While it is good to hear that ODM has finally decided to conduct grassroot elections, one hopes the leadership has learned its lessons and that the party’s democratic credentials have finally matured.
The party has had many similar declarations but all fell through for reasons that range from negative ethnicity to dark forces such as retrogressive acts of the so-called Men in Black.
With the latest announcement, ODM is attempting to do what has proved to be a herculean task in the past. Only that this time, this necessary but tricky exercise is being undertaken with Raila Odinga’s planned exit from the political scene as he pursues the AU Commission chairman job.
Will it be different this time? Can ODM pull it off and emerge stronger this time around, especially with Raila’s planned exit? Yes and no.
Yes. ODM must stick to the tenets of democracy. It will be necessary for the party to publish elections rules, establish committees to run the polls and a dispute resolution team in line with democratic ideals.
The rules should be transparent and applicable to all participants while the committees should enforce the rules fairly.
These institutions should strictly enforce rules and ensure a level playing field for all candidates. Similarly, the poll should be open to all eligible candidates.
Major positions should be distributed evenly across the party to promote diversity and a sense of ownership.
Affirmative action should be in play so youths, women and people with disability get an opportunity to participate.
The business of insisting that certain positions are a preserve of certain individuals or regions must not be entertained if ODM has to get the people with the drive and capacity to lead the party into the future.
In other words, there is no party or region that should be more ODM than the others.
And No. Alego Usonga MP Atandi (Samuel) is the epitome of this negative ethnicity when he says that party leadership should be the preserve of Luo Nyanza.
If the party chooses to take this parochialism to the polls, it is safe to conclude that ODM will have no future.
Research and policy expert spoke to the Star
