Malindi MP Aisha Jumwa’s road-to-Damascus moment will be sealed at a meeting with ODM leader Raila Odinga in the near future, a party insider has said.
The settlement, brokered by Suna East MP Junet Mohamed, was reached in County Hall, the Nation can reveal.
Speaking to the Nation, Mr Mohamed said Ms Jumwa is keen to return to the ODM fold and was pleasantly surprised to meet Mr Odinga Tuesday.
“Mr Odinga had left the plenary meeting briefly before bumping into Ms Jumwa, who was on her way to the office,” Mr Mohamed said. “The two exchanged pleasantries and she told PM [Raila] that she wants to come back to the party. She said circumstances conspired to push her out of the party but she wanted to return to the fold. I have organised a meeting between her and the party leader as she is welcome to ODM.”
Ms Jumwa has been ODM’s biggest adversary in the Coast region and this turn of events caught politicians by surprise.
But whereas Mr Mohamed claimed Ms Jumwa had endorsed ODM’s candidate in the Kibra by-election Bernard Otieno Okoth, alias Imran, she vehemently denied offering such backing.
Further, she said she had not dumped Deputy President William Ruto’s Tangatanga camp.
“I neither attended their meeting nor endorsed Mr Okoth,” Ms Jumwa protested to the media last evening in Parliament, claiming the information was part of a scheme to intimidate her out of supporting Mr Ruto.
“I’m reading all over social media that I have endorsed Mr Okoth. I haven’t done such a thing. Those are lies being peddled by people close to the ODM leader.”
Her version of the story is that it was Mr Odinga and Mr Mohamed who barged into her office uninvited after their meeting, which was held a few steps from her Parliamentary Service Commission office located at County Hall.
Ms Jumwa rubbed ODM the wrong way when she defied the party and rallied behind DP Ruto for the presidency in the 2022 elections.
Efforts by ODM to remove the MP from the party were futile as she is now seen as Mr Ruto’s main campaigner in the Coast region.
A former close ally of Mr Odinga, Ms Jumwa is a key figure in the Inua Mama group comprising women MPs vouching for Mr Ruto to succeed President Kenyatta when his second and final term expires in 2022.
Mr Odinga used ODM’s parliamentary group meeting at County Hall to rally his troops behind the Building Bridges Initiative and the ODM Kibra candidate.
After the meeting, photos of Mr Odinga with Ms Jumwa flooded social media, with reports that she was contemplating mending relations with the party.
ODM Director of Communications Philip Etale claimed on his Facebook page that Ms Jumwa had attended the ODM meeting. He added that the MP had ditched Tangatanga and promised to campaign for Mr Okoth.
“Jumwa today officially ditched Team Tangatanga and vowed to vigorously campaign for Bernard Okoth Imran,” he said. “She attended the [meeting] chaired by party leader H.E. Raila Odinga. Imran was also introduced to the members,” added Mr Etale.
But Ms Jumwa said in a Facebook post: “Hon Raila makes a surprise visit to my Parliamentary Service Commission’s Office this afternoon. This was after he attended the ODM Parliamentary Group meeting at County Hall, which I did not attend.”
In March, the Malindi MP was expelled from ODM by the party’s National Governing Council for gross misconduct. This was after the MP and her Msambweni counterpart Suleiman Dori were accused of openly supporting and promoting the interests of another party following their close and public association with the DP.
Additional reporting by Ibrahim Oruko
