RAILA Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement plans to convene another National Delegates’ Convention in a month’s time to endorse a harmonised list of new officials of the party.
The party’s Transitional Interim Executive Committee is said to be contemplating convening the NDC, expected to quietly approve the names of the party’s new guard by way of consensus, so that the focus can shift to building synergies for the clamour for a national referendum.
ODM members want the issue sorted out once and for all without much fuss. This follows months of negotiations and haggling for a sharing formula between two camps that emerged during the botched polls on February 28, at which the men-in-black incident turned the spotlight on a party that had laid claim to vibrant democratic principles.
The Star has established that the committee had requested the factions of Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba and his rival for the secretary-general’s position, Nominated senator Agnes Zani, to forward their preferred nominees to be included in the new expanded leadership structure announced after the February fiasco.
Raila met the ODM TIEC at Swahili Beach Hotel, Mombasa, last month, where they agreed that each team forwards the names to the party leader, but the two teams are said to have disagreed on some names, an issue that is now being worked on before the list is released.
Kisumu Senator Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o is all set to resume his secretary-general position.
“The secretary-general position was the hottest ticket. We do not want it to bring about bitter rivalry again and that is why the party feels that Nyong’o should continue with his position,” an MP who is a member of TIEC said on condition of anonymity.
The TIEC team was installed on an interim basis before fresh elections are held.
Both Namwamba and Zani were named as joint secretaries, while Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya and his Mombasa counterpart Hassan Joho took up the position of deputy party leader.
Other members include Eldai MP Adan Keynan, Homa Bay Senator Otieno Kajwang’, Mbala Mbala MP Abdikadir Aden, Kitutu Masaba MP Timothy Bosire and political activist Rosa Buyu.
During ODM’s recent Parliamentary Group meeting, members called for quick disposal of the leadership matter to ensure the party moves forward united.
During the fractious meeting the camps differed over a proposal by the party’s National Governing Council to create nine positions of deputies to allegedly ensure regional, gender and other diversity balances.
“We have agreed that, as a party, we need to put this matter to rest so that we can concentrate on the push for a national referendum. There is no better way to do that than to put in place substantive party officials by uniting the two camps,” a source in the TIEC told the Star.
The decision to summon delegates follows recommendations by a Jotham Nyukuri-led taskforce that was formed by Raila to investigate the failed polls and make recommendations on the way forward.
The four-member team is said to have silently handed Raila and the TIEC their report, in which they recommended that a harmonised and all-inclusive leadership repairs the cracks that emerged during the vigorous campaigns ahead of the aborted polls.
The team conducted investigations while Raila was away for a sabbatical in the US, and forwarded the report to the former PM shortly after he returned, but sources said the TIEC only opted to implement the recommendations using a consensus approach instead of actual elections.
ODM has come under heavy criticism by Jubilee legislators to the effect that it has failed to manage its own internal affairs and elections.
– the-star.co.ke
