ODM Party leader Raila Odinga and Secretary General Agnes Zani at a past event. [Photo/ the-star.co.ke]
How to treat independent candidates remains an elephant in the room within ODM as party leader Raila Odinga and Secretary General Agnes Zani disagree over the matter.
On Sunday, Raila asked his Luo Nyanza backyard to shun independent candidates and instead back the candidates who were nominated by the party, arguing the coalition requires enough members in both Senate and Parliament.
However, Zani on Monday toned down Raila's hard-line stance saying that the independents are not enemies of the party.
She, however, maintained that the party will back its candidates in the August elections.
"Independent candidates are our friends; we cannot say that they are our enemies. What we want to explain is that when we go out there as ODM, we will stand with the party nominees but they (independent candidates) are also ours,” said Zani, after she led a high-powered delegation to IEBC to deposit the list of Presidential proposers of NASA candidate Raila Odinga and his running mate Kalonzo Musyoka.
This comes after ANC party leader Musalia Mudavadi warned independent candidates against using NASA symbols in their posters.