ODM leader Raila Odinga flew to Kisumu Sunday in a quest to calm tensions in his Nyanza backyard ahead of President Kenyatta’s visit to the lakeside city next week.
Mr Odinga’s visit comes amid Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) jitters, with a battery of lawyers expected to start arguing an appeal against the High Court ruling that declared it null and void.
The tour also comes as tensions continue to grip the region following last week’s Bonchari by-election in which ODM accused government officials of using police to harass its supporters.
Mr Odinga, who landed with his sister, Ruth, aboard a private jet from Malindi where they had been on a week-long holiday, is expected to hold a series of fire-fighting meetings in the region ahead of Mr Kenyatta’s visit to preside over Madaraka Day celebrations on June 1.
Demolitions
The ODM leader is also keen on cooling down the public and the business community in the lake-side city, which has witnessed demolitions that have hit thousands of traders.
Today, the local ODM leadership and MCAs have been invited for a breakfast meeting at Sunset Hotel in Milimani by Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o, a gathering Mr Odinga is said to be likely to attend.
Political backlash
In his meetings with residents, Mr Odinga is expected to neutralise any possible political backlash against Mr Kenyatta, his Handshake partner. This is after he accused some unnamed government officials of orchestrating impunity in Bonchari, as well as being threats to the March 2018 peace deal with the President.
His statement came barely 24 hours after ODM threatened to review its relationship with the ruling Jubilee Party ‘if it continues to undermine it’.
“The peaceful co-existence post-2018 must not be taken for granted by some rogue elements wanting to confuse the Handshake for an excuse to erode our hard-earned liberties. This must stop!” Mr Odinga said in a statement read as hitting at Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i, whom some MPs now want impeached.
ODM National Treasurer Timothy Bosire said: “If what we saw in Bonchari is what Jubilee is calling BBI, then ODM is not a party to it. We shall face our opponents with or without amending the Constitution.”
It’s on the backdrop of the fierce statements that insiders in Odinga circles told the Nation the ODM leader is keen on “calming the ground ahead of next week’s Madaraka Day celebrations in Kisumu.”
Put his house in order
Within ODM, Mr Odinga still has to put his house in order as his troops continue to trade barbs following the High Court BBI thunderbolt.
On Saturday, Siaya Senator James Orengo, who with Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo, was accused of rocking the Odinga boat from within by opposing certain clauses in the BBI Bill, launched yet another sensational attack on some of his ODM counterparts, claiming they had left Mr Odinga at his hour of need.
“At times like this, you hear some asking where Orengo is but they’ll be the first people to castigate me on false allegations that I am fighting our party leader,” Mr Orengo said in Siaya.
But on Sunday, in further escalating the anti-Orengo-Otiende sentiments, former Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo told off Mr Orengo, accusing him of double speak.
‘We love him so much…’
“Orengo must stop betraying Raila. We need him in court, but he must not use that to betray Raila. I can read through him. We love him so much as one of our prominent lawyers, but he must stop the betrayal. Only fools are stupid. We will take him back where we got him,” Mr Midiwo told the Nation on the phone yesterday.
Mr Odinga’s visit, therefore, comes at a time of fears of division in his party over BBI and its fate, but also what his Handshake with the President means and whether or not it is still viable. BY DAILY NATION