ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ON TIM WANYONYI. YOUTHS TELL ODM TOP BRASS.
In a hard-hitting statement, the youths drawn from Nairobi led by Westlands ODM chairman Evans Ochieng, Mr Odinga has been told to rise to the occasion and reclaim the party from cartels and conmen’ who have ‘invaded it’.
According to the ODM youth members and their leaders, the ODM party leadership has shown disrespect to Westlands MP Tim Wanyonyi, who was the Azimio chairperson for Nairobi in the last elections by denying him chance to lead powerful Parliamentary committees.
Mr Wanyonyi, stepped down from contesting for the Nairobi Governors seat in favour of little-muscled Polycarp Igathe who lost terribly to UDA’s Johnson Sakaja.
Mr Wanyonyi was the people’s favourite and would have easily won the contest but he was forced by Raila and then President Uhuru Kenyatta to step down against the wishes of majority of party supporters.
Being one of the senior most members of the party, it was widely expected that Mr Wanyonyi would be considered for a powerful parliamentary committee only to be included in what the youths termed as a ‘joke’.
“As we can all recall, a member of the level of Westlands MP Hon Tim Wanyonyi, an advocate of the High Court, a man who unconditionally dropped his bid to be the Governor of Nairobi in favour of Hon Polycarp Igathe, has been included in a committee that does not match his level and sounds like a joke,” said Ochieng.
This, they said, was a bad way of rewarding the politician who is known to sponsor most of the party’s activities across the city single handedly.
“…despite their sacrifices, selflessness and commitment to the party, they have been repaid by a kick under the belly by not only being ignored, but being dumped in some committees which do not bring out the real worth of our gallant sons and daughters of the party. They have been thrown into irrelevant committees, which shows how these senior members of our party have been despised, demeaned, disrespected and to say the least, used and dumped,” Mr Ochieng lamented.
“Hon Tim Wanyonyi deserves influential committees. He is supposed to lead some of these influential and powerful committees not a mere member. We need him to be in the watchdog committees. We need a strong voice like his to push our agenda,” he said.
“To our party leader the RT. Hon Raila Amolo Odinga, we know it is not you, but can you now take charge as the Party Leader and clean our house? It has been invaded by cartels and conmen, let them not run down the party you have heavily invested in for many years,” he added.
Flanked by other leaders, the youths warned that they will not sit back and watch as Mr Wanyonyi is humiliated while nominated MPs like John Mbadi are rewarded at the expense of elected MPs who have invested heavily in the party.
Earlier, Embakasi East MP Babu Owino had raised the red flags over formation of committees where he alleged that some party officials had decided to sideline youthful MPs who had stood with the party strongly and fiercely defended Mr Odinga.
“We are watching. We are documenting. We are assembling our troops. We are not sleeping. We will not stop. We will not settle until justice is done,” they said.
WHICH COMMITTEE IS THIS?
ReplyDelete