The Disconnect between ODM & NEP

 Ibrahim Rashid , a political and development analyst, has an editorial in The Standard on how ODM failed to live up to its promises in NEP and how its fast losing any semblance to a political movement for all. He also touched on the prospects for economic and political development in this vastly under-developed region.

Here is an excerpt from the piece

  The party is talking of elections while its electors are dying from hunger and thirst.Which                                           of these starving voters will still be around to cast their ballots and occupy the ODM offices in the region?For North Eastern, the priority cannot, and must not be party elections. Their undying prayer is finding     persons, or  political party, ready to implement and operationalise Article 43(1) where every person has the right (c) — to be free from hunger, and to have adequate food of acceptable quality; 43 (d) — to clean, safe water in adequate quantities.Even then, ODM cannot claim to conduct grassroots elections countrywide while its Secretariat and/or Election Board is not reflective of Kenya’s regional representation as required by both political norm and the new Constitution.The party has also short memory of how it has failed to equitably share the half loaf of bread (nusu mkate) of the Grand Coalition Government and quickly shortchanged those who bore the greatest responsibility in the reform crusade since Jaramogi’s Not yet Uhuru of 1966 to Raila’s Free at Last, last year.

             You can read the full editorial here