History has an uncanny way of repeating itself. Just as the current Alego-Usonga Member of Parliament Samuel Onunga Atandi burst into the political limelight in 2017 from nowhere, a new player Kevin Ochieng Odhiambo is causing an incredible storm that could translate into something come 2027.
The youngster has the advantage of being monied and having no known background from which voters can poke holes. Atandi has the singular distinction of being the first two-term Legislator in Alego-Usonga since the promulgation of the 2010 Constitution but has lately lost credibility due to opening numerous war fronts some of which he has no hope of winning.
Political pundits say that the day he publicly took up on Siaya Deputy Governor Dr William Oduol Denge at Sidok Primary School during a NG-CDF bursary disbursement exercise he dug his own political grave. Two months ago Mr. Atandi was back at Sirinde Secondary School in the same vicinity of West Alego and launched a bursary program that promised to offset school fees for day-scholars to the tune of KES 8,000 annually.
When we last checked Sirinde, Dirk Allison and several secondary schools in West Alego had only received a capitation of KES 1,800 from the MP bursary kitty. This brings to memory what brought down his predecessor Washington Omondi Muluan. The former MP was accused of alleged high-handedness and making excessive development promises some of which he could not realistically fulfil.
Has Alego-Usonga MP Samuel Onunga Atandi nailed his own coffin by rolling out an impossible bursary project? Why is the MP blacklisting former acquaintances?
Better still why has the Governor sidelined the Alego-Usonga MP?
Before he died and while responding to a question on corruption in Siaya from a journalist, straight-talking former Education CS Professor George Magoha said that one of the six MPs in Siaya was the mastermind of a tendering cartel and had approached him in connection with a Chinese firm. Later at the burial of the same CS, Gem MP Elisha Ochieng Odhiambo would revisit the same allegations and point a finger at one of his closest friends now turned enemies.
The electorate have drawn their own conclusions and now Atandi faces D-day should he decide to defend his Alego-Usonga seat.
That notwithstanding, there’s talk on the grapevine that the Alego-Usonga MP has ambitions of contesting in the Siaya gubernatorial race come 2027. Does he have the political clout, networking and financial ability to unseat Governor James Aggrey Bob Orengo? No, Sir, he doesn’t.
The two-term Alego-Usonga MP was at one-time the most popular Legislator in Siaya County, unfortunately, he bit more than he could chew and now he is a subject of history having an uncanny way of repeating itself.
Could this Kevin Ochieng Odhiambo be what Samuel Onunga Atandi was in 2017?
DalanewsKE
Editorial Sunday 24 March, 2024
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