Suba South Member of Parliament (MP) Caroli Omondi on March 19, clarified his close working relationship with President William Ruto.
The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) lawmaker is among a handful of former Azimio leaders who were labelled 'rebels' after they pledged to support Ruto.
This is despite calls by his party leader, Raila Odinga, saying he does not recognise the presidency of Ruto and called for anti-government protests.
Speaking to NTV, he mentioned, “It is important for any elected representative to engage with the president. We are not engaging with the president on political issues, we are engaging on development. We have no intention of joining UDA.”
He revealed that 18 out of the 32 elected Members of Parliament from Nyanza region were working with the president. This was to counter the long-held view that the region, a stronghold of Odinga was in the opposition.
“If you take the larger ODM family, the numbers are around 64. It’s a very large group, but nobody is rebelling, nobody wants to leave ODM,” he noted signifying that a number of ODM leaders were working with the government.
He criticised his predecessor John Mbadi for being a prominent legislator yet did not achieve any noteworthy development projects.
“My predecessor John Mbadi was minority leader in Parliament. He served there for 15 years. He chaired many committees and is a very able and competent MP, but, we don’t have a tarmac road in Suba. We’ve never had any new administrative unit in Suba in 20 years.”
John Mbadi is the current ODM party chairman and is a nominated MP in the National Assembly.
He complained that the poor state of the roads was being made worse by the rains.
The first-time lawmaker argued that full development at the constituency level could not be realised without the MP working closely with the government of the day.
He added that his key priorities are infrastructural projects and new administrative units.
Speaking specifically about the 72-kilometre road between Sori and Mbita, Omondi explained that the contractor is expected to start working on the road soon.
“We were not able to get anything done under the Handshake. I tried my best and it didn’t work, but now that he has agreed to engage with us, he has assured me that the contractor will be back on site before the end of this month,” he added.
A section of ODM MPs on Tuesday, February 7, met President Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua in what pundits viewed as a scheme by the ruling regime to cut Odinga's popularity to size.
They included Elisha Odhiambo (Gem), Gideon Ochanda (Bondo), John Owino (Awendo), Mark Nyamita (Uriri), Caroli Omondi (Suba South), Felix Odiwuor alias Jalang’o (Lang’ata), Shakeel Shabir (Kisumu East, Independent), Paul Abuor (Rongo), and Kisumu Senator Tom Ojienda.
