{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Standard Digital News - Kenya : More battles lie in wait for brazen Ababu

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000153288/more-battles-lie-in-wait-for-brazen-ababu

Standard Digital News - Kenya : More battles lie in wait for brazen Ababu

"This is politics at play, politics from within my own home and politics from rivals." This is how National Assembly's Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Ababu Namwamba summed up his debacle last Thursday.

Nambale MP and a member of the PAC, John Bunyasi, cannot agree more: "There were definitely other factors at play (during the unsuccessful bid to kick out Namwamba as PAC boss) but the issue of corruption was simply overplayed."

Namwamba's problems, opines Bunyasi, have little to do with his ability to manage affairs at PAC but everything to do with political competition, within and without his Orange party.

Emerging from the said meeting, a triumphant Namwamba said a cocktail of politics and vested interests triggered these events. He, however, said he was ready to be subjected to any inquiry.

While there might be serious graft-related issues in the PAC leadership saga, the primary diagnosis by Namwamba that "hii ni siasa tu (this is all about politics)" amplifies the magnitude of challenges ahead of the Budalang'i legislator.

On his way up, Namwamba has stepped on many toes. At the peak of the heated Orange Democratic Movement campaigns for national positions last year, for instance, Funyula MP Paul Otuoma described Namwamba as a pampered child.

The import of Otuoma's sentiments is that Namwamba has over the years enjoyed unlimited favour from 'Baba', ODM leader Raila Odinga. As a first term MP in 2008, he was made spokesman of the party's parliamentary group and later promoted to Cabinet minister, notwithstanding the fact that the tiny Busia County already enjoyed another Cabinet slot.

The agreement between the former prime minister and Namwamba, which eventually handed the latter the position of secretary general at ODM, the single largest parliamentary party, just served to add more enemies for the MP.

For instance, in Western Kenya, where he hails from and where the Orange party enjoys a huge following, Namwamba can only flourish politically at the expense of Senate Minority Leader and CORD co-principal Moses Wetang'ula and his (Wetang'ula's) Ford-Kenya party.

Although the Bungoma senator has not exhibited outward political hostility towards the Budalang'i MP, it is unlikely that Wetang'ula can join Namwamba's cheerleaders.

In the run up to the ODM national elections last year, Namwamba ran an electrifying campaign, criss-crossing the country with a set of helicopters. Then, MPs from the rival camp claimed a top Jubilee politician was bankrolling Namwamba.

The former Butere MP focuses on Namwamba's previous attacks on Raila — including after the botched ODM national polls at Kasarani Gymnasium — where he claimed Raila had denied members of his Luhya community an opportunity to lead ODM.

By whipping the tribal card, Anangwe says, Namwamba appealed to his tribesmen and women. And stung by the remarks, Raila gave Namwamba a hearing.

It is also at the same time that the Budalang'i MP played host to President Uhuru Kenyatta of the rival Jubilee Coalition.

Namwamba applied the same tactic in the late 2009. Then, he was momentarily allied to Ruto, who was already leading a breakaway from the Orange party.

Standard Digital News - Kenya : More battles lie in wait for brazen Ababu

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000153288/more-battles-lie-in-wait-for-brazen-ababu

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.