Kisumu Women Representative Rosa Buyu has defended Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) after its party leader Raila Amolo Odinga refunded Sh2.25 million nomination fees to nine aspirants after the party primaries for the Kibra by-elections were bungled.
In an Interview with Citizen TV on Tuesday, Buyu said that the decision was reached at a consensus. She noted that the matter was aggravated by the fact that the register had not been updated.
“ODM has been in the forefront, advocating for credible and fair party nominations. The ODM party has apologised to other aspirants in Kibra and has accepted to refund the KSh250,000 that they had each paid as nomination fee,” she said.
The said amount had been paid by the political party for the nominations before it emerged that they had doctored the results of the exercise.
The new development shows that the process doesn’t reflect freeness and fairness.
The aspirants who received back their money are Dagoretti High School Principal Peter Orero, Eric Obayi, Ben Musungu, Tony Ogola and Chris Odhiambo.
The rest are John Otieno Stephen Okello, Brian Owino, Reuben Ojijo and Raila has also admitted that some of the names were missing from the register during the nomination process.
He, however, denied claims that something sinister was done in favour of Imran Okoth who was chosen as the flag bearer of the contest.
“Mr Odinga acknowledges that there were challenges in the nominations, with names missing from the voter register but those were not tailored or deliberately introduced to favour or disenfranchise any aspirant,” reads the statement released to the media houses.
Ford Kenya, Amani National Congress and Jubilee have also fielded candidates in the same positions after the demise of Okoth.