- The ruling party officials vowed to defend at all costs those who were appointed by President Ruto to serve in his government from Luo Nyanza.
- This was in response to political sentiments made by a section of legislators from the area on Friday during the burial of the late Phillip Makabon'go.
Image: GORDON OSEN
UDA Party officials from Luo Nyanza have asked ODM elected leaders to desist from attacking senior government officials from the region.
The UDA officials asked the elected leaders from the region to leave government officials serving Kenya Kwanza administration under President William Ruto out of their political attacks.
In a statement, the ruling party officials vowed to defend at all costs those who were appointed by President Ruto to serve in his government from Luo Nyanza.
This was in response to political sentiments made by a section of legislators from the area on Friday during the burial of the late Phillip Makabon'go.
During the burial, a section of the leaders singled out and directed their attacks on the interior PS Dr Raymond Omollo.
The burial of Makabon'go who was Migori County ODM chairman was attended by several ODM MPs, governors even the party leader Raila Odinga among other local leaders.
On Saturday, the UDA officials claimed that the ODM Party is implementing a campaign of terror and violence designed to create fear among residents of Nyanza.
The scheme, the officials of the ruling party alleged is meant to stop the ongoing mass exodus of the people of Nyanza to the UDA Party.
"This is in their campaign to stop an ascendant UDA Party from expanding in the region," the statement read in part.
The UDA Nyanza brigade noted that the ODM Party has chosen to single out senior national government officials hailing from the region as their scapegoats and bogeys.
These government officials, the UDA team claimed, are being vilified, insulted and intimidated daily by ODM politicians.
The UDA Party Nyanza Branch called on the government to quickly investigate the conduct of the ODM Party.
" In our view, the conduct of some of the ODM leaders now borders on criminal actions," the statement further read.
" These investigations will reveal the extent of ODM criminal acts and determination to hold on the ground using ransom as their political currency," the statement by the party officials further read.
The UDA officials warned the country that Luo Nyanza is sliding back to the era of one-party monolithic dictatorship.
" The region is being boxed in a corner where only one political party is to thrive by strangling others. This is not how our democracy works. This how tyranny works," they stated in the press statement.
Image: HANDOUT
Speaking during the burial in Rongo, Migori senator Eddy Oketch declared that Nyanza is an ODM zone.
The senator reiterated that Nyanza will not allow anybody to bring into the region anything that is not ODM.
Mentioning the PS by name, the senator warned that they would meet him head-on.
"We are telling you that after this funeral we will meet you whether you have state power or money, as sons of Nyanza," Senator Oketch said.
He further stated:
"We can't have a country where the president and his troops keep on misusing state power."
" I want to send a message as I conclude, to people who are misusing state power that I'm telling you today. As the children of Baba Raila Odinga, we ask him to now relax. He has fought for this country long enough," he said.
The senator claimed that on Thursday, before the burial, the state tried to disparage and despise the family of the late Makabon'go.
"Because you are a PS, you think that a funeral that is supposed to be a cultural event, that is supposed to be an event of a family that has suffered like that of the late Makabon'go, you can send the police and incite some MPs to come and disturb their peace," he claimed.
"We have never seen in politics of this country where, when people start fighting, some MPs and even ministers use guns against their people," he alleged
He condemned an incident in Kisii where area governor Simba Arati was forced to flee with gunshots fired at a function in the county.
"What happened in Kisii should be condemned and we are telling you that you will threaten us with guns, money but we have the people of Kenya," Senator Oketch noted.
The minority leader in the national assembly Opiyo Wandayi also directed his gun at the PS.
He also accused an MP of allegedly colluding with the police to torment the locals.
"Let me also caution the PS for interior that we don't want nonsense. ODM is a government on its rights. You dare ODM, you see for yourselves," he warned
"Nobody ever dares ODM and survives. If you are lucky to find yourself in government, use your position to help your people. Don't use your position to persecute your people or to kill them," Wandayi said.
The Ugunja MP who is also Secretary of political affairs in ODM said they don't want jokes in this region.
"ODM which is led by Baba has lost its chairman of the County and we gather to give him a decent send-off at a public venue and you bring confusion because you are a PS?" he quipped.
"We will deal with anybody and we have a right to defend ourselves as ODM in the manner we deem fit. And that nonsense going on in Kisii, against the area governor, we will not allow it," Wandayi asserted.
He said the party wants to see, an MP whom he alleged was behind the fracas in Kisii summoned by the IG immediately to record a statement for atrocities he's accused of against the area governor and his people
But in a quick response, the UDA Party Nyanza Branch called on the government to investigate utterances from ODM politicians that they claimed border on hate-speech and ethnic incitement.
"In particular, the corrosive utterances of the Opiyo Wandayi, the Hon. James Orengo and the Senator for Migori, Hon. Eddy Oketch," the UDA statement suggested.
The UDA officials noted that they reject ODM political mobilization through hate speech and ethnic incitement and warned that the actions will only serve to isolate Luo Nyanza from the rest of the country.
They also dismissed in their statement what they described as an attempt by the ODM Party to turn Luo Nyanza into a one-party tyrannical dictatorship.
They noted that the Luo fought for many years to democratize Kenya and open up the country to multi-party political competition.
"ODM must not take Luo Nyanza back," the stated .
The UDA Party Nyanza Branch also dismissed what they termed as attempts by the ODM Party to use the few Luos in national government as bogeys for the party’s failure to capture power.
They urged the residents of Nyanza to not be intimidated by the opposition party.
They observed that the right to belong to a political party is enshrined in the country’s constitution.
The ruling party officials noted that those abandoning ODM for UDA in the region are only accepting the self-evident reality that ODM as presently constituted and managed is too disorganized, visionless and lacks the strategy to win power in Kenya.
"We urge Nyanza residents to reject ODM and join the rest of Kenya in forging truly national parties which are capable of supporting our democracy without the chaos, violence, intimidation and perennial disorganization of the ODM Party whose result will always be clear to all after every five years," they stated.
The officials noted further that the UDA Party Nyanza Branch will not hesitate to come to the defence of national government officials being currently vilified and scapegoated by ODM.
They urged the top officials in government to continue discharging their duties without fear or favour, confident that the laws of Kenya and the government of Kenya shall protect all.
They also appealed to President William Ruto to continue his development agenda in Luo Nyanza and ignore the roadblocks the ODM Party are erecting on the president's mass prosperity agenda.
They cautioned that ODM would have won if they succeeded in intimidating the government to abandon Luo Nyanza.
Such a victory according to the UDA officials will be a costly loss to the long-suffering people of Nyanza.