ODM's unexpected announcement that is set to bury NASA

The latest secret arrangement in the Raila Odinga led ODM is expected to spark irritation amongst four bigwigs of the National Super Alliance (NASA) camp.

The ODM party leadership in the absence of Raila Odinga, who is in the US, in a Mombasa tour tasked Siaya Senator James Orengo to announce that Raila must be the flag bearer of the coalition, if NASA has to stay united.

“We are doing all we can to ensure that Raila Amolo Odinga is the flag bearer of the coalition. He is the only person who can take on the corrupt Jubilee administration in August,” Orengo told journalists.

Orengo, who forms the bigwigs in the 12-man team tasked with dishing out the highly coveted NASA presidential ticket, assured the party that he was working tirelessly to have Odinga picked for the task, other than the three.

The sentiments of Orengo comes shortly after Wiper Party leader Kalonzo Musyoka, a presidential hopeful, moved for the first time to demonstrate a split NASA when he presented his nomination papers to his party headquarters in Lavington in Nairobi, causing panic in the coalition.

Flanked by embattled Mombasa governor Hassan Ali Joho, who is also the deputy party leader, Orengo crushed Wetang’ula’s and Mudavadi’s presidential ambitions of being the fifth president of Kenya by insisting that his party leader would be the flag bearer.

“We have Joho here, who is a NASA and ODM national leader, sitting at the National Executive Council. So we are going to work to ensure others have a slot in the coalition after Raila takes the presidency home,” he said.

Wiper onslaught

Last week, Kitui Wets MP Francis Nyenze, flanked by other Ukambani leaders vowed t quit NASA if Kalonzo would be shortchanged. In the long run, Musyoka moved with speed to resent his presidential nomination papers to his party ahead of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission deadline, which has now been extended to Monday next week.

A group of MPs in Wetang’ula’s Ford Kenya and Musalia’s Amani have been optimistic of clinching the flagbearer title, have also expressed their frustration in the ongoing secret alignments.