Exposed: The rot in Raila’s ODM that no one has been talking about

Do you think ODM can survive with the absence of its party leader Raila Odinga? According to the latest party’s internal report, the party over depends on Raila.

The report also concludes that in Raila’s absence, the party will really crumble.

But who is to blame for ODM’s diminishing fortunes? Well, the report has heaped blame on the Secretariat and two other organs of the party.

The report says that ODM is too dependent on party boss Raila Odinga and concludes that in his absence the outfit will quickly crumble.

The report describes what many party insiders call a moment of truth for the party, which until the 2017 polls was the country’s single biggest political outfit.

It accuses the ODM Secretariat, the National Executive Committee and National Elections Board of running down the party by bungling primaries.

The consequence of the bungled polls, the report states, caused mass walkouts of both supporters and aspirants, leaving ODM weakened.

The Secretariat is headed by executive director Oduor Ong’wen; Nominated Senator Judy Pareno chairs the party’s NEB.

National chairman John Mbadi chairs the NEC.

“ODM party primaries have been described as the party’s biggest vice. Party elections are thought to lack credibility and do not meet the standard of being free, fair and democratic,” the report read.

“The party structures, especially the NEC, NEB and the Secretariat, have been blamed for conducting their business in a manner that is not transparent and accountable and [they] are thought to be in the business of deliberately staging for the chaotic and violent elections as a way of facilitating favourites to end up as nominees of ODM for the general elections.”

The ODM Secretariat,  according to the report, is completely out of touch with the grassroots membership and only relies on ‘figureheads’ to obtain grassroots intelligence.

“Grassroots party programmes are non-existent, especially outside the election season. ODM’s popularity at the grassroots is not backed with activities unless there is an election,” the report states.

Interestingly, both Ong’wen and Pareno have been named to the three-person team to oversee implementation of the report that indicts their offices.

The internal report of the five-member team chaired by Catherine Mumma called over-reliance on Raila “a big problem”.

The team includes members Lawrence Gumbe, Mumbo Gunda and Irshad Sumra.

The team formed last year was mandated to dig deep and provide a candid  review of the 2017 election cycle and review the party’s performance in the 2007, 2013 and 2017 polls.

Of 350 respondents interviewed, 80 per cent told the task force that nominations were poorly done and poll officials were bribed to dish out tickets.

Another 60 per cent of the respondents said the violence that typically characterises ODM polls is caused by biased NEB officials giving tickets to the highest bidders.

The respondents were drawn from Busia, Bungoma, Kisumu, Homa Bay, Kakamega, Migori, Mombasa, Kwale Tana River, Nairobi, Kiambu, Nyeri and Siaya counties.

The report blamed ODM’s declining numbers in both houses of Parliament on the chaotic and violent party election processes.

ODM had 100 members of the National Assembly in 2007, 78 in 2013 and 58 after the 2017 General election.

Last month, the party lost both the  Ugenya and Wajir West by-elections, reducing its numbers to 56.

The decline has been steady across all the board.

In 2013 ODM had 16 governors, after the 2017 polls it had only 13. The number of woman representatives declined from 15 in 2013 to 11 today.

In 2013 MCAs numbered 382; the number is 333 today.

The only increase was amongst elected senators, from 11 of 47 in 2013, to 13 of 47 in 2017, the report said.

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