ODM in panic mode ahead of Linda Mwananchi rally in Homa Bay

Crowd welcome Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna as leads Linda Mwananchi tour of Busia County. [Michael Mute, Standard]

Panic has gripped the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leaders allied to party leader Oburu Oginga ahead of the planned Linda Mwananchi rallies scheduled for Sunday.

For the last two weeks, party stalwarts led by chairperson Gladys Wanga have deployed intense strategies in an attempt to derail the rally from becoming a success and have urged residents to turn their backs on the Linda Mwananchi brigade.

From discrediting the group’s messaging, holding several rallies to mobilise residents to reject the rally, to promising cash freebies for residents not to attend the event, the ODM team is displaying what analysts are describing as panic.

The buildup to the rally mirrors a similar trend that featured prominently when Linda Mwananchi organised a similar rally in Kisumu about three months ago. At the time, ODM brigade mobilised residents not to attend the rallies as attempts to violently attack the group also flopped.

Yesterday, tension gripped Homa Bay ahead of the event amid claims of a ploy by some leaders to unleash violence to block the group from conducting rallies in the region.

Although senior leaders have dismissed the claims, several sources told The Standard that mobilisation efforts to disrupt the rallies were underway in the devolved unit.

On Wednesday, Wanga rallied residents to boycott the rallies and urged residents not to be distracted by what she describes as noise, maintaining that the region is steadfast in its support for the government and President William Ruto’s reelection campaign.

The county chief, who was in Sindo, told residents that she was ready to dish out money to residents to prevent them from attending the rallies. The Linda Mwanainchi brigade has listed Sindo as their second stop in their roadside rallies.

“If you are hungry, call me, and I will send you money. Just organise yourselves into a group and inform me that you are hungry and that is why you were going to shout one term. I will send the little I have,” she said, adding that hunger forces someone to go and insult your mother.

But she is not alone. Homa Bay Town MP Opondo Kaluma has also discouraged residents from attending the Linda Mwananchi rallies, claiming they should not be allowed to lie to the people of the region.

Yesterday, Linda Mwananchi principal James Orengo vowed that the Linda Mwananchi movement will hold its planned political rally in Homa Bay on Sunday, August 16, as planned despite what he described as an alleged plot by rival leaders and their supporters to block the meeting.

Orengo said the group would not be intimidated or prevented from exercising its constitutional rights to freedom of movement, association, expression and peaceful assembly.

“Without fear of contradiction, on Sunday the 16th of this month, we will be in Homa Bay. The entire formation of Linda Mwananchi is going to be in Homa Bay, and nothing is going to change,” Orengo said.

Orengo was speaking to journalists at his home in Kisumu, where he accused some Homa Bay leaders of attempting to revive the political intolerance that characterised Kenya’s struggle for multiparty democracy.

He said Kenya had gone through a long struggle to establish constitutional freedoms that allow citizens to move, live, associate and engage in political activities anywhere in the country.

Orengo said the Constitution also protects the right to peaceful demonstrations and picketing, arguing that political differences should not be used to prevent a group from holding a public meeting in any part of the country.

“There are people in Homa Bay who are living in the past. The level of primitiveness and backwardness coming from certain Homa Bay leaders shows that they do not know we have a new constitutional order,” he said.

He recalled the difficult period during the struggle for multiparty democracy, saying politicians and their supporters were at times prevented from entering some parts of the country because of their political affiliations.

The governor alleged that opponents of Linda Mwananchi had been holding meetings to plan how to disrupt the rally.

He claimed that after a recent UDA and ODM meeting in Naivasha, another meeting was held at Governor’s Park in Homa Bay, where weapons including rungus, arrows and pangas were allegedly distributed.

He, however, said the movement would take measures to ensure the safety of its supporters if authorities failed to provide adequate protection. “We will have a beautiful meeting, and we will be talking about Kenya, what is wrong with Kenya and what we can do to make Kenya right,” he said.

Politician Brian Weke said the organisers had already notified the police about the planned rally and would formally report the alleged threats to Homa Bay Police Station.

He said the police had a constitutional responsibility to protect lives and property and urged officers to ensure that the rally was held peacefully.

“Whatever the party leader has said about the details of what they are planning, we want to make the record straight, and we will proceed and report to Homa Bay Police Station,” Weke said.

Lawyer Clifford Obiero and Rangwe political aspirant also maintained that the rally would go ahead despite the alleged attempts to disrupt it.

He said the planned meeting had now become bigger than the movement itself, describing it as a test of Kenya’s commitment to democratic freedoms.

According to him, organisers had received reports that some people were allegedly being paid not to attend the rally, while others were allegedly being mobilised to disrupt it.

He urged those involved to desist, saying Kenyans had fought for many years to achieve the freedoms now protected by the Constitution.