[Kisii Women Representative Mary Otara in a past event. She has denied embezzling funds meant for affirmative action. Photo/Hivisasa.com]
Kisii County Women Representative Mary Otara has rubbished claims of non-performance by her opponents, terming them self-serving and malicious.
She dismissed accusations by her opponents among them Ms Everlyne Ogendo and Ms Bridgit Ombati, who have been attacking her development record, saying they were motivated by greed and malice.
Ms Ogendo recently stirred the hornet’s nest of controversy by likening Ms Otara to a joyrider in Parliament, saying the women rep had not moved a single motion in parliament in her four years in the Assembly.
“We are disappointed with the conduct of our woman repo who has turned out to be a mere joyrider in the Assembly with no motions to her credit in the last four years she has been there,” said Ms Ogendo during a telephone interviewon Sunday.
Ms Ogendo, who is vying for the seat on a Jubilee ticket, accused Ms Otara of failing to assist large sections of vulnerable women, youth and disabled, saying her tenure had proven to be a let down to the region’s residents.
Ms Otara has been quiet even as our people suffer and languish in poverty because of lacking access to the state funding that she controls. We need her to account for the millions she received from the government to fund enterprises in the region over the last four years, said Ms Ogendo.
Ms Ombati, who was the runners-up in the 2013 elections, accused Ms Otara of being the beneficiary of skewed nominations in ODM.
“I won the nominations in 2013 but to my surprise I was told that I had lost. It is obvious that Ms Otara benefited from skewed party nominations and our county has suffered from the consequences of that result ever since,” said Ms Ombati.
She warned Ms Otara against attempting to impose her will on the JP nominations, saying that she would ensure she won the primaries.
“We cannot allow the residents of this county to endure another five years of disinterested, inept and inefficient leadership. Mary Otara’s time at the helm has expired due to her own failures,” said Ms Ombati.
Ms Otara however hit back at her detractors, terming them “wolves in sheepskin and political adventurers without a clue of what leadership entails”.
She was addressing residents in Suneka, Bonchari constituency, when she made the remarks.
“My opponents are not aware of the struggle we went through as women reps to ensure that the NGAAF was legalized. We had to battle our fellow male colleagues in parliament for over two years to get the required legislation approved for the Fund,” said Ms Otara.
She said her opponents were excited by the amount of funds present in the NGAAF kitty, saying they did not have a proper agenda for the Kisii people.
“Some of my opponents are simply driven by greed and an irrational desire to control the National Government Affirmative Action Fund (NGAAF) which we fought so hard as women reps to legalize in Kenyan law,” the MP said.
Ms Otara cautioned voters against being swayed by fanciful promises made by people of low repute.
“Some of my competitors’ campaigns could appear attractive because of excessive lies and shameless propaganda calculated to incite them against what I have been doing for my people in the last four years. However, they might actually turn out to be worse than me if elected,” said Ms Otara.
She asked the Jubilee Party to ensure that free and fair nominations were held in the party primaries scheduled forApril 21, 2017.