ODM Executive Director Oduor Ong’wen defends wife’s nomination to Senate

Fallout was always expected in ODM following the publication of the party’s list of people to be nominated but no one saw the Executive Director of the Party, Mr. Oduor Ong’wen, pushing for the nomination of his wife.

Yet still, it is incomprehensible that Ong’wen, known to be a fair man, chose to defend the nomination of the wife by a team comprising the party’s central committee officials often chaired by the ODM Party Leader Raila Odinga.

Such things are dicey, for it is often difficult to oppose upward mobility of a family member despite the obvious ethical issues such favors often invite.

So now ODM members, particularly women, are on the offensive protesting the brazen immorality of Ong’wen appointing his wife, considering he is the topmost paid official of the party, where he is rumoured to earn a monthly pay more than a Principal Secretary in government.

As for Ong’wen, sources say he claimed the wife deserved the post, having been one of the unsung heroes of ‘second liberation’ who was courageous enough to publish pamphlets that exposed the rot in the Moi regime at a time when to have done so automatically invited KANU violence on your family.

Sources also reveal the head of ODM secretariat claimed nearly all members of the ODM Central Committee nominated relatives and proxies.

But two wrongs does not make a right.

The ODM nomination list is yet to be made public because of what party supporters say is a ploy to hide the shame of party officials nominating blood and sex relations, not deserving cadres of the party.

Jubilee nomination list doesn’t fair any better.