Questions Swirl Over Kisumu ODM Mobilization Funds

A recent political disclosure by Kisumu Senator Prof. Tom Ojienda has opened a heated conversation about how ODM mobilisation funds were distributed ahead of the party’s Kirembe Grounds rally held on May 31st, 2026, where he detailed a structured arrangement in which party officials and elected leaders facilitated supporters’ transport using allocated funds, while also offering a rare glimpse into what he described as the logistical machinery behind one of ODM’s major recent political events in Kisumu.

According to Ojienda, MCAs received at least Ksh 100,000 each while MPs were allocated about Ksh 500,000 to support movement of supporters, with ODM national chairperson and Homa Bay Governor Gladys Wanga credited for spearheading much of the planning as he said he was occupied with legal work tied to the Rigathi Gachagua impeachment proceedings, and he further noted that supporters travelled using a mix of buses, tractors, and walking groups during the mass mobilisation.

At the centre of that conversation is Manyatta B MCA and Kisumu County Assembly Deputy Speaker Hon. Nerea Okombo, who publicly denied receiving any mobilisation allocation, then deleted the very post in which she made that denial, a sequence of events that her constituents have found considerably more revealing than anything she has said since, and that has turned what might have been a manageable political dispute into one of the most talked-about accountability controversies in Kisumu's current political season, with residents arguing that the deletion speaks louder than the original denial.

Senator Ojienda's disclosures described a distribution chain in which mobilisation funds were released to Members of Parliament, who were then expected to allocate shares to MCAs within their respective constituencies, with Kisumu East Constituency MP Hon. Adui Nyang’ coordinating the process in that area, while sources with direct knowledge of the exercise say that Okombo received Ksh 120,000 through that channel, a figure that sits awkwardly alongside her public denial of having received Ksh 100,000, since she was apparently denying a smaller amount than the one she had actually been given.

Other MCAs involved in the same mobilisation exercise raised no objections to the distribution process, leaving Okombo as the singular point of controversy in an exercise that, by every other account, proceeded without dispute, with one source stating that “every other MCA took their allocation, said thank you, and went to work,” while describing her case as the only one that turned into a public dispute.

The deletion of her social media post, timed to coincide with the emergence of specific figures and the name of the MP through whom the funds were reportedly channelled, has done more damage to her position than the original allegation alone could have managed, because a denial that cannot survive the emergence of verifiable detail is not a denial that the public is obliged to take seriously, according to sentiments expressed by residents who spoke to this publication.

Manyatta B residents who spoke to this publication were unsparing in their assessment of what the deleted post represents, with one stating, “If she had nothing to hide, the post would still be there,” adding, “You do not delete a denial unless the denial was a lie,” a view that reflects the sentiment circulating across parts of the ward.

Critics have gone further, claiming that this is not an isolated incident but part of a pattern in which the MCA has received facilitation for ODM grassroots activities without delivering the ward-level participation that the facilitation was meant to enable, and that mobilisation money has not consistently reached the structures and supporters for whom it was intended, although those claims have not been independently verified.

A group of aggrieved residents has now issued a one-week ultimatum demanding a public accounting of the funds linked to the exercise, warning that the absence of a satisfactory explanation will be met with a demonstration at the Kisumu County Assembly, a prospect that places additional pressure on a leadership role within the same assembly where the MCA serves as Deputy Speaker, while efforts to obtain a response from Okombo before publication were unsuccessful.