Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Party leader Raila Amollo Odinga on Friday came to the defense of outspoken Siaya Governor James Aggrey Bob Orengo bringing to an end speculation of a growing rift between the two leaders.
Speaking at the burial of Priscillah Koyo, the wife of former Luo Council of Elders Chairman Koyo Opien at Gendia in Karachuonyo constituency on April 25, Raila said that remarks made by Orengo and his Kisumu counterpart Peter Anyang’ Nyongo were based on the Memorandum of Understanding signed between ODM and the ruling party UDA.
Reiterating the words of Orengo, Raila said there is no coalition in existence between ODM and UDA and that the partnership is an arrangement based on an MoU signed in broad daylight.
“There are clear points, very explicit, and I do not see why people are bickering. When Orengo talks, he is talking on the basis of the MoU between ODM and UDA. Orengo has not committed any crime. He has a democratic right to say what he was saying,” Raila put the Governor’s critics in their place.
Orengo and Nyong’o had come under heavy fire from certain members of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) with some threatening disciplinary action.
“Devolution was the most important feature of our Constitution, but it has not worked because we have not implemented it the way it should be. That is why people are not reaping the benefits of it,” the ODM Party supremo added.
He explained that some government functions are yet to be fully devolved.
“You have devolved some responsibilities, but you have not devolved the funds. Health is a devolved function, but most of the funds are held up in Nairobi. Why should the national government hold over Sh100 billion yet the function is devolved?” he queried.
In typical fashion Raila argued that cooperation with UDA Party does not bar ODM Party members from speaking out their minds on issues of national importance.
Raila also made comparison of the current MoU to the arrangement ongoing in the USA where President Donald Trump and former president Joe Biden have agreed to appoint ministers from both sides of the political divide.
Earlier on Alego-Usonga MP Samuel Onunga Atandi made a spectacle of himself in abusing parliamentary privileges to attack Governor Orengo for remarks made during the burial of Raila bodyguard George Nyang’ira in Ndori.
Pockets of raucous youth were also organized to make disjointed noises in the streets of Siaya, purporting to hold more allegiance to the party than life member James Aggrey Bob Orengo.
Having thrown his weight behind the governor it’s clear now that Orengo’s political detractors must go back to the drawing board and burn the midnight oil as in each move they make, James Aggrey Bob Orengo comes out clearly ahead of the pack.
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