ODM is moving on swiftly: from the fifth failure of its leader Raila Odinga to win the presidency on August 9. That is expected. It is the sensible thing to do.
But the Orange party is also moving on from Azimio, the jumbo coalition of former ruling party Jubilee and two-dozen other parties whose flag bearer Raila and running mate Martha Karua flew.
Why are we using so many words to state the obvious? Azimio is dead.
This is the inescapable conclusion you reach upon reading the Star’s Monday splash headlined, “Azimio fallout: Why ODM is unapologetic”.
Last week, Azimio partners accused ODM of grabbing key parliamentary positions reserved for the opposition, leaving the others empty-handed and “triggering bitter wrangles that threaten to spiral into an ugly fallout”.
Retired President Uhuru Kenyatta’s party, Jubilee, and Kanu of Gideon Moi have vowed to ditch Azimio.
After the shellacking at the ballot by President Ruto and Kenya Kwanza, the Uhuru-Raila coalition has been hit by intractable internal wrangles over the crumbs left for the opposition.
Everyone is talking at each other as the chances of post-defeat healing and working together again diminish.
Star political reporter Julius Otieno went digging into this story. And what did he find? ODM doesn’t give a hoot about what happens to Azimio.
“The Star has, however, established that some ODM officials and members hold that they have nothing to lose even if their coalition disintegrates,” Otieno reports.
Makes sense, doesn’t it? The ODM presidential candidate lost on August 9 under the Azimio flag.
What could be worse? Moreover, that loss sparked a bitter blame game within Azimio, exposing the soft underbelly of a coalition that was, for all intents and purposes, a marriage of convenience, not a conviction.
An unnamed vocal ODM legislator disclosed that “Baba will never run for president again”. In other words, Raila’s party seems to have given up on State House.
A senior party insider said there was little chance of ODM fielding a candidate for president as strong as Raila in the next election.
The conclusion? Everyone is trying to grab whatever they can and run from what in all probability is a crumbling house.
All this is happening at a time President Ruto is intensifying his behind-the-scenes schemes to pull to his side whatever remains of Raila’s strongholds.
The death of Azimio looks like a foregone conclusion.
