It is exactly one year to the 2022 General Elections and as such politicians have started campaigns for various seats.
In Embakasi West, as usual the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Party is coming in late to the campaigns.
A man by the name Philip Odongo is seeking to challenge incumbent George Theuri for the seat, pegging his agenda on the usual Education, Youths and Women empowerment, Agri_business and Security.
It is hard to understand how Agribusiness fits into an agenda in the capitl city. mmh
Theuri who was a longtime councilor cinched the Embakasi West seat in 2013 and has been going strong for two terms but some of his policies and development records seems one sided and tiresome.
For example, residents of Embakasi West which includes Umoja 1, Umoja 2, Mowlem, Kariobangi South wards, cannot always look up to his repairing of roads that get washed out the next rainy season.
The residents are also tired of his openly biased development which targets areas that support him only. For example, it is clear to see that if you take the example of Moi Drive, Theuri has constructed walkways complete with tarmac pavements on Umoja 1 wad side, Umoja 2 side doesn’t have any.
Some might argue that this falls on the MCA Joseph Ndonji, but the signage for developing this speaks of Embakasi West NG-CDF projects. Renovations have been concentrated in Umoja 1 ward, Mowlem, Buruburu phase 1 (under Kariobangi South) while Umoja 2 ward continues to remain a slum.
Give credit to the man, some of the things falls squarely on MCA Ndonji. But what is the rational on building better classrooms in Buruburu and not Tumaini and Kifaru primary schools which are very dilapidated now?
The same biased can be seen in the development and renovation of existing primary schools.
Failure after another
In the entry of ODM, rather late as expected, Odongo has much work to do to convince people that he is the guy to take Embakasi West forward.
Facebook is one channel but such messages as “History being made very faster as *Hon.Philip Odongo* is wishing you a good morning and urging you guys to continue stressing and pressing harder this raw fact that *Hon.Philip Odongo* is gonna be the next *Embakasi West MP*,” is not gonna cut it.
We need to see ODM and aspirants from other parties hit the ground early. I’d also want to cover all the manifestos on this new channel. So they need to send me their manifestos,
Also, in the case of Odongo, I want to know why he refers to Theuri as a bad leader, which sectors etc. will he improve on?
“Embakasi West Constituency must be change(d) from bad leaders who are not willing to go in hand and work extra a mile for a better tomorrow,” what does Odongo mean by this message?
When the greatest Embakasi leader David Mwenje died, a gentle soul by the name Mugabe Were of ODM clinched the seat, but he only lasted about two days before being assassinated. Then we had Ferdinand Waititu, aka Baba yao who continued the politics of land grabbing and ethnicity.
It was a fresh breath to have George Theuri, a fresh, development-minded Councilor whose reign now seems tired. His association with Deputy President William Ruto who has co-plundered Kenya together with Uhuru Kenyatta is also questionable.
Embakasi West aspirant Brian Weke came nearly close but couldn’t sustain the momentum and this is what has always led to the failure in changing leadership in Embakasi West.
As at now, the ODM Party primaries which will be conducted before elections might also weaken it further, why can’t we have one person from that party try for more than one election?
As clocks ticks towards 2022 August, it is left to be seen how things will play out. But do you think Theuri has real challengers?
Is Odongo a good replacement?
