to their kin and have already found buyers,” he claimed.

He said the mall was the brainchild of the grand coalition government whose construction was approved by the ministry of regional development under then minister Fred Gumo and permanent secretary Carey Orege.

Announcing his defection at the Public Service Club in Kisumu on Wednesday, Mr Oloo termed the Jubilee government “a den of thieves and ethnic chauvinists.”

He said the Jubilee government had been hijacked by people who did not participate in “hunting for the animal but had now come when the meat was ready and were now munching it indiscriminately.”