On 22 November 2018, whispers inside Raila Odinga’s ODM party pointed to a senior official who was allegedly becoming a drain on party resources. The claims, passed around by sources familiar with internal discussions, said the man had been charging the party for personal costs, including trips to his village, and that some stakeholders were already weighing a replacement with stronger financial backing.
Those same political conversations suggested the official’s future in the party could be in doubt if the complaints persisted. The allegation was not that he lacked influence, but that his spending habits had become a burden on the organisation and had started to irritate other players around him.
In a separate matter, a nominee for a senior position in the judiciary was said to be under scrutiny over a tender dispute tied to his previous workplace. According to word circulating in Parliament and at the institution where he had worked, he allegedly influenced the award of a contract that had first gone to a Turkish firm. The source said a down payment of Sh100 million had already been made, and that kickback pressure later pushed a procurement team meeting at a hotel in Machakos county to shift the deal to a South African firm.
The nominee, however, did not get his way in the end. The chairman of the state institution is said to have intervened and ensured the tender remained with the South African company, despite the alleged pressure around the process.
Elsewhere, foreigners held at Industrial Area Remand Prison were described as receiving treatment that Kenyan suspects rarely enjoy. The group, said to include detainees from China, Nigeria, Cameroon, Rwanda and South Korea, was reported to be getting special meals from hotels or food brought from home, while some preferred to stay in remand even after being granted cash bail.
One Asian inmate facing fraud charges was singled out as living in conditions closer to home than prison. The account said he had a phone, a thick mattress, clean bedding and food served to him like a king, in sharp contrast to Kenyan inmates who sleep on the floor. The disparity has now prompted calls for prison authorities to be investigated over what critics described as a shameful injustice in the justice system.
In the county assembly, two city MCAs said to sit on a powerful committee were accused of targeting staff for dismissal by the County Assembly Service Board. Several employees were reportedly living in fear after being told the MCAs intended to deal with them soon, with the workers believed to be aligned to suspended Clerk Jacob Ngwele.
The claims, if true, point to widening internal battles in political parties, state institutions, prisons and county assemblies, with money, influence and loyalty all appearing to shape who stays in office and who gets pushed out.
