- Raila will walk into Friday’s meeting on the tightrope as his key allies scramble for vacant slots in the ODM national office.
- Governors Simba Arati (Kisii) and Gideon Mung’aro (Kilifi) are also said to be interested in the deputy party leader positions.
Image: ODM/X
ODM leader Raila Odinga will on Friday chair a management meeting of the party to unveil a new leadership lineup to fill vacant positions.
The meeting of the Central Management Committee comes at a time when the party is on shaky ground as leaders jostle for top positions.
Raila will walk into Friday’s meeting on the tightrope as his key allies scramble for vacant slots in the ODM national office.
Key regions that form his loyal support bases are engaged in dogfights for the influential leadership positions including those of the deputy party leader.
The meeting is also important to forestall an acrimonious break-up after it emerged that a section of party heavyweights are threatening to quit if not given top posts.
“The Central Management Committee will meet on August 9 to deliberate on key matters including addressing the leadership squabbles," an ODM politician aware of the planned meeting said.
Raila’s two deputies Hassan Joho and Wycliffe Oparanya were appointed Cabinet Secretaries for Mining and Blue Economy and Cooperatives and SMES development respectively.
Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna and Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir are the front runners to succeed Joho and Oparanya.
Governors Simba Arati (Kisii) and Gideon Mung’aro (Kilifi) are also said to be interested in the deputy party leader positions.
Arati is the current ODM vice chairperson, although some quarters want him elevated to the chairperson position.
ODM MPs from the coast are sharply divided on Mung’aro and Nassir, threatening to tear apart the party’s support base at the Coast.
On Monday, Raila told a meeting of Kisii and Nyamira MPs that none of the two deputy party leader posts would be available for the region.
Arati attended the meeting at a Nairobi Hotel where Raila is said to have rubbished his bid as it would destabilise the regional balance matrix devised by ODM to appease supporters.
Instead, it emerged that Raila was keen to ensure that the seats were taken up by politicians from both Western Kenya and Coast where Oparanya and Joho hail from.
Sifuna hails from Western Kenya but has his political base in Nairobi.
In the lineup being fronted by some party bigwigs, Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi could be named the new Secretary-General to take over from Sifuna.
This will happen if the Nairobi senator is elevated to the deputy party.
The line-up is said to be part of the proposal by internal party stalwarts keen to ensure a smooth transition, following the co-opting of party luminaries into the government.
Technically, deputy party leaders will run ODM in the absence of the party leader, who goes into election in February next year for the top continental job.
The meeting will also fill the chairperson position that was left vacant following the appointment of John Mbadi into the Cabinet.
Orange House sources also indicated that Homa Bay Governor Gladys Wanga could replace Treasury CS John Mbadi, as the ODM National chairperson.
Wanga like Mbadi, comes from Homa Bay county.
Some quarters were however talking of divided opinion between Wanga and Senator Moses Kajwang'.
Migori Governor Ochillo Ayacko’s name was also mentioned as a possible candidate for the chairmanship.
Women leaders have in recent days piled pressure on the party to consider gender in the top echelons of the party, where crucial decisions are made.