The palace coup in Kakamega county ODM branch office that purported to have ousted Deputy Governor Philip Kutima as chairman has elicited anxiety, with the party’s national electoral committee describing it as a total contravention of the party’s rules and regulations enshrined in its own constitution. In a circular, the NEC has emphatically stated that the changes said to have taken place in Kakamega ODM county office did not only fail to conform to the law but also failed to follow the party’s procedures as ascribed in its constitution.
Philip Kutima
The contested ouster of Kutima took a new dimension after a section of his supporters went viral on local TV and Radio stations, castigating the move by Shinyalu MP Justus Kizito and his cronies as driven by their own personal self-aggrandisement in a bid to align themselves with a candidate supported by outgoing Governor Wycliffe Oparanya in order for the Shinyalu MP to land the position of deputy governor currently held by the distinguished scholar Kutima.
Justus Kizito
It has since emerged that the architect of the current hullabaloo in the ODM county office is none other than Oparanya, who leaves office at the end of his two term tenure of 10 years in office next year. Sources say Oparanya has engaged his key lieutenants in Kakamega county politics to tame his deputy whom he is said to fear that should he take the mantle from him as the governor of The Green Jewel (ostensibly referred to as the weeping stone and locally as Ikhongo Murwi), then Kutima is likely to spill the beans of Oparanya’s misdemeanors while in office as the county’s pioneer governor where billions of shillings are said to have gone down the drain.
Wycliffe Oparanya
At the onset, Oparanya is said to be fronting another face from his backyard in Butere, Mumias where a recent public outcry over his administration as governor was put on the spotlight, forcing him to visit the sub-county to appease the locals who had accused him of abandoning them and for fighting his deputy. Then came the issue of the infrastructures in the superb road network constructions that Kakamega town has witnessed from a village town to an emerging ultramodern town that has recently changed its face.
Elsie Muhanda
Oparanya’s critics aver that the development projects in Kakamega have been on the ice and were only implemented during his tenure as they were purely World Bank projects that he cannot take credit of. Back on the perceived ouster of Kutima, his sympathisers say that Oparanya, being the politician he is known of, with his high level underground machinations especially during his heydays as an official of AFC Leopards from where he politically matured to become a cabinet minister in Mwai Kibaki’s grand government with ODM leader Raila Odinga as his party leader, he is out to derail anyone on his warpath to leave a legacy.
Naomi Shiyonga
Oparanya, sources say, is determined to block Kutima from succeeding him so as not to open the can of worms that would uncover his maladministration while in office. Politician-cum-county chief and Oparanya’s point-man Nabii Nabwera, Kakamega county women representative, Elsie Muhanda, who is a shrewd politician, nominated ODM MP Naomi Shiyonga, courtesy of Oparanya and ODM youth leader Moffat Mandela are said to be part of a galaxy of ODM county players paraded by Oparanya to scuttle Prof Kutima from ascending to power at the Junction Building on Kenyatta Avenue in Kakamega town.
Ayub Savula
By staging the coup, it is said that the move was to demystify the notion that a section of local communities were being sidelined, thus the inclusion of Kizito from Shinyalu to wage a war against the DG. First, there is Lugari MP Ayub Savula factor of Musalia Mudavadi’s ANC who has been shuttling the county in a convoy of vehicles christened Team Savula sending chills down the spine of many in what is likely to be an explosive campaign trail for the governor’s seat as Oparanya calls it a day. Others who have declared their interest in the coveted seat include Kizito but with the changing matrix, he may opt to vie alongside with Fernandes Barasa.
Fernandes Barasa
Then there is former senator Bonnie Khalwale, who voters accuse of digging his own political graveyard by refusing to heed their call to defend his seat as senator by opting to challenge Oparanya where he lost. There is an array of other upcoming politicians who though they have not publicly declared their interest, they are waiting on the wings when the opportune time will arise to come public. Kakamega county is made of the following constituencies; Shinyalu, Navakholo, Mumias East, Mumias West, Matungu, Malava, Lurambi, Lugari, Likuyani, Khwisero, Ikolomani and Butere, the bastion of governor Oparanya.
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