Wiper Secretary General Senator Hassan Omar appears to have fallen out of favour with top Wiper Party leadership according to several sources. The Mombsa Senator is now being rumored to be headed to Jubilee though details of the new development remain sketchy and scattered and highly unlikely.
Several sources have told this writer that the decision by Wiper Party Leader to install former Speaker Farah Maalim as Wiper Deputy Party Leader caught Omar by surprise despite being the party’s Secretary General. Also, the naming of NASA technical committee saw Omar conspicuously sidelined as Wiper picked Johnstone Muthama, Francis Nyenze and Farah Maalim.
Those close to Senator Omar paint a picture of an unforgiving politician, especially when deliberately sidestepped in decision-making.
Jubilee, facing its own crisis of pacifying Mombasa, and aware of the low ratings of their current candidates Suleiman Shabhal and Anania Mwaboza, is said to have approached Omar with an offer.
Jubilee is dangling the Mombasa County ticket for Omar, with the backing of the state machinery. The fact that Wiper did not include Omar as part of its representatives in the NASA technical team has made matters worse.
While political power in coalition arrangements rests with those in the negotiating table, Omar’s exclusion from the NASA negotiating team deeply hurt him, and our source claim he confronted Wiper Leader Kalonzo Musyoka to know why he was sidestepped, considering almost all the other parties confided in their chief secretaries.
ODM named Dr. Agnes Zani, Hon. Timothy Bosire and Senator James Orengo in the team. Dr Zani is the Secretary General of ODM while Timothy Bosire is the ODM’s national treasurer. Musila Mudavadi’s ANC named former minister Kipruto Arap Kirwa and Sakwa Bunyasi, a serving MP while Ford Kenya named Dr. Eseli Simiyu, Dr. Chris Wamalwa and Dr. Boni Khalwale.
Omar’s woes however goes deeper. Facing an opponent in the name of ODM’s Deputy Party Leader Ali Hassan Joho, Omar has used Wiper platforms to attack the ODM politician, a move that top Wiper Leaders are opposed to particularly Machakos Senator Johnstone Muthama.
In the broader NASA arrangement, Joho also seems to have cordial relationship with ANC Leader Musalia Mudavadi and Ford Kenya Leader Moses Wetangula, both who are not fielding candidates against in the Mombasa gubernatorial race.
Whatever happens, Senator Omar is a politician to watch though pundits concur the decision he makes ahead of August will either make or break him.
