Babu Owino meets sen. Ledama for a cup of coffee
Babu Owino, a member of parliament for Embakasi East, and Ledama Olekina, a senator for Narok, have maintained their attack on the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party, claiming the latter undervalued them for leadership positions in the legislature.
Following their Thursday night Twitter outbursts, Babu and Olekina alleged on Friday during a joint press conference that ODM's younger lawmakers had been overlooked for leadership posts in Parliament despite their contributions and sacrifices made during the campaign.
The Raila Odinga-led party primarily cares about rewarding "older persons" at the expense of the younger generation, claims the outspoken Embakasi East MP.
He claimed that after being fronted initially to lead the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly, the ODM leadership reversed their decision.
He claims that party National Chairman John Mbadi, who returned to the House after being nominated because he failed to defend his seat at the August General Election, has now been given the position of PAC Chair.
"My colleagues MPs fronted me to be the PAC Chairman, and the party approved this post. Then, yesterday, I received a call instructing me to give Mbadi this post.
We want to appoint Mbadi as the PAC Chairman even though he is already the party chairman for the ODM and was nominated for the position, added Babu.
"Give the young what is their theirs, and give the old what is rightfully theirs. We shall reward ourselves if we are not recognized as ODM's young.
He added that the youth's loyalty to the ODM party has long been assumed, and that they will therefore not accept this lying down.
"The ODM party has failed to treat us fairly. We supported Raila Odinga during the campaign, but when it comes to leadership sharing, others get rewarded.
It's important to reward loyalty. Many young people were excluded from nominations in the majority of the county assemblies, he claimed.
"We support the party, but now the party is punishing us...
The party ought to quit favoring the elderly at the expense of the younger generation.
Ledama, on the other hand, encouraged the ODM leadership to reevaluate its choices for the leadership of the Parliament, failing which they would conduct a nationwide tour and communicate with the young.
The moment has come, he said, "for us to talk to our party and beg our party to be able to be able to reconsider the judgments that they're making today because those decisions will cost the party."
"If the party does not revisit this, then we will be able to travel the nation and speak with the youth and map our future, I want to be really cantankerous and to be very open about. Some of us will begin being dishonest starting today.
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