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How Magara duped ODM leaders before jumping ship

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Published on Tuesday, 04 May 2010 21:19

The move by former Assistant Minister Omingo Magara to dump ODM for little known People’s Democratic Party (PDP) must have surprised the ODM fraternity, but observers feel it was coming.

Magara on Friday pulled a fast one on ODM, resigning as national treasurer and declaring to defend his seat on PDP ticket in the up-coming by-election, but not without portraying the Orange party as made up of ‘cannibals’.

"Personal interests and political expediency have overrode the democratic ideals of inclusiveness which formed the bedrock of ODM," he noted.

Head of Political Science at the University of Nairobi Philip Nying’iro said Magara’s utterances had over time shown he was not in ODM.

"What he has demonstrated is that we lack political parties that can stir the country on the path of democracy. What he has done can be done by any other politician in any of the parties we have," said Prof Nying’iro.

He observed the former MP must have been bitter when he did not get a full ministerial post, despite having been one of the top party officials.

All along, the party leadership had assumed a ‘politically desperate’ Magara was to seek ODM nomination despite being denied a direct ticket.

Lawyer Harun Ndubi argued the former Assistant minister must have read the mood and foreseen a possible humiliation in ODM, and that before his official departure, his heart and mind was already in PDP.

"There is no legal technicality that will stop Magara from contesting the South Mugirango seat on the PDP ticket," added Ndubi.

He said Magara had last year shown he had no faith in ODM, when he told his constituents in the company of Higher Education Minister William Ruto that PDP was the party to watch.

Nying’iro said one factor that may work in his favour is that politics in Kisii is not party based.

"If economic ability and clanism favour him, he can retain the seat," argued Nying’iro.

As political parties prepare their candidates for the June 10 by-election, all eyes are on ODM, which faces a daunting task of nominating the right candidate in a crowded field.

Six candidates met ODM nomination requirements by last Sunday deadline.

Former school principal Ibrahim Ochoi, engineer Gideon Moreka, former Gucha South Knut branch treasurer Zebedeo Nyaboga, university lecturer Kepher Marube, educationist Henry Nyabuto and David Okachi were cleared to contest the primaries.

While announcing his move to bolt out of ODM on Friday, Magara indicated he had reached the decision after serious consultations.

"Just after I had lost the seat, I declared to contest the seat on ODM ticket as a member of the party top brass. I was willing to face opponents on the party ticket but some leaders were bent to fix me," he said.

Magara said he quit the party because there was every indication some party officials had cast the die to finish him politically.

His critics, however, say his problems are of his own making and that he should not shift blame.

"The problem with Magara is that he always operates on two political lanes. It becomes difficult to trust him as a leader," said a Kisii ODM politician, who did not want to be named.

But some ODM aspirants share Magara’s fears. They say the nominations may be a mock exercise to endorse a preferred candidate.

About 170 ODM delegates, who met at Nduru High School last week, accused the elections board of rubbishing party structures in South Mugirango and making unilateral decisions from the headquarters.

"We are disappointed by the actions taken on party activities with regard to primaries ahead of the by-election. The board’s decision is biased, non-consultative and undemocratic," said ODM branch chairman Charles Ondienga.

Ondienga faulted the board’s assertion that there are no valid registers or organised branch officials in the constituency.

The move by Magara to decamp from ODM came as he lost an appeal to have the High Court ruling that nullified his election as South Mugirango MP annulled.

The Bomachoge by-election campaigns last year might have worked to heighten perceptions that he was either loosening his ties with the ODM or gravitating towards Ruto.

Although ODM wrested the seat from Party of National Unity, Magara failed party loyalty test and has ran into political headwinds.

On the day Prime Minister Raila Odinga was campaigning for ODM candidate in Bamachoge last year, Magara was hosting 21 MPs, including Ruto, at a fundraising a few kilometres away.

What caught the attention of many ODM members was when he ‘paraded’ officials of PDP and indicated it was the party to watch.

It remains to be seen whether his close allies, rebel ODM MPs led by Ruto, will troop to South Mugirango to campaign for him against an ODM onslaught.