Raila supported my campaign with Ksh5M donation – Jalang’o

Lang’ata Member of Parliament Felix Odiwuor, better known as Jalang’o, has opened up about the role opposition leader Raila Odinga played in his election last year.

In an interview with a local TV station on Friday, September 22, Jalang’o disclosed that the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader donated Ksh5 million to support his election bid.

He confessed that beating his predecessor Nixon Korir would have been a daunting task without the support of the former prime minister.

“Even my campaigns could have been very hard, and I know the big role Baba played in me being a member of parliament, he supported me by not only endorsing me. But also financially, we are the few people that one day Baba told us to plan something, and he said he would come and grace it to support us in the elections, and he gave me personally Ksh5 million,” Jalang’o disclosed.

He added: “It is not easy to beat an incumbent MP with the resources and everything.”

The lawmaker was responding to claims of alleged fallout with the ODM chief that saw him and several other perceived rebel MPs expelled from the opposition party early this month.

Jalang’o maintained that he was innocent adding that Raila still loves him as his son.

“Baba knows very well, that Jalang’o is his son, baba loves me so much, but the truth is, when politics takes over even the love and betrayal, politics is a game of chance, a snowball,” he noted.

ODM cracked the whip on Jalang’o, Gem MP Elisha Odhiambo, Caroli Omondi (Suba South), Gideon Ochanda (Bondo), and Kisumu Senator Tom Ojienda on grounds of ‘openly associating with and supporting activities of a rival political party’.

The MPs have in recent months been under pressure from the ODM party to resign for openly working with President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza side.

Jalang’o, Ojienda and Odhiambo have since challenged their expulsion from the ODM party at the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal (PPDT).

The lawmakers argue that the decision to expel them from the party was premature.

Yesterday the tribunal extended orders barring the MPs’ expulsion from the party pending hearing of the case.

The matter will be mentioned on October 3.