Sources close to former Prime Minister Raila Odinga have intimated to us that Baba was so shocked after the two heavy defeats in Ugenya and Embakasi by-elections that he went on a serious drinking spree to drown in his stories.
Before the elections, Raila had visited Embakasi South asking Wananchi to vote for ODM’s Irshad Sumra. He had also asked the people of Ugenya not to embarrass him by voting for another candidate.
But his candidates received a thorough thrashing with Sumra losing by more than 10k votes to Wiper’s Julius Mawathe.
So shocked by the humiliating thrashing was Raila that his insiders say that after the defeat, Raila took the initiative to call those mandated to oversee the by-elections, asking what went wrong.
One of those called was the Party’s director of Elections Junet Mohammed.
A section in the party is blaming Orengo for imposing the unpopular ODM candidate in the name of Chris Karan instead of the winner David Ochieng. Ochieng worked at Orengo’s law firm but they parted ways in unclear circumstances.
For now, with the two defeats having split ODM down the line, how Raila will handle the matter is set to be seen.
To make matters worse for Raila, the losses are making people ask whether ODM is a popular party that can go on its own and win without other Nasa related parties on board.
With the defeat of ODM in the two constituencies, fear now is that the party is likely to be defeated in a by-election set for in North Eastern and to an extent, in Malindi if Aisha Jumwa’s expulsion from the party leads to a by-election.