Mbita MP Hon Millie Mabona
By Onyango Ben
I have been reading the exchanges between Hon Millie Mabona on one hand, and Hon Gladys Wanga on the other hand regarding the alleged preregging of the ODM Mbita parliamentary elections.
The charge brought forward by Hon Mabona, with all due respect, is total rubbish and sign of predictable panic. Although Hon Mabona is a lawyer, she adduces no evidence to prove Hon Wanga has “interferred and tampered with ballots” in Mbita.
As the movement’s blue eyed ‘boy’ in years past, Mabona squandered plenty of political opportunities after being mentored into a national politician by none other than the Rt. Hon Raila Odinga. Pride and power clouded Mabona judgement to the point where Hon Mabona could stand in public and openly challenge the authority of Hon. Odinga. This was politically suicidal. From then on, like her bossom friend Ababu Namwamba, her political fortunes started shuttling downwards. She cannot blame anyone but her poor sense of judgement.
With the ODM nominations for Homa Bay County fast approaching, the Hon Millie Mabona has no guarantee than she will win the ODM ticket and is starting to chase the wind and clutch at straws. Of course, she is also seeing Hon Wanga’s ghost! ODM supporters are focused on Raila Odinga securing the NASA presidential ticket but the egoistic Mabona is diverting national attention to Mbita with the intention to have the entire Homa Bay County to revolving around her.
Unfortunately, she is targetting the very person who inherited her place in larger scheme of things in ODM; that is the Hon Glady Wanga. If there was any legislator who has won the admiration of ODM supporters countrywide, it is Hon. Gladys Wanga. Like Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho, Hon. Wanga has been able to navigate coalition politics, serve her people relentlessly and at the same time remain fiercely loyal to ODM and the Rt. Hon. Odinga.
For this, she has won the confidence of Hon Odinga and Mama Ida, both of whom are now mentoring her for bigger community and political roles in the future. Mindlful of these developments, and being that it is a position she once occupied, but did not appreciate nor respect.
Wanga is the County Women rep for Homa Bay and has every right bestowed on her by her office to traverse the entire county without consulting local MPs. She is an MP herself. The demand by Mabona that Wanga “keeps off” Mbita flies in the face of Wanga’s constitutional mandate.
Today, Wanga is brushing shoulders with Joho and the rest of the people who accompany Raila on his county tours by chance. She has shown she can play in both the national and county leagues.
Hon Wanga currently holds a direct ODM ticket and just waiting for anyone or any party craxy enough to field a candidate again her in August 2017. She did not award herself the direct ticket. She did not bribe anyone to get this ticket. She earned it.
If I were Hon Mabona, I would make friends with Hon Wanga and welcome her to Mbita both informally and formally. Either way, she comes with immense benefit for any MP in Homa Bay. ODM MPs are expected to be united for it is that unity that gives Raila a stronger voice at the NASA table.
The alternative means Hon Mabona will die a political death wallowing in the muck of peer envy.
The writer is a registered voter in Mbita Constituency
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