By CMD
Right Hon. Raila Odinga was supposed to be the Chief Guest in Kisumu County Devolution Torch ceremony where Governor Ranguma was supposed to be handed Devolution Torch by Meru Governor Peter Munya. However, he evaded the event due to tenable reasons ;
First, the entire conception of Devolution Torch had been watered down by the leadership of Kisumu. Their idea was to turn a noble event meant for residents to assess, celebrate, appreciate, critique and take stock of the achievements for the last four years into a Political event meant for Governor Ranguma to launch his reelection bid.
They wanted to use Raila’s presence as an endorsement giving them an opportunity to rubberstamp their authority thereafter. True to the anticipation of majority , Governor Ranguma used the event to assert himself as the only leader in Kisumu who can take Kisumu Miles ahead.
Secondly, Branding government vehicles using Raila’s image together with his image without seeking the consent of Jakom was wrong, it’s like setting him against the people of Kisumu and giving Jubilee mandarins a fodder to to attack him. The intention of Governor Ranguma’s anti- Raila cabal was to use the branded vehicles to pick him from the airport , taking him around town before venue of the event. The flawed tendering process the branded vehicles is still questioned, their inflated prices, those involved and why the cartel had to deny company A to B despite having awarded the tender to A.
In short, they wanted to drag Raila’s name into a known county scandal, the intention was to sanitize Ranguma’s leadership but then Jubilee was to hit on Raila for being involved in misuse of county resources. It should be remembered that Mama Ida was recently invited to grace the launch of a 17.5 Million Dairy Project, the project turned out to be scandalous. Raila was well advised to evade that mediocre trap.
Jakom has been part of Government, He has done great things for this country. He knows that a transformative servant of the people doesn’t have to abuse county properties to flaunt minute achievements, he knows that if someone has a legacy it will definitely speak for itself instead of being forced down the throats of people, that a servant leadership is people driven not leader driven.
If Ranguma wanted his leadership trumpet to be blown then it should have come from the people of Kisumu County not himself. His decision to brand county vehicles to showcase his meager achievements is a testimony he is well aware he hasn’t done much to attract peoples attention.
Even President Uhuru who is the Commander In Chief and king of PR in Kenya has never branded a single Government vehicle to showcase his pathetic track record. Devolution wasn’t meant to create small gods in counties, it was meant to enhance equalization through servant leadership.
Lastly, Raila Odinga is abreast with the challenges facing Kisumu People , their concerns and their broad take on Governor Ranguma’s leadership. He knows that his performance has been below the expectation of many people. Thus evading the event was choosing to be with Majority of the residents.
He used his foreknowledge to make a Popular decision which turned out to be the most unpalatable to Ranguma’s cabal, some of whom were heard throwing tantrums and cursing his decision in public.As usual , some leaders were blamed for misadvising Jakom but the same people portioning blame wanted to use him to achieve their selfish agenda without thinking about it collectively.
They thought they had managed to convince Raila to their slaughter house only for them to end up with rotten eggs on their faces.
To save themselves from the glaring and inevitable embarrassment, the organizers rushed to Tom Mboya Labour college, pleaded with Mama Ida Odinga to grace their event together with other guests who were attending the ODM Women’s Convention. ODM Chairman John Mbadi and ODM Eexecutive Director Oduor Ongwen were among the guests attending the ODM event. Only 2 Governors out of the expected 46 turned up for the event.
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