Ledama Ole Kina, the Narok senator worked with Deputy President William Ruto’s allies in the Jubilee Party to win chair of Senate County Public Accounts and Investment Committee (CPAIC).
Ledama is reported to have ganged up with DP’s allies in Senate to win the post against Kisii senator Sam Ongeri who was ODM party’s preferred candidate.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga is reported to have met the party members in the committee and agreed on the Kisii senator as sole candidate for the position, as reported by The Standard.
Those who attended the Sunday meeting included Ole Kina, Ongeri, Ochillo Ayacko, Jones Mwaruma, James Orengo and National Assembly minority whip Junet Mohammed (Suna East).
During the meeting, Raila pleaded with Ayacko to drop down his aspirations for the seat in favour of Ongeri. The meeting resolved to front Ongeri as the party’s candidates but this was contrary to the spirit of a majority of Jubilee senators who had thrown their weight behind Ayacko owing to his sobriety and intellectual acumen.
Ole Kina who had expressed interest in the seat reached out to Jubilee’s Mithika Linturi (Meru), Millicent Omanga (Nominated), Kimani Wamatangi (Kiambu), Hargura Godana (Marsabit) and Irungu Kang’ata (Murang’a) asking them for their votes.
Three of the Jubilee members are close allies of the DP whose names were also proposed in the committee that was to look into former Kiambu governor Ferdinand Waititu’s impeachment.
The committee usually has nine members and having five votes was going to work in the favour of Ole Kina. The same five members also agreed to vote for Wamatangi as the vice chair, a word that they all kept.
This left ODM in confusion over the turn of events with Senate minority leader James Orengo threatening a mass walkout by the party from the powerful committee.
Orengo on Monday evening wrote to Speaker Kenneth Lusaka saying the party intends to withdraw its membership from the committee until an appropriate resolution is made.
“I express and register dissatisfaction with the conduct and outcome of the elections of the leadership of the County Public Accounts and Investment Committee which were purportedly done today (Monday). We intend to withdraw our membership from the said committee until an appropriate resolution can be made,” reads Orengo’s letter to Lusaka.
However, the Narok senator remained on his ground and maintained he was the duly elected chair and that any attempt to remove him from the post amounted to an infringement on his democratic rights.
Notably, it was not the first time for such a deal to be brokered in committee elections given in 2015 where ODM lost in the National Assembly Public Accounts Committee.
Then, former Rarieda MP Nicholas Gumbo was elected as chair after he received the backing of Jubilee MPs, flooring party favourite John Mbadi, ODM chair and Suba MP.
