ODM lost home and away, Gor Mahia the husband of teams was humbled at Kasarani, while Arsenal bitterly lost to Everton in Liverpool.
I can confidently say that it has not been a good weekend for Raila Odinga. Suffering three successive defeats is not a joke, especially at this time when everyone is so conscious about depression.
After losing the Ugenya and Embakasi South by-elections, everyone has become a political analyst and is writing Baba’s political eulogy.
Yes, it is true that Raila lost bitterly despite asking the people of Ugenya not to embarrass him. But do you know even Ruto’s MCA in Sugoi is not a Jubilee party member? Even his MP is not team Tanga Tanga.
Raila is not a god, he has lost several seats before and will loss even more but that does not take away the fact that he is an enigma of Kenyan Politics. And he is not going to go away.
We must ask ourselves why ODM lost in the two by-elections. In Embakasi South, Sumra had lost the elections to Julius Mawathe in 2017. Sumra is a political conman and cartel who converted a bus bought by CDF funds into a Matatu.
Basically, the People of Embakasi did not reject ODM but they reject Sumra. Things would be different if ODM fielded another candidate.
The same thing happened in Ugenya, where cartels at ODM kicked out David Ochieng in the runner up to the 2017 elections. Ochieng had won the elections on an ODM ticket in 2017.
ODM’s problems have been compounded with some party cartels auctioning nomination tickets to the highest bidder. This happened Ugenya and Embakasi South and the Party paid dearly.
The party can now learn from its mistakes and rectify accordingly. There is no need for alarm and the loss does not reflect the popularity of ODM.
Raila is still the most powerful politician in Kenya.