ODM Executive Director Oduor Ongwen has explained why Eliud Owalo ditched the party for Musalia Mudavadi's Amani National Congress (ANC) party.
Speaking Friday in an exclusive interview with KTN, Ongwen appeared to suggest that Owalo joined ANC because he was afraid of the rigorous process he would be subjected to in ODM.
According to Ongwen, ANC might have been an attractive option because it would be smooth sailing for the former aide to Raila Odinga.
"So perhaps he saw that because we are going through a rigorous process which the other party did not give him an opportunity to go through so may be he knew the other side he won't have this kind of rigorous process so he decided let me go get the ticket where it is easiest to go get it," said Ongwen.
Ongwen, however, said that Owalo was well within his democratic right to join any party he wished to join.
Owalo bailed out of ODM soon after the Kibra parliamentary seat was declared vacant by the Speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi.
In the 2017 nomination exercise in ODM, he lost to Ken Okoth, a loss he blamed on what he called bungled nominations.
Owalo will slug it out against governing Jubilee's McDonald Mariga and a candidate that ODM will pick tomorrow in its nomination exercise.