Oloo deserved cabinet secretary post in government, ex-TNA officials say

Five former TNA officials on Wednesday told off the Jubilee government for disregarding former TNA chief Onyango Oloo in State appointments, arguing that he deserved a ministerial flag.

They said by virtue of being the secretary-general of the President’s party and his point man in the Nyanza region, Mr Oloo, deserved a senior position in the Cabinet and not a board chairmanship.

The officials, who spoke at the Public Service Club in Kisumu, included former Nyanza and western TNA coordinator Juma Midigo, chairmen Daniel Chebii (Baringo), Titus Achar Ondu (Kisumu), Desmond Shinaka (Kakamega) and Meshack Oswago (Migori).

Mr Midigo lamented that Deputy President William Ruto’s defunct United Republican Party (URP) had hijacked the Jubilee party and was mismanaging the newly formed outfit.

“URP took over prominent positions in the Jubilee Party, leaving the President’s men complaining [about] the new party,” Mr Midigo said.

CONTRACT NOT RENEWED

Mr Chebii said Mr Oloo deserved more than just a board chairmanship.

“How could the secretary-general of a ruling party be appointed chairman of [the] Lake Basin Development Authority (LDBA)? That board was not worth him. He deserved to fly a flag,” Mr Chebii said.

He said the best reward the Jubilee government could have awarded Mr Oloo was a Cabinet secretary slot.

TNA chairman Johnson Sakaja was nominated to the National Assembly while Mr Oloo was appointed to the LDBA board.

His contract with the authority was not renewed when it expired. Late last year, former Rarieda MP Raphael Tuju was appointed chairman.

Mr Ondu said Nyanza handed President Uhuru Kenyatta 15,000 votes that “saved him from a tough rerun against Cord leader Raila Odinga in the 2013 elections.”

“The president simply surpassed the 50 per cent plus one count by ... 8,000 votes and had we not voted for him he would have faced the toughest contest ever in the rerun,” Mr Ondu said.

'MASS DEFECTION'

Mr Shinaka announced that former TNA officials and supporters in western Kenya have organized a rally at the Muliro gardens in Kakamega for a mass defection to opposition Cord.

“We want to ensure Jubilee is no more in western [Kenya]. We shall give a date for our planned mass defection at Muliro gardens in Kakamega very soon,” said Mr Shinaka.

Mr Oswago said he was the first TNA official to host President Kenyatta in Ndhiwa, Homa Bay County.

“I first hosted him before he was elected President when he came to campaign for a TNA candidate in the by-elections following the death of former internal security assistant minister Orwa Ojode,” Mr Oswago said.