Funyula MP Hon Paul Otuoma has reiterated he is in ODM to stay. Hon Otuoma said he only relinquished the post of Vice chairman after seeing unease from fellow leaders from Western Kenya counties but would solidly stay put.
Hon Otuoma is said to have met the ODM leader at a Nairobi hotel where he re-affirmed his commitment to the party and even offered to lead other officials from Busia county in preparing for next week’s rallies .
Elsewhere, Hon Otuoma called on top ODM leadership to consider issues raised by Western Kenya MPs and also embrace dialogue. He was speaking in Busia County ahead of Cord leader Raila Odinga’s visit aimed at consolidating Raila support after disgruntled Secretary General and Budalangi MP Ababu Namwamba announced he had resigned.
“If we’ve differences as ODM family, some people should stop threatening us, telling us to leave ODM. We are the party,” he said, while addressing residents in Bumula, Busia County as part of the preparation for Raila’s visit next week.
“In case we leave ODM, I am telling them we will leave with the party with almost the whole of western. Busia (County) is second to Homa Bay when it comes to loyal support of the party. We need respect,” he said.
He said the underhand dealings in ODM and reluctance to embrace dialogue and consultation is the reason Busia has only three MPS.
“In Butula constituency, we lost the seat to Federal Party of Kenya due to poor nomination, our former chair, (John Sakwa) Bunyasi, the current MP for Nambale joined ANC, Teso North MP was our treasurer — they all left due to rigid policies and favouritism by the party leader,” he said.
Raila’s visit has sent Ababu into panic making him lie on national TV that the former PM had not visited Budalangi in 9 years while in own Facebook page is full of pictures of himself (Ababu) hosting the CORD leader in Budalangi less than two years ago in 2014.
