Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa has accused his ODM party of meddling in the leadership of the Kakamega County assembly.
Barasa termed mischievous confirmation of the replacement of majority leader Philip Maina with Geoffrey Ondiro by party secretary general Edwin Sifuna.
A group of ODM MCAs on Monday removed the majority leader in unclear circumstances and notified the party headquarters at Orange House.
But Barasa demanded that the party provide evidence of a meeting by MCAs and the resolutions that were passed to sanction the move.
“This amounts to interference with the leadership of our county assembly and we shall not allow that. The most interesting thing is that the grounds for the removal are not indicated anywhere,” he said after meeting MCAs.
“Ordinarily, it is the majority chief whip who should convene such a meeting and communicate on the resolutions.
“I have written to the party demanding to know who called the purported meeting, who the attendees were, what the grounds of their removal were and what the resolutions are.”
In a letter by Sifuna dated March 11, 2024, the party says, “Pursuant to the resolution of the members of the majority party/the county assembly to remove Hon Philip Maina Ondako from the position of majority leader, the party has designated Hon Geoffrey Obonyo as his replacement. Kindly accord the honourable member the necessary facilities to his mandate.”
Yesterday, Barasa said he had not been consulted as the head of the Kakamega government and county party chairman over the changes.
He said the move was meant to destabilize the party leadership in the county and was a political witchhunt. He said neither ODM party leader Raila Odinga nor Azimio Secretary General Junet Muhammed were aware of the purported changes.
Barasa said it was unfortunate that some of the party's top leaders were involved in the changes for personal reasons.
In an apparent reference to his predecessor Wycliffe Oparanya, Barasa said, “People have been here in Kakamega and done their 10 years and should now focus on national politics and not coming here to foment trouble in management of Kakamega county.”
“We want to tell Sifuna to keep off Kakamega county politics,” he said.
But Oparanya said that he has no business in Kamega politics. "I am already done with Kakamega politics. My base has nos shifted to national leadership,” he said.
