Raila in fight of his life to retain Western following

Coalition for Reforms and Democracy leader Raila Odinga faces a tough battle to retain his mass following in the former Western Province with politicians in the region beginning to tout for a single presidential candidate from the community.

On Friday, he chose to side-step the resignation of two top officials in his party from the region and instead aimed his stinging attack on the Jubilee administration, which he claimed was targeting his political strongholds.

As he vowed to take on Jubilee, former deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi’s Amani National Congress (ANC) invited the disgruntled Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) MPs from the region to join his party and form a solid bloc to claim a stake on national politics in the next elections.

Tellingly, Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba - who resigned from his secretary-general position in ODM on Tuesday - apologised to Mr Mudavadi for not supporting his presidential bid in the March 2013 elections.

He campaigned for Mr Odinga on the Cord ticket.

“We welcome Ababu Namwamba’s apology our party leader Musalia Mudavadi over the failure to support him when he left ODM and vied for the Presidency in 2013. Mr Mudavadi has accepted the apology,” said party secretary-general Godfrey Osotsi.

He said the acrimonious exit of Luhyia leaders from ODM was a sign that the party has failed to represent the community’s interests and welcomed them to join ANC and push for a single presidential candidate from the region.

It is understood Mr Mudavadi has held meetings with the Namwamba group to convince them to join his party.

The group is toying with the idea of taking over the Labour Party of Kenya (LPK) chaired by former MP Julia Ojiambo as their vehicle.

JUBILEE TO BLAME

However, it is understood there are fears that the choice of the LPK will give a chance to their critics to claim that the party had been readied for them by a senior Jubilee leader.

This, perhaps, was the reason Mr Odinga on Friday asked his troops in Migori to stop attacks on Mr Namwamba and Mr Otuoma and instead direct their salvos at the Jubilee administration.

“Jubilee leaders are making forays in Cord areas and I want all of you to remain strong,” he said.

The ODM leader accused the government of failing to meet the expectation of Kenyans and argued that corruption, tribalism and the cost of living were soaring under the watch of President Kenyatta.

Mr Odinga accused Mr Kenyatta of returning the country to dark days of arbitrary arrests of leaders and told Kenyans to back Cord in its quest to dislodge Jubilee from power next year.

“All Kenyans must rise and send Jubilee packing. If we continue like this, we risk becoming a failed state,” Mr Odinga said during the homecoming of the Suna East MP Junet Mohammed on Friday.

The leaders dismissed Ipsos Synovate opinion polls “as part of Jubilee machinations to prepare Kenyans psychologically to rig the elections”.

Reports by Elisha Otieno, Nelcon Odhiambo