As an indication of how the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader Raila Odinga’s influence is waning in his Nyanza bastion, almost half of Kisumu county MCAs allied to his Orange party snubbed a meeting called by him in a bid to whip them on whom to vote  for in  the county assembly as speaker.

The former premier had convened a meeting with all MCAs in the county allied to ODM as he fronted Elisha Oraro but a section of the MCA could have non of it and thus snubbed the meeting with only those allied to Hon Oraro turning up. This meeting had been necessitated by the fact the Kisumu Governor Prof. Anyang’ Nyon’go had failed to convince the MCAs to vote for Mr Oraro who was the party’s choice.

It was after this that the Azimio La Umoja-One Kenya Alliance party leader decided to wash his hands and told them to vote for whoever they wished. Nevertheless Hon Elisha Oraro won in the hotly contested election where he garnered 24 votes against his worthy competitor Samuel Ongo’u who got 23 votes in the first round. The second and final round saw Oraro with 25 votes,  narrowly beat Ong’ou  who managed 23 votes and thus declared winner.

The defiance of almost half of the MCAs portends doom to the former premier as he has enjoyed massive support in the past and no one could imagine him being defied. Could he be losing grip politically?