mzeiya
Elder Lister
William Ruto today threatened to "mobilise ODM founder members" to discipline SG Edwin Sifuna, which was a not-so-subtle threat. At face value, he is asking senior ODM figures to remove Sifuna as SG (obviously without first asking himself how Sifuna has managed to be the longest lasting ODM SG thus far). At another level, you can hear his voice sounding like "I am very tired of you Sifuna", which is very unpresidential of him.
Ruto consistently says at rallies that he is a founder member of ODM. But is he?
ODM owes its origin to the 2005 referendum, which forced Kibaki to sack Ministers from the LDP wing of Narc, led by
@RailaOdinga
. In fact, it was
@tunajibu
, referring to the massive win of the Orange over Banana at the referendum, who declared at a rally in Kisumu that it was time of the "Orange Revolution" to become a political party. The guys who had been sacked by Kibaki then tasked a young lawyer allied to Kalonzo Musyoka, one cricket-voiced fellow called Daniel Maanzo, to register the party. They themselves couldn't take up positions because they all held parliamentary seats on the NARC-Rainbow coalition (LDP wing).
All this time, Ruto was not only a member of the opposition in Kanu, but was Kanu Secretary General, so there was no way he could be a founder of ODM.
But in July of 2007, after a disagreement over the presidential candidate,
@skmusyoka
and Maanzo fled with that ODM (it was in fact called ODM-K). In August, Raila then found another ODM variant that had been registered by lawyer Mugambi Imanyara and bought it, just in time for the ODM presidential nominations on 1st September 2007. This is in fact the current ODM, whose only founder was Mugambi Imanyara, followed by Raila, the buyer. The first Kalenjins into this ODM were Kipkalya Kones, Sally Kosgey and Henry Kosgey. Ruto was still planning to support Kalonzo for President and seeking to be the latter's running mate, both of them heavily invested in the "Raila is unelectable because of his tribe" philosophy. It would take the Raila wave in Kalenjinland to have Ruto resign as Kanu SG and join ODM as practically the last entrant before party presidential nominations at Kasarani on 1st September 2007.
If Ruto wants to summon ODM founder members, he has two groups;
1. The ones who became Wiper after stealing ODM-K.
2. Mugambi Imanyara, who founded the current ODM.
None of them is currently a member of ODM. None of them sits in any ODM organ. So it will be a meeting of idlers and gossips. In fact, it is disrespectful to Raila Odinga, the real owner of the party, to state that you will summon others to discipline his party SG. With Raila, with Luos and with ODM, you don't enter the bedroom to dictate how they should copulate, regardless of whatever support you think you have within the movement. ODM has lasted 20 years, longer than any of Ruto's parties, because it remained true to its foundation; freedom, justice and integrity.
In fact, it is cheaper for Ruto to just address the issues Sifuna raises instead of looking for people from 2005 to help discipline Sifuna. We would love to see what he thinks Balala and Mugambi can do, but that clownfest isn't even tenable.
~Kipkalya Kones
Ruto consistently says at rallies that he is a founder member of ODM. But is he?
ODM owes its origin to the 2005 referendum, which forced Kibaki to sack Ministers from the LDP wing of Narc, led by
@RailaOdinga
. In fact, it was
@tunajibu
, referring to the massive win of the Orange over Banana at the referendum, who declared at a rally in Kisumu that it was time of the "Orange Revolution" to become a political party. The guys who had been sacked by Kibaki then tasked a young lawyer allied to Kalonzo Musyoka, one cricket-voiced fellow called Daniel Maanzo, to register the party. They themselves couldn't take up positions because they all held parliamentary seats on the NARC-Rainbow coalition (LDP wing).
All this time, Ruto was not only a member of the opposition in Kanu, but was Kanu Secretary General, so there was no way he could be a founder of ODM.
But in July of 2007, after a disagreement over the presidential candidate,
@skmusyoka
and Maanzo fled with that ODM (it was in fact called ODM-K). In August, Raila then found another ODM variant that had been registered by lawyer Mugambi Imanyara and bought it, just in time for the ODM presidential nominations on 1st September 2007. This is in fact the current ODM, whose only founder was Mugambi Imanyara, followed by Raila, the buyer. The first Kalenjins into this ODM were Kipkalya Kones, Sally Kosgey and Henry Kosgey. Ruto was still planning to support Kalonzo for President and seeking to be the latter's running mate, both of them heavily invested in the "Raila is unelectable because of his tribe" philosophy. It would take the Raila wave in Kalenjinland to have Ruto resign as Kanu SG and join ODM as practically the last entrant before party presidential nominations at Kasarani on 1st September 2007.
If Ruto wants to summon ODM founder members, he has two groups;
1. The ones who became Wiper after stealing ODM-K.
2. Mugambi Imanyara, who founded the current ODM.
None of them is currently a member of ODM. None of them sits in any ODM organ. So it will be a meeting of idlers and gossips. In fact, it is disrespectful to Raila Odinga, the real owner of the party, to state that you will summon others to discipline his party SG. With Raila, with Luos and with ODM, you don't enter the bedroom to dictate how they should copulate, regardless of whatever support you think you have within the movement. ODM has lasted 20 years, longer than any of Ruto's parties, because it remained true to its foundation; freedom, justice and integrity.
In fact, it is cheaper for Ruto to just address the issues Sifuna raises instead of looking for people from 2005 to help discipline Sifuna. We would love to see what he thinks Balala and Mugambi can do, but that clownfest isn't even tenable.
~Kipkalya Kones
