Unseen hand of Raila, Uhuru in Onyango Oloo woes – Weekly Citizen

Fresh details indicate how Raila Odinga secretly gave a nod to a plot that led to the unceremonious ouster of besieged former Kisumu county assembly speaker Onyango Oloo.
Weekly Citizen is informed that Uhuru Kenyatta is equally happy with the latest development where political tables have sharply turned against the abrasive former Jubilee party secretary general who left the president at the hour of need in 2017 for Raila’s Orange Democratic Movement.
The surprise shift of political base by former Raila’s fierce critic caused an instant frenzy within Jubilee Party and mixed reactions at ODM where a section of party officials and followers remained skeptical of the move, more so, when he trained his eyes on Kisumu Central constituency seat.
By that time, Oloo who had been Uhuru’s pointman in Nyanza boasted that he was armed with secrets regarding Jubilee operations and by extension, on how to win elections by monitoring and acting on rigging loopholes and that is how his past sins against Raila were temporarily forgiven.
What Uhuru has not forgiven Oloo about is when he sensationally claimed the head of state did not win the 2013 general election but rigged his way to power, a classic case of pure betrayal from a man who was trusted with TNA sensitive affairs.
“It was very easy to steal votes in areas where ODM was not active,” Oloo said, to the chagrin of ODM followers at Jomo Kenyatta Sports ground where Raila was addressing a rally.
When he eventually lost the Kisumu Central constituency seat to former Central Gem MCA Fred Outa, all was not lost for the former TNA secretary general who was voted in as speaker for Kisumu county.
It was a high moment for him after he got 32 votes against lawyer Kenneth Omondi who was his closet rival with 11 votes, while the then Speaker Anne Adul came a distant third with five votes.
But it has emerged that the rain started beating Oloo immediately he assumed the lucrative office, with talk that he embarked on intimidation blended with divide-and-rule tactics to stay at the helm of the assembly.
He stepped on several toes ranging from the top officials at the executive wing, MCAs and contractors to political powerbrokers who eventually ganged up to strip him of the position just two years into the office.
Kisumu governor Anyang Nyong’o was not seeing eye-to-eye with Oloo by the time of the ouster on grounds that Oloo had taken advantage of his powerful office to frustrate some of the recommendations made by the executive wing.

Oloo

The bad blood between Governor Nyong’o and Oloo was enough reason that the speaker was a marked man since Raila pointedly relies on Nyong’o in the new era where a range of changes are taking place at the lakeside city courtesy of the handshake deal.
Nyong’o reportedly has direct orders from Raila to be in full charge and ensure that his office thoroughly facilitates every development opportunity in Kisumu city regarded as the Nyanza hotbed of socio-political activities.
This explains why no single leader from the region even attempted to cough in defence of traders whose structures were demolished in the rebirth of Kisumu city rendering thousands jobless.
The exercise went on smoothly despite the fact that some of the perceived Raila allies paid heavy price when Railways moved to demolish business premises and recover houses and lands.
Notably, former Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo and Kisumu senator Fred Outa were heavily affected by the demolition that brought down Midiwo’s upmarket bar, TLC and Outa’s Roan Club.
Back to Oloo and his troubles, his enemies quickly regrouped on a mission to have him blocked from presiding over activities at the county assembly when the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission squad first knocked at his door over Sh4.2 billion Lake Basin Development Authority mall scandal.

Nyongo

The troubled speaker who had apparently gotten wind of his pending arrest briefly went into hiding in Mombasa before he presented himself to Central Police Station in Mombasa after intensive consultations with his legal team.
He even managed to pay some of the Kisumu MCAs with him in Mombasa to show solidarity with him at the police station with little knowledge that the same MCAs would later be part of the team that agitated for his ouster.
It came to dawn on him that the suspension of three MCAs during his tenure was also part of the things that were haunting him. According to Kolwa East MCA Steve Owiti, Oloo was a dishonest man who applied intimidation to get away with a slew of illegalities in discharge of House affairs.
Things later turned dramatic at Kisumu county headquarters as MCAs and members of the public allied to Oloo and those opposed to him engaged the police in running battles as Oloo attempted to force his way into the assembly.
The climax of the drama was when the embattled speaker in a shouting match frantically invoked the names of Raila and Uhuru but his critics countered by telling him that his ouster was approved by Raila.