A section of Orange Democratic Movement youths from Kitutu Masaba Constituency, Nyamira County have challenged the party’s top leadership to conduct credible and transparent grassroots elections to redeem its image.
The party is set to hold its grassroots polls beginning Tuesday through to August 3.
Last year , the party's national polls aborted after chaos erupted at the Kasarani Stadium, the venue.
On Monday, the youths led by ODM secretary general Masaba branch Andrew Kerauni said this was a golden opportunity for the party to prove its critics wrong following the negative image that was manifested during the aborted polls and the subsequent embarrassing of former chief director Magarer Lang’at who was allegedly roughed up by a section of Nairobi ODM officials.
“We have been waiting for this moment. I think this is the right time to reconstitute our party by upholding its democratic principles. We have a chance to redeem the tainted image by holding credible elections and that is possible since we have proved that before,” said Kerauni.
The outgoing secretary general urged youths to seek leadership positions in the party and also called for an independent body to oversee the polls.
“As ODM youths, we should never get tired to seek top positions. The party has an obligation of restoring trust among its supporters by ensuring that whatever happened at Kasarani isn’t repeated. That can be done by surrendering the polls to an independent body,” he said.
The youths urged politicians from the constituency to participate desist hiring hooligan in their campaigns.