After successfully defending his party’s seat in the by-election and stamping his authority in Kibra constituency, Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Party leader deserves not a smile, says political analyst Herman Manyora.
In his weekly YouTube episode uploaded on Friday, Manyora argues that Raila’s victory in the hotly contested by-election comes with a stark reminder that the ODM leader is purely to blame over vote-rigging allegations that have pitted his three consecutive bids for the presidential seat.
According to Manyora, ODM’s management of Kibra by-election was a classic case of how the former prime minister ought to have guarded his votes during the presidential elections.
“Baba (Raila), if you had police marked your votes in polling stations in this country in 2013, the 8,000 votes that Uhuru got to escape a re-run, you would have been a president 2013. And so is 2017.
Kibra victory must have told you that… If you listened to those who told you to have agents throughout the country you will be president today,” said Manyora.
The political commentator added that the Kibra mini-poll was a wake poll to the ODM leader to chart a new way forward if interested in leading the country in future.
However, Manyora congratulated the ODM leader of beating the odds to ensure that his candidate wins the seat and Kibra remains his political bedrock.
Manyora’s remarks comes barely a day after the ODM candidate Bernard Imran Okoth was declared the winner of the Kibra by-election that from the onset gained ‘national’ status after political heavyweights in the country stormed the constituency to campaign for their candidates.
ODM initiated a spirited campaign coupled with a hard-hitting strategy that left rivals with no option but to concede defeat even before the final tally was announced by the IEBC.
A number of ODM MPs were deployed as agents in various polling stations ostensibly perceived to be a threat to the transparency of the polls as the party’s top brass leadership combed through the constituency to ensure everything went out smoothly.
The outcome of the strategy resulted in the ODM party announcing almost similar outcomes of the by-election to that of the IEBC.
Save for the pockets of violence witnessed during the voting exercise, both Jubilee and ODM among other participants expressed satisfaction with the manner in which the election was conducted.
Here is Manyora’s Remarks: