It's a storm in a teacup. Senate Minority leader James Orengo is over-reacting.
On Monday Narok Senator Ledama Olekina was elected chairman of the Senate Public Accounts committee defeating ODM's preferred candidate, Kisii Senator Prof Sam Ongeri, by five votes to four.
This has been presented as a triumph for the Senate allies of Deputy President William Ruto even though Olekina protests that he is still an ODM man and a faithful follower of the party leader Raila Odinga.
Basically three senators loyal to Ruto made a deal with Olekina to fix Raila by ensuring that his choice Orengo did not become chairman. No big deal! This was just political manoeuvring. It's embarrassing for ODM but not a disaster.
But Orengo is presenting this tactical coup as an abuse of the electoral process. He has written to Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka threatening to pull the ODM senators out of the committee unless the election is repeated.
Orengo should just accept that he was outsmarted and resolve to be more cunning next time around. This was not a failure of democracy, it was a failure of ODM.
Quote of the day: "Be a philosopher but, amid all your philosophy, be still a man."
David Hume
The Scottish philosopher was born on May 7, 1711
