He may be down but not out. Even after losing his Ugenya MP seat in 2017, David Ochieng proved that he can contest with the powerful and the mighty in Nyanza's political where competition is always stiff.At the end, the firebrand politician had the last laugh after the Court nullified his opponent's win.
As a political greenhorn, Ochieng swept to a clean victory in 2013 and inherited the seat that had become synonymous with James Orengo, the veteran in Siaya politics. His future looked bright until his fallout with ODM, the party that sponsored him to Parliament. And his future looked sealed.
He jumped ship to form Movement for Development and Democracy, the party he used as his new political vehicle in the 2017 contest.
At first, no body gave him a chance to give the ODM candidate Chris Karan a run for his money. But he pulled a surprise-losing the election by slightest of the margins; 347 votes. This was no mean achievement for a man who was on his own after the region's dominant party wedged a war against him.
He went to Court to challenge the election, the court ruled in his favor setting stage for another bruising battle in a by-election.
With the fate of Karan still at the hands of Court of Appeal judges, Ochieng has already proved a point that no one can write him off in Siaya politics and that the strongest man is he who stands alone.