A cocoon of aspirants in Kisumu East parliamentary seat have united to dislodge area MP Shakeel Shabbir in the coming 2022 general elections.
The five-member team that now calls itself ‘The pentagon’ has Nahashon Oguya and Joab Ndege, Kevin Amimo, Ben Juma and one John Anditi.
The team basically comprises of busy bodies from different clans within the constituency who are not happy about ‘an outsider’ leading them.
Oguya was one time the chairman of the Kisumu county public service board while Anditi comes from Kajulu clan with the rest coming from Kolwa, the two are the largest clans in Kisumu East.
‘The Pentagon’ is experimenting the same scheme that failed in 2017 after Shakeel shocked them by retaining his seat on an independent ticket after defeating the ex-Kenya Sugar board director Nicholas Oricho who relied on ODM euphoria in the region.
The pentagon blamed Oricho for making poorly calculated political moves that left enough loopholes for Shakeel who is of Asian descent to beat Raila Odinga’s candidate.
Oguyo’s team claimed that Oricho won the party ticket but was not appealing to the voters at all yet he remained on a comfort zone thinking he had won just because he was an ODM ticket holder.
But even in the neighbouring Kisumu West, MP Olago Aluoch staged a spirited fight and retained his seat on Ford Kenya ticket despite the orange onslaught.
Shabir took over from the then dismally performing Gor Sungu who had to force himself into retirement from politics and a low profile life after investigations into the murder of former Foreign Affairs minister Robert Ouko left him a marked man.
Sungu once chaired a parliamentary select committee that was probing the brutal murder of ex-foreign affairs minister.
He tried to make a desperate come back after starring in sexual scandals with the widow of the late Luo Rhumba crooner, Musa Juma.
Gor Sungu did not even go beyond party nominations in 2017.
The aggressive scheme to oust Shabbir is not based on his performance but race and solid relationship with the electorate.
Anditi claims that Shabbir’s three terms in the office have benefited voters with any development to show a part from perfecting the art of tokenism through maize flour contribution to funerals.
The Pentagon also claims that the slowed development is a result of the bad relationship between the lawmaker and Kisumu Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o.
Shabbir once embarrassed the governor over plans to build the
63-kilometre Mamboleo- Muhoroni road where Shabbir accused Nyong’o of misleading the public on the planned works on the road.
He made a solo protest to Nyong’o and told people that as a member of the finance committee in the national assembly, there was no budget for the road as claimed by Nyong’o who was out to hoodwink the people for political mileage.
But Shabbir was later left to hang dry after treasury approved Sh4.9 billion for the construction of the sugar belt road.
The pentagon group is also blaming the MP for the general poor academic performance in the constituency with many mixed schools that are poorly equiped.
They are also accusing Shabbir’s wife of nepotism and conflict of interest by serving as the constituency manager.
