WHO IS ODMK BUT AMOLO RAILA ODINGA SON OF TINGA

ODM-Kenya presidential hopeful Mr Raila Odinga has asked individuals who are not ready to work with others to quit, deepening the anxiety engulfing the party.
"He who does not want to be with the rest of us should walk out," the Lang’ata MP, who jets back from abroad on Monday at 6.30am, said in one of his boldest statements yet.
A simmering mistrust and suspicion that has rocked the party burst into the open recently with dirty cyber wars and an abortive boardroom coup to take over the secretariat.
"There will be no short cuts in the party," Raila declared without elaborating.
Addressing hundreds of ODM-Kenya supporters in London, Raila said ODM-Kenya would continue to work as a team, and those not willing to do so should leave.
Earlier on Sunday, Raila told The Standard by telephone that he regretted that some presidential hopefuls had missed the London rendezvous.
"The ODM-Kenya (aero)plane is on the runway and ready to take off. The sky is the limit," he said, explaining that the UK retreat marked an important turning point for the party.
Mr Uhuru Kenyatta (Gatundu South), Mr Najib Balala (Mvita), Mr Kalonzo Musyoka (Mwingi North), Dr Julia Ojiambo (Nominated MP) and former Vice-President Mr Musalia Mudavadi skipped it after a visa hitch appeared to have locked out Mr William Ruto (Eldoret North).
"This was the turning point for ODM-Kenya, and we’re going to make it," Raila said of the meeting also skipped by party team leader, Mr Mutula Kilonzo (Nominated MP) and recognised chairman, Mr Henry Kosgey (Tinderet).
Corruption in ODM
It also emerged that the ODM-Kenya leaders attending the London dinner were put to task over corruption within their ranks, with Raila being asked to sideline corrupt leaders.
"They were told that while they condemned the Government over corruption, they seemed to hush matters when it came to allegations of graft against their members," a source at the function said on condition of anonymity.
Participants at the retreat accused ODM-Kenya leaders of double-speak on corruption.
"Participants seemed to be of the view that ODM-Kenya leaders should be as loud in attacking and sidelining their colleagues associated with corruption as they are when taking on the Government," said the source.
Raila, answering questions from the floor, asked Kenyans not to speculate too much about pending corruption cases against Ruto, leading party leader. Instead, he blamed the judicial system for failing to expedite cases.
"Let’s not hype too much about the court case involving Ruto. As far as we know the courts have not judged him guilty," said Raila, who was also subjected to a flurry of questions about his past.
"But since they did not refer to anything specific, he brushed them aside as unfair and with the challenge, ‘If you know anything that Raila Odinga has done, please say it’," said our source.
No consensus
Challenging those who wanted to leave the party, Raila picked the cue from another presidential aspirant, Gachoka MP Mr Joseph Nyagah, who however was bold in his response.
Nyagah told the audience that he had two weeks ago said his colleague in ODM-Kenya, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, was destabilising the party.
"I didn’t say that because I dislike Steve. Steve is my friend. There was nothing personal. But ODM-Kenya is bigger than everybody else. I repeat it and to everybody present here today that anybody who does not want to work with the rest of us must leave the party now!" Nyagah is reported to have told the meeting.
Raila also ruled out consensus as the way to nominate its presidential candidate, when put under pressure to explain how they were going to pick the party flag bearer.
Said he: "We cannot follow the consensus path because it would mean that our supporters can’t elect us. We must have a democratic process of getting our presidential nominee."
Nyagah said it was time ODM-Kenya rolled out a strategy to win the General Election, later in the year, but warned that this could not be achieved if presidential aspirants continued to work at cross-purposes.
Government to rig elections
Nyagah told the crowd at Oakington Manor School hall in Wembley, the United Kingdom, that he was privy to information that President Kibaki was preparing to rig the elections.
A former Cabinet minister in the Kanu regime and recently an Assistant minister in President Kibaki’s administration, Nyagah claimed he knew how elections could be rigged, delving into what he said was a sneak preview.
"I was in Government and I can tell you we did it (read rig election)," he said amid thunderous laughter.
He said the rigging would be executed through the use of voter registration in computers.
During voter registration, he said, there would be a computer glitch (error) that would render most voters, especially from unfavourable regions, ineligible to vote.
Nyagah said the Government would then claim that there had been an error and that there would be very little to be done.
Asking Kenyans to be vigilant, Nyagah said that whereas the Government had announced registration of voters, the exercise had allegedly been going on in private offices of powerful Government officials.
"We must be on the look-out and report any suspicious voter registration activities around us," he appealed.
The Africa paradox
Raila pointed out that it was a paradox that Africa, rich in resources, was the poorest continent.
"Africa is backward because of its leadership. We need to change the way that countries are led," he said.
He noted that Kenyans were united in the struggle for independence, but have now retreated to their ethnic cocoons, a tactic perfected by the British who introduced ethnicity as a divide and rule tactic.
Raila said his late father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, and former President Jomo Kenyatta parted ways because of ideological differences, but not ethnicity.
Jaramogi was a socialist and Kenyatta a capitalist, he said.
These politico-ideological difference escalated ethnicity, thanks to power brokers that surrounded Kenyatta at the time, Raila said.
ODM-Kenya secretary-general, Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o, whose speech centred on the economy, said the party’s Marshal Plan was to invest heavily in infrastructure in marginal areas such as the Northern Eastern, Coast and Eastern provinces.
He said the main industries such as fish and cotton should be revised.
He said the only way to energise the economy was through the modernisation of the Port of Mombasa and building a 21st Century railway track.
Anger over Deya’s absence
ODM-Kenya treasurer, Mr Omingo Magara, said Kenyans needed real change.
"That change will only come if you vote in ODM-Kenya," he told the guests.
The ODM-Kenya (UK chapter) leader Shabanji Opuka thanked the ODM leaders for their presence.
On Sunday, Mudavadi said the controversy surrounding the London trip had been blown out of proportion.
"We shall not allow our enemies to take advantage of the London trip and cause divisions. The London trip was well planned and it was unfortunate that most of us were engaged somewhere else," he said.
Mudavadi was addressing a campaign rally at the historic Mombasa Tononoka grounds, which was attended by MPs Mr Ramadhan Kajembe (Changamwe), Mr Andrew Ligale (Vihiga), Mr Lucas Maitha (Malindi), National Labour Party chairman Mr Kennedy Kiliku and former Mombasa mayor Mr Taib Ali Taib.
Conspicuously absent at the London meeting was controversial cleric Archbishop Gilbert Deya, earlier linked to organising and funding the trip.
His son, the Rev Amos Deya, however, attended the dinner and said prayers at the start of the forum.
There was stifled anger at Deya’s absence and the suggestion he could have been the main reason ODM-Kenya heavyweights skipped the function.