Okoth Obado’s woes did not start Yesterday. This is according to his close family members who now claim that the Migori Chief’s woes started way before he even joined politics.
Okoth Obado’s family members yesterday claimed that his tribulations have been caused by a senior Nyanza politician who is afraid of the continuous rise of Obado in the political scene.
Obado’s brother Daudi Obado, said the governor’s tribulations started because of his differences with a senior politician in Nyanza, whom they did not name, why back in 2002 when he was at the Kenya Sugar Board.
“The politician started frustrating our son in 2002 to stifle him politically. The same senior politician undermines democracy and an alternative voice in Nyanza,” Daudi said.
He said Obado got resistance when tried to vie for Uriri MP in 2007, and as governor twice in 2013, 2017.
In 2013, Obado won the Migori Gubernatorial seat using little known People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as his political vehicle. Come 2017, the governor faced some opposition from ODM with the party seemingly in favour of is then rival Ochillo Ayacko but even with this, the Migori governor still had his way during the nominations and later in the general elections.
Obado’s influence in Migori cannot be underestimated with the governor still commanding a huge following in the region despite the grave accusations labeled against him including those of murder and corruption.
Obado is the only governor to have gone against the principals of ODM and Raila Odinga and still survived the elections wave both in 2013 and 2017.
He has also been known to be a fierce critic of the ODM party with the governor even opposing ODM’s senatorial candidate Ochillo Ayacko in favour of Eddy Oketch.
His recent association with deputy President William Ruto is said to have been the last straw with many Raila Odinga point-men calling out the governor for what they termed as disrespect to the party and Raila Odinga.
Family spokesman Samuel Otewa, who is Obado’s uncle, said they have remained humble to let the court deal with their son but they were getting fed up with the recent happenings and especially the current illegal guns drama. The family claims that the Tuesday raid at Obado’s homes was in bad faith.
“What is happening to our son is a political witch hunt. We are tired as a family and we can’t take it anymore,” Otewa said.
The family said Obado has been defamed in social media as if “Migori is the only corrupt county in Kenya, and Obado the most corrupt Kenyan.”
“We have seen counties especially in Nyanza lagging behind in development, yet there is much corruption. This one of Migori is overblown,” he said,
The family said their son is human, and even if he had erred, his mistreatment is too much for them to bear.
On Thursday, the governor appeared before chief magistrate Joyce Gandani at Kibera Law Courts to face charges after eight guns were found in his homes. Police found five guns at Obado’s Nairobi home and three in Migori.
Do you believe that Obado’s current woes are as a result of a political witch-hunt?