The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader Raila Odinga’s fifth attempt at the presidency was once again dealt a huge blow after deputy president William Ruto was declared the winner.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairman Wafula Chebukati on Tuesday declared Ruto amidst push and pulls with the Azimio leaders who were not pleased with the processes at the Bomas of Kenya.
While at it, there are a number of reasons which made Raila Odinga lose the presidency to the Kenya Kwanza candidate William Samoei Ruto.
First, Raila did not have agents in all the 46,229 polling stations across the country, especially in William Ruto’s Mt. Kenya stronghold. According to reports, the lack of agents greatly affected the results in that it gave room for manipulation.
Put in another way, the Raila team were not interested in protecting their hard earned votes in Ruto’s strongholds and his competitors were free to inflate the figures in their favor and upload the same in form 34AS.
The second reason why Raila failed the election is the deep state which made the Azimio team not only comfortable but also lazy as they waited for power to come to their doorsteps instead of going for it. On the other hand, Ruto knew very well that he had no backing of the sitting president and so he had no option but to work hard everyday.
The third reason why Raila failed the presidency is lack of internal democracy after the party decided to reward loyalists such as James Orengo, Oburu Odinga, Gladys wanga, Christine Ombaka amongst other leaders.Consequently, many youths felt that they were left out and did not have any motivation to go cast their votes since leaders had been chosen for them instead of subjecting them to nomination exercise.
Sadly, these seats had competitors but ODM party bulldozed its way, forcing others such as Nicholas Gumbo and Evans Kidero to contest as either independents or fly other Azimio affiliated parties. Sadly, these leaders were mistreated in Azimio rallies in Siaya as only ODM candidates were welcomed in line with the 6 piece gospel.
Raila also lost election to William Ruto because of the mistakes by the Odinga family. For instance, certain comments by Ida for example on regulating small churches did not go well with their Kenya Kwanza competitors who twisted it and made it a campaign issue whenever they went.
Besides, Oburu Odinga did not have the decency to shut up after he went public and admitted that this time round Baba had the deepstate that would bring power since it was the only lacking aspect in all the other past elections. Put in another way, Oburu revealed the secret card too early, making Ruto to start fighting and thwarting any attempts by the deepstate to assist Mr. Odinga prior to the polls.
On her side, Winnie Odinga also committed a number of mistakes by being very close to Raila and following him almost everywhere he went. This made many people fear associating with Jakom as they felt that Winnie was just being a spy. Other diehard bloggers for Raila also complained that she had taken over their blogging roles and wanted to micromanage almost everything despite having little knowledge on that field.
Another reason why Raila lost the election to Ruto was due to his ODM secretary general Mr. Edwin Sifuna. Sources reveal that Mr. Sifuna did nothing meaningful in ODM other than collecting huge sums of money from aspirants and promising them the party tickets. Also, Sifuna and other party officials like Mbadi messed up the party nomination list since they only forwarded names of their cronies. The names had to be returned for corrections!
His lieutenants such as Suna East MP Junet Mohammed and Embakasi East member of parliament Babu Owino also focused on wrong messaging. On several occasions, these leaders made it clear in their campaigns that they would take Ruto to kamiti prison after taking power due to corruption.
As a result, such threatening messaging only made the deputy president be more vigilant and campaign every minute because he could not imagine being taken to Kamiti after Raila Odinga wins the presidency. He was willing to use all the means possible to ensure that he garners majority of votes which would make Chebukati declare him.
Most importantly, Raila had one of the most incompetent secretariat that only accompanied him to campaign rallies once in a while instead of doing parallel campaigns in his absence like in the Kenya Kwanza.
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