Homa Bay county ODM branch officials have termed calls by Nyanza MPs for Raila to contest the vacant senate seat as SHAMEFUL and ridicule to the Luo community. They said Homabay county has sons and daughters able and willing to take up the challenge and continue the legacy of the late senator Otieno Kajwang’
Meanwhile City businessman Fred Rabongo has announced he is also in the race to succeed Otieno Kajwang.
The officials hinted that two front runners for the seat at the moment were Kajwang’s challenger in the 2013 election Hilary Alila and Raila’s trusted aide Silas Jakakimba. Elsewhere a section of the locals have ruled out engineer Okundi saying he was too old for the challenge considering the 2017 campaigns where Raila will need young and energetic leaders to mobilize Kenyans against Uhuru Kenyatta and William Rut.
The call for Raila to fill the vacant county senatorial seat following Otieno Kajwang’s death was started kicked off by Nyatike MP Omondi Anyanga who later yesterday spoke on behalf of a section of MPs, saying Raila is the only politician who is capable of replacing Kajwang who died two weeks ago.
“We as the leaders of Homa Bay county want former Prime Minister Raila Odinga to honour Kajwang by contesting for the Homa Bay Senatorial seat,” Anyanga said at a press conference in Nairobi on Wednesday.
“My first choice for Homa Bay senator is the former prime minister Raila Odinga,” Kibera MP Kenneth Okoth posted on his Twitter account.
This comes after the IEBC on Monday set February 2 as the day for the Senate seat by-election.
The law of Kenya requires that a by-election be held within 90 days from when a seat is declared vacant.
Meanwhile Jakakimba seem to have secured key voting blocks in the county that include local ODM leadership, Women Leaders, Youth Leaders, The Disabled, KNUT Representatives & Council of Elders and Boda Boda Association.
Here is what Jakakimba shared on his oficial Facebook page;
We are already spreading out on The Ground. We wish to notify all that on Wednesday 10th December, this Good Year of The Lord, we will formally launch our bid before various County Stakeholders, at Homa-Bay town.
This event will be graced by Homa-Bay County and Sub-County leaders of the Change Movement (ODM), Women Leaders, Youth Leaders, The Disabled, KNUT Representatives & Council of Elders, Boda Boda Association, among others.
