MP Samuel Atandi managing relationships with an attitude

 

Alego-Usonga MP Samuel Atandi was a relationship manager at two local banks between 2008 and 2015, two years before he joined politics. Relationship managers are tasked with establishing and building a rapport with a bank’s clients.

Now approaching the fourth year of his first term as the MP of a famous constituency, Mr Atandi is continuously being required to employ his relationship-building skills as assault allegations mount against him.

For yet another time during his term, someone is linking the MP with violence. The chief of South East Alego location, Mr Joseph Ojala, has accused the lawmaker of assault following an altercation outside the senior chief’s homestead on Wednesday evening.

In a video posted online, where he speaks from a hospital bed, the chief says Mr Atandi was part of a group that accosted him and tried to push him into a car boot.

“Luckily, the boot was too small, so they pushed me in and my legs remained outside the boot,” Mr Ojala says.

Social media

The lawmaker has, however, denied being at the scene of the incident, saying he saw reports about it on social media “just like everybody else”.

“Why should I be arrested? What have I done? You are arrested because you have committed an offence. So, which offence should I be arrested for? Because people in the social media wrote that I assaulted; so you want me to be arrested based on those stories?” he asked a journalist last week.

“I heard from the social media that I have assaulted somebody,” he added.

The source of the friction between the MP and the chief, reports say, is an incident where some youths caused a scene at an event the MP attended earlier that day — and the lawmaker claims the chief had sponsored the youths’ rebellion.

In January 2019, Mr Atandi was in the news after a female education official at the county commissioner’s office in Siaya accused him of assaulting her.

A journalist with Radio Africa Group contacted him for a comment on the incident and part of his response was: “Just write anything you wish. In fact, delete my number and don’t ever call me again.”

As controversy grew over the alleged 2019 assault, some residents, lobby groups and senior government officials asked police to arrest Mr Atandi, claiming that on different occasions he had assaulted people, either personally or by using youths.

But he has often pleaded innocence. For instance following Wednesday’s incident, he said he was willing to speak with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations “so that I can help them in their investigations”.

“If there are any elements of criminal offence perpetrated on anybody, whether me or anybody else, then of course law enforcers have the mandate to investigate accurately and prefer charges against those culprits,” he told journalists.

On Twitter, the MP retains an abrasive tone against political rivals, particularly Deputy President William Ruto, as he lavishly praises and defends his party leader, Raila Odinga. Recently, Mr Atandi also engaged in a war of words with Siaya Governor Cornel Rasanga, claiming the county boss was holding meetings with elders to undermine his leadership.

Probably, does Mr Atandi require a relationships manager in his political career? Well, the former banker and a member of the National Assembly’s Budget and Appropriations Committee might want to give his two cents’ worth on that.