Siaya Senator James Orengo is currently ranked among the closest persons to opposition leader Raila Odinga, and probably his handler.
And though they have been relating very well over the last several years, Orengo was once a victim of Raila's influence in his Luo Nyanza backyard.
This was in the run-up to the 2002 general elections, when the then Ugenya lawmaker defied Raila's choice of Mwai Kibaki for President.
And as is the norm in Luo Nyanza region, he automatically landed on the side of rebels, and would pay dearly for opposing Baba's choice.
In protest, Orengo went ahead to challenge Kibaki on a Social Democratic Party (SDP) ticket, as Raila crisscrossed the nation campaigning for Kibaki under the 'Kibaki Tosha' slogan.
Unable to stand the Raila wave, Orengo appeared fourth with only 0.4 percent of the votes, and as well lost his parliamentary seat to Stephen Oluoch Ondiek.
Kibaki went ahead to win the presidential race.
In an interview with the Standard in 2014, Orengo defended his opposition of Kibaki terming him 'the wrong man' and an established person who spent all of his time in government fighting the opposition.
“When Kibaki came along, it had become a disturbing trend for all manner of people pouring into the Opposition and crowding out the real owners of the struggle.
"It was painful for me that we had allowed our fruits of the struggle to be hijacked by those who had all along sat in the periphery,” he was quoted.
However, this was not the first time the lawyer was opposing Raila, and was in Kijana Wamalwa's camp in the 1996 fight for the leadership of the Ford Kenya party.
Orengo would later regain his footing in 2007, but only after mending fences with the former Prime Minister, and led the SDP party in endorsing Raila's presidential candidature against Kibaki.
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