ODM MPs in Bid to Block Raila from 2017 Poll

[Ishmael]

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Some ODM leaders are planning to ask their leader Raila Odinga to consider backing someone else in 2017.The leaders, a dozen in number, include Senators and MPs and are led by Kitutu Chache South MP Richard Onyonka. They believe that the best way for Cord to defeat Jubilee is if Raila throws his [COLOR=#67B045 !important]support to another candidate.

[/COLOR]Of the 12 only Onyonka wishes to be named for now."ODM should allow other people a chance to contest the Presidency," said Onyonka.The leaders have had several secret meetings in Nairobi in the last two months to discuss the issue, but have not informed Raila yet."He has tried three times without success. There are people who have vowed to never vote for him, and, finally, the majority of voters today are young people who have no connection with the suffering he underwent at the [COLOR=#67B045 !important]hands of President Moi to bring about the Second Liberation.

[/COLOR]"We want to discuss with him these realities and make decisions before it is too late. We want to be in government in 2017," said a senior member of ODM and a close confidant of Raila.

The leaders told the Star [COLOR=#67B045 !important]yesterday that, in his enthusiasm, Raila has made too many enemies to be able to get the consensus among his peers that he needs to stand for President for a fourth time.

[/COLOR]Raila first stood for President in 1997 and then in 2007 and 2013. In the last two consecutive Presidential polls, he garnered a total of 9,693,406 votes.

An MP known to be close to Raila and a member of the caucus of a dozen said: "Raila likes to make decisions and has never sat on a fence in his life and some of these decisions have caused divisions.


One of the advantages Kibaki had in 2002 is that despite having been in government for so long, he had made the least number of enemies amongst the entire group of Presidential hopefuls."When you make decisions you tend to make enemies - that is a sad but true fact of life".

Yesterday Raila told the Star that it was too early for him or his party members to decide on the party's flag-bearer in 2017.

"It is too early for us to discuss this issue. It is a post-referendum issue. To discuss it now is to divert attention from the real and most urgent issues that Kenyans expect us to deal with," Raila told the Star on [COLOR=#67B045 !important]the phone from South Africa, where he is on a stop-over after an election observer mission in Mozambique.

[/COLOR]Speaking at a campaign rally in the Muliro Gardens, Kakamega, before the 2013 Presidential polls, Raila said although he was willing to support another candidate, he did not see anyone who, at the time, was able to replace him."I am ready to leave politics in the hands of people who know the problems that Kenyans are going through," said Raila.After he lost the elections last year the Jubilee leaders piled pressure on Raila to quit politics, but the former PM said he was glad to serve Kenyans in any capacity.

Jubilee MPs have also demanded that Raila and former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka quit politics as a condition for receiving their [COLOR=#67B045 !important]retirement [COLOR=#67B045 !important]packages[/COLOR].

[/COLOR]The Retirement Bill was cleared by National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, but Parliament’s Majority Leader, Adan Duale, vowed to block it until the two formally quit politics.In his home region of Nyanza, where Raila enjoys near-fanatical backing, his supporters are concerned about a string of harambees being presided over by Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero, while the latter's backers say the region needs a change.It is understood that Kidero is planning to take over Raila's Nyanza base before running for President in 2017.

"Luos must go back to government and we must make early preparations to actualise this dream," said Kidero at the weekend at a funeral in Kajulu, Kisumu county.

Nyakach MP Aduma Owuor however dismissed Kidero's bid to replace Raila as a pipe dream that will not be entertained."Kidero wants to inherit Raila's wife while Raila is still alive. He will never be entertained," Aduma declared.

Last week at a fundraiser in Homa Bay County, Onyonka urged Dr Kidero to vie for the top seat at the next General Election.Onyonka’s statement was criticised by some ODM MPs, who described it as an act of disrespect to Raila, the region’s political supremo for nearly two decades. - The Star