President Uhuru Kenyatta with then Rongo MP Dalmas Otieno during the burial of the lawmaker's daughter in 2014 ( Photo/Nation)
As President Uhuru Kenyatta keeps Kenyans guessing on who will make it to his new Cabinet, a group of seasoned politicians who lost during the August 8 poll may be given an eescape route from the vagaries of disappearing into political oblivion.
Former Rongo MP Dalmas Otieno who lost during last general election is one of the former MPs who is touted to make a swift return to government. The President Moi and Kibaki-eras minister who has had an illustrious political careers is one of the most experienced in the country.
President Uhuru Kenyatta and Dalmas Otieno relationship dates back to their time in KANU. In the 2007 general election, Otieno recaptured the Rongo seat after 15 years in the political cold, on an independence party ticket. At the same time, Uhuru served as the party Chairman. Though the two forged different political directions in 2013, they have remained close to each other.
After the 2013 elections, Otieno's relationship with ODM, the party that sponsored him to Parliament, detoriated. First, he withdrew from the party's bungled February 2014 elections.
Immediately thereafter, he launched the Kalausi Party. Many saw his decision as a plot to undermine Raila Odinga.
Otieno's political career took a new turn in 2014 when President Kenyatta appointed him special envoy to Juba. His appointment provided fodder for his critics to settle political scores.
Further, in the same 2014, the year that sealed his political fate, Uhuru attended the burial of Otieno's daughter in Rongo, an event that unsettled political waters in the region and the lawmaker found himself walking on political egg shells.
However, with an impressive track record, the President could lure the 70 year former MP to drive his development agenda and at the same time give his government s national outlook even as the fate of Defence CS Raychelle Omamo who hails from Luo Nyanza continues to hang on balance.