Section of Orma elders disown CAS Dado endorsement

A section of Orma council of elder’s has disowned the endorsement of Interior CAS Hussein Dado as the community’s sole flagbearer for Tana River governor.

This comes days after parallel endorsements of the CAS and Bura MP Ali Wario by a divided Orma council of elders.

The council secretary Osman Gutu described Dado’s endorsement as ‘a sham, illegitimate and one that did not have the blessing of the elders.

Gutu spoke to the press in Madogo on Wednesday.

Gutu, who is also the council’s spokesperson’s regretted the decision by the three elders who endorsed Dado.

He said they went against the decision of the majority who endorsed Wario as the sole candidate.

Gutu said the process of picking Wario started in October last year.

He said four aspirants namely Jillo Algi, Abdullahi Juge, Ali Wario, Hussein Dado and the late Molu Shambaro had expressed interest in the seat.

The elders called for a meeting that included clerics, opinion leaders and youth from the county on December 3 in Wayu.

After the meeting, Jillo and Abdulla agreed to step down. However, between Wario and Dado, none was willing to back down.

The elders gave them more time to agree among themselves but it ended in a stalemate.

“Both of them gave us (the elders) the mandate to pick one candidate and using powers bestowed upon us we settled on Wario,” Gutu said.

“On February 3, we voted 46 to four in favour of Wario. But when a section were sent to Dado to deliver the verdict, he flatly refused to abide.

"We tried all we could to persuade Dado by breaking down reasons why we arrived at Wario but he could hear none of it,” he added.

Gutu said the elders had no option but to endorse Wario in a ceremony held in Bura on Saturday. However three members excused themselves for personal reasons.

“To our surprise, the three who included the vice chairman Abdalla Bakero, were among those who endorsed Dado in a similar ceremony in Wayu, Galole constituency,” he said.

He said the stand of the council is that Wario is the community’s flag bearer.

“We shall be going to our people to pass this message and popularise our candidate. We have have also mandated the candidate to reach out to other community’s for more votes,” he said.

“Most importantly is that we preach peace and make sure that our community remains united ahead of the August 9 polls. We risk playing into the hands of our competitors if we do the contrary,” he added.

 Orma ‘King’ Jofle Bonaya said Dado had three days to appeal the council decision.

“The three days lapsed and the council had no option but to declare Wario the candidate. That is what we did in Bura on Saturday,” Bonaya said.

Efforts to reach Dado for comment were not successful as his cell phone was switched off.

Tana River county is inhabited by three major communities namely the Orma, Wardei and the Pokomo.

Political pundits say if any of three communities produce more than one candidate for any political seat, they risk losing through split votes.

(Edited by Bilha Makokha)