Raila cleans ODM in readiness to succeed Uhuru

ODM leader Raila Odinga is planning to perform radical surgery on vital party organs as he seeks to lay strong foundation for his battle to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Days after David Murathe, a Jubilee insider and a close confidant of President Kenyatta, endorsed Raila for President in 2022, the ex-PM has embarked on sweeping changes to put his Orange House in order.

In the first round of his aggressive efforts to redeem ODM's image, Raila has overhauled the National Elections Board as well as the party's internal Disciplinary Committee.

The two organs are regarded as the heart of a political party as they make high-impact decisions to foster cohesion and a strong performance in general elections, two years to the next polls.

The Star has established Raila aims for a comprehensive overhaul of the secretariat to bring on board fresh blood to propel his 2022 presidential dream.

The Secretariat purge, which is likely to be executed in the next few months, would be a culmination of a wave of decisive actions by Raila to clean up the party and take charge of its decision making organs.

The latest changes are the clearest indication Raila could be quietly preparing to make a fifth stab at the presidency in a contest with Deputy President William Ruto.

Just this year, Raila's party acquired Sh170 million headquarters in upmarket Lavington, becoming one of the few parties with own premises.

In contrast with 2017 when the election board was hurriedly reconstituted only a year to the polls, Raila wants the two committees to settle in well in advance.

A report commissioned by ODM after the 2017 polls put the blame for the disputed loss squarely on the ODM Secretariat, the National Executive Committee and National Elections Board.

The report specifically accused the three organs of deliberately bungling party primaries.

“The party structures, especially the NEC, NEB and the Secretariat, have been blamed for conducting their business in a manner that is not transparent and accountable and [they] are thought to be in the business of deliberately staging for the chaotic and violent elections as a way of facilitating favourites to end up as nominees of ODM for the general elections,” the report said.

 On Wednesday, ODM national treasurer Timothy Bosire said more changes are in the offing in response to an internal audit report calling for wide-ranging restructuring to make the organs accountable.

“We are making the party more efficient going forward. We are responding to a finding to make the party efficient, democratic and accountable to members, we have done reorganisaton and it is still ongoing,” Bosire said.

After the 2017 polls, he said, the party received a lot of complaints from members about management of nominations and internal affairs of the party, which must be corrected.

“ODM as we know is the most organised and well- structured democratic party at the moment. This is part of the reorganisation we want to do to enable the party to execute its mandate, including doing correct nominations,” Bosire said.

ODM secretary general Edwin Sifuna told the Star the reorganisation of the Secretariat has been ongoing as recommended by the taskforce report.

“The changes to the Secretariat were already adopted in Naivasha. Reorganisation is ongoing. We are implementing the taskforce report that called for reorganisation and revamping of the Secretariat,” Sifuna said on the phone.

“There are people whom we already let go, there are some departments that have been merged, others strengthened. You saw we advertised for an internal auditor, we have set up the Secretariat Management Board.”

The SG also said that being an election year for the party, some changes might also be expected at the NEC.

“NEC members are elected and this is an election year. Of course, you would expect that when elections are called, membership of the NEC might change as well,” he said.

In a sweeping housecleaning, Raila on Tuesday kicked out the party's largely discredited National Elections Board and overhauled the Disciplinary Committee to revamp the party for the General Elections.

In the overhaul at Orange House, Raila tapped former commissioner in the defunct Constitution Implementation Commission Catherine Mumma as the new NEB boss.

Raila fired the Judy Pareno-led Elections Board that had been accused of bungling party nominations, leading to ODM's poor showing in the 2017 General Election.

For regional balance, Raila appointed former Wajir South MP Abdulahi Diriye, Richard Tairo, Syntei Nchoe and Emily Awita.

On the disciplinary panel, which is supposed to ensure order among members, Raila brought on board people with wide-ranging legal, political and academic knowledge.

Prof Ben Sihanya, a former dean of the University of Nairobi Law School, took over from city lawyer Fred Athuok as chairman of the Disciplinary Committee.

The panel will have other new faces, including Ramadhani Abubakar, Mumbi Ng'aru, Seth Kakusye and Dr Florence Omosa.

Ng'aru is a member of the East African Legislative Assembly while Omosa is a member of the Building Bridges Taskforce.

An explosive audit report by a taskforce on elections for the party, chaired by Mumma, last year delivered a harsh verdict on the party organs and called for their restructuring.

Apart from NEB, the Secretariat is another vital organ found wanting. A raft of measures were recommended to strengthen it and seal loopholes that aided fraud.

The findings had heaped blame on the Oduor-Ong'wen led Secretariat for the shambolic primaries that have become emblematic of the Orange Party.

ODM has been fighting off the reputation for violence that has marred previous primaries and nominations as well as claims of corruption and favouritism.

In the 2017 elections, the party’s primaries, especially in its stronghold of Nyanza, were chaotic and many popular losers cried foul. They defected to other parties and won.

ODM still has pending court cases arising from the 2017 primaries and in most of the cases, NEB members issued certificates to different aspirants for the same seat.

The new elections board is expected to plan and conduct the party's much-awaited grassroots elections, which were suspended because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The ODM overhaul aims at preventing pitfalls that could damage his bid to succeed President Kenyatta.

Only last week, Murathe endorsed Raila as the best candidate to succeed the President.

“We think it’s time Kenyans rewarded the years of struggle of Raila Amollo Odinga. They owe it to him. It’s like Mandela, and 2022 will be a Mandela Moment. And we would also like to tell him (Raila) to be a transitional president who will then nurture the young generation to take over in 2027,” he said.

Murathe argued that Raila has struggled enough for the country and it is time his selfless sacrifice is rewarded.

The Jubilee official – believed to have the President's ear - compared Raila to Nelson Mandela who struggled to liberate South Africa and eventually was elected head of state.

Cotu boss Francis Atwoli too said Raila will be declared winner of the 2022 presidential election by 10am the next day. 

On Wednesday ODM national chairman John Mbadi denied any plans to reconstitute the party’s Secretariat in the near future.

“There are no such plans for now. The other offices (NEB and the Disciplinary Committee) were vacant as the term of the office holders had expired,” Mbadi said on the phone.

ODM Director of Elections and National Assembly Minority Whip Junet Mohamed also said the focus was on the two organs whose terms had expired.

“No, it is not going to affect the Secretariat. Those two committees were the only ones that were due for changes since the membership term had expired,” the Suna East MP said.

But sources maintained that the purge of the Secretariat is on and it is just a matter of time before a housecleaning is carried out in the organ responsible for day-to-day running of the party.