A lot has been said about the performance of a young and ambitious boy who gave ODM a run for their money in the Migori County Senatorial By-Elections.
Eddy Gicheru Oketch emerged second with 60,555 votes after ODM’s Ochillo Ayacko who won with 85,234 votes. The Federal Party of Kenya candidate wowed many supporters with his campaign which was anchored on peace and development as the key to development.
But as ODM celebrate the win, of a post, whose predecessor Ben Oluoch was also a member of the party, the big question is what lessons has the party learned from these elections.
It has not escaped our attention that the party used under hand dealings and crude means in rallying support for Ayacko, who lost last year’s gubernatorial elections.
You see when ODM is afraid of you, they first brand you a Jubilee mole. This often works for their supporters who have been conditioned to believe that Jubilee is their number one enemy.
But now because they have joined the ruling party since the infamous handshake between Raila and his brother Uhuru Kenyatta, the party decided to brand Eddy, a William Ruto mole.
These were baseless accusations, which had no grounds but which they successfully sold to Migori County Voters. I wonder why such a giant political party would stoop so low especially, when campaigning for a candidate in their stronghold and against a young political toddler in his twenties.
But that’s what happens when you force a candidate on the electorate. Last week, the whole of ODM was in Migori for two days. Raila Odinga led the campaigns for Ayacko.
Raila told voters not to be swayed “by newcomers to politics with nothing much to offer in terms of leadership.”
ODM Chairman John Mbadi even accused Oketch of trying to dare Raila to a contest.
“This young boy is trying to dare Mr Odinga to a contest. He should know that Raila is never dared because he plays his politics in the top league,” he said.
The whole of ODM leadership were also on the ground on Monday during the voting process, apparently to woo voters or to say it bluntly bribe them.
Despite all these, Oketch still managed more than 60k votes, which from a neutral point of view should tell ODM that something is wrong with their party.
According to IEBC, only 28% of people turned out to vote. This can mean that majority of the populace are not happy with the Party’s decision to hand Ayacko, a man they rejected in the gubernatorial election, a direct ticket. The people therefore chose to stay away from the polling stations.
But we all know, the party will not go back to the drawing board because they have achieved their intentions. As this happens, Wananchi will continue to drift away. ODM had the Parliament majority in 2007 elections. They repeated the same fate in 2013.
But things did not go down well in 2017, especially after nominations that were married with controversies. They lost sits that, they were not supposed to lose like, the Nyali Constituency Post which went to Moha Jicho Pevu, an independent candidate.
Recently, we have seen a substantial number of coast MPs shifting their allegiance to Deputy President William Ruto’s camp. We also know that the party will struggle to retain the Kakamega and Busia gubernatorial posts in 2022.
But going by what happened in Migori on Monday, ODM could be losing ground on its backyard. The Luo Nation.