Raila Odinga on Tuesday officially announced that he had forgiven Narok Senator, Ledama Ole Kina for challenging the party position on the constitution of Senate Committees.
The ODM leader was visited in his Karen home in the company of Ledama who surrendered and apologized to the ODM leader, Ledama was accompanied by a group of Maasai elders.
“Narok Senator Ledama ole Kina has this morning agreed to withdraw the case he had filed against ODM over the Senate Public Accounts Committee chairmanship, surrendered the seat and apologized. In return I’ve instructed the party to reverse the decision to dewhip the Senator,” Odinga said in a statement.
In a show of restored relations, Raila further stated that he had directed ODM to reverse the decision to de-whip Ledama in the Senate.
Ledama had been accused of colluding with Jubilee Senators to clinch the committee chair’s position instead of the party’s chair designate, Professor Sam Ongeri.
“I stand here to say that I am fully loyal to my party ODM. I have been a loyal member of that party and my party leader has been informed by other squatters (I call them that because they are people who do not even have homes) that I was disloyal to the party. That is not true,” Ledama stated in the Senate on May 22.
The committee is responsible for the oversight of county governments and was previously chaired by Homa Bay Senator TJ Kajwang’, with the position reserved for Minority Senators.
“If my party chooses to de-whip me because it perceives me as disloyal, it does not matter how badly I fight it, the only thing I can do is to convince them that I’m loyal and fight for what is mine from within. However, as a house we may need to define the difference party loyalty and meritocracy but for Kindiki, it boils down to loyalty. I want to assure my party leader that despite the rumors you are getting, I’m loyal to the ODM,” the Senator said.
