Raila cracks whip on Willis Otieno axis

The appointment of NASA election Chief Agent James Orengo and his deputy Norman Magaya has predictably elicited strong reactions from within the NASA coalition and left a faction led by power broker Jimmy Wanjigi breathless.

The appointment comes against the backdrop of factional wars within the Raila presidential secretariat that had escalated to unbearable levels including a sustained tug of war for control of election campaign resources between old guards and newbies.

With the hindsight of having lost the 2013 election due to infiltration by state agents, compromised staff, and embezzlement of campaign resources, close advisors considered Wanjigi an outsider and a risk to Raila’s 2017 bid.
During the time the campaign was led by Willis, activity nearly ground to a halt as Willis introduced unnecessary red-tape which had Raila’s advisors speculating if these were deliberate acts of sabotage which were brought into the attention of the NASA principals.

The stand off eventually resulted in Raila Odinga ignoring advise from Jimmy Wanjigi and proceeding to execute the most significant shakeup of his presidential campaign when lawyer Willis Otieno was unceremoniously replaced as Head of the Secretariat and his position immediately taken up by Joe Ager.

The sacking represented a huge decline in the clout of Jimmy Wanjigi, popularly known as James Bond, around Raila Odinga. With Wanjigi’s guidance, Willis had, within a space of a few months, risen from relative obscurity to become the man responsible management for the 2017 presidential campaign.

Analysts opine that with the transition at the secretariat happening so close to the election date, it could be taken to mean that the faction led by power broker Jimmy Wanjigi had suffered its heaviest casualty.

With the approval of appointment of Orengo and Magaya as in-charge of NASA election agents, the final nail appears to have been hammered into Wanjigi’s coffin around Raila Odinga. Wanjigi had lately formed an unlikely alliance with Raila family members and made them his tools in the presidential campaign.

The presence of the Wanjigi faction was first felt when they attempted to duplicate and sneak projects into the NASA manifesto to include their targeted mega-projects. So powerful was the faction that their orders were carried out almost without question.

Raila now appears to have punctured Wanjigi’s influence by handing the critical Adopt-A-Polling-Station project to trusted allies.

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