Candidates jostle to sponsor delegates to attend ODM chief’s forum
Leaders across the country yesterday put a spirited fight to ferry delegates to Nairobi for tomorrow’s Azimio La Umoja convention during which ODM leader Raila Odinga is expected to declare his presidential candidature.
Governors, MPs and aspirants for various seats hired buses for the delegates and booked accommodation for them in Nairobi.
There was also a behind-scenes war between Jubilee and ODM politicians with the latter being accused of staking claim to the event.
More than 1,000 delegates from seven counties in DP William Ruto’s Rift Valley backyard were set to travel to Kasarani for the event.
ODM Secretary for Devolution Affairs Kipkorir arap Menjo said that five delegates drawn from each ward in Baringo, Elgeyo-Marakwet,Nandi, Bomet, Uasin-Gishu, Kericho and Nandi counties will travel to Nairobi.
“Other supporters are encouraged to travel as they wish,” he said.
Some 150 ODM supporters will represent Mombasa County, according to regional party chairman Hamid Khamis.
“There will be five people in all the 30 wards in Mombasa making 150 the total number of party delegates who will travel to Nairobi,” Khamis told People Daily yesterday.
Mvita MP Abdulswamad Sharrif Nassir promised to provide ten buses to ferry supporters to Nairobi.
In Kajiado, Governor Joseph Ole Lenku resisted a push by ODM politicians to coordinate the exercise.
“This is not an ODM affair. Some politicians might want to politicise the matter but they should focus on the agenda of the day which is unity,’’ said Lenku (pictured). In Kiambu, ODM members were unhappy as it emerged that only six party supporters had been invited to attend the Kasarani event.
However, Kiambu ODM chairman C.N. Mbugua said the event was not a party affair and other members of the public were at liberty to attend.
Kisumu ODM coordinator Kennedy Ajwang said they were set for the event
In a related development, former Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri’s The Service Party, has suffered a setback after its vice chair Wangui Ng’ang’a ditched the outfit for ODM.
Wangui, a former Nominated Nairobi MCA, is seeking to run for Nairobi Woman Rep seat.
—Reporting by Rawlings Otieno, Wycliff Kipsang, Christine Musa, Reuben Mwambingu, Oliver Musembi and Kepher Otieno
