In a concerted attempt to unseat Majority leader Aden Duale, the Raila Odinga led opposition team has groomed the former National Assembly deputy speaker Farah Maalim to vie for the position of Garissa Township legislative seat currently held by Duale come 2017.
The outspoken Garissa Township legislator has been a thorn in the opposition's flesh with pundits awarding him crediting for having kept the opposition at bay in his line of duty as the house majority leader.
Maalim, a redoubtable politician, is the former house representative for Lagdera Constituency. He had vied for the hotly contested senatorial position for Garissa County in the previous elections where he lost by a whisker to the incumbent Yussuf Haji.
In 2007 elections, Duale served as the legislator for Dujis Constituency on an ODM ticket but later decamped to DP Ruto's URP in 2013, grasping the newly created Garissa Township seat legislative seat.
Though Maalim is a seasoned political bigwig who commands a good following in the Somali community, he will definitely have a hard task in his efforts to unseat Duale.