Main opposition party, the Orange Democratic Movement, is being rocked from within by losers following delays in releasing branch election results, thereby creating a void that is being claimed by every Tom, Dick and Harry, grassroots party members lament.

The members now want ODM to come up with a mechanism to stamp out masquerades who pose as party officials to mislead members, Gem branch officials say. According to the officials, the delay in releasing the branch chairmanship election results has seen pretenders pose as elected party officials, which foments confusion.

Led by the North Gem ward ODM chairman, Julius Omulo, the party officials further called on the party headquarters to produce an official list of its officials from the grassroots to be posted in its offices.

“As the elected party officials in North Gem, we appeal to party headquarters to come up with a disciplinary mechanism to deal with masquerades at the grassroots,” said Omulo who, together with other officials, addressed the media at Kodiaga Community Hall in North Gem.

North Gem ward women leader Anjeline Onono said it is high time the party headquarters addressed the leadership wrangles in Gem branch once and for all.

“As we speak, we are yet to get the results of the chairmanship election, which we participated in at Wagai,” she said.

Gem Branch Youth Organising Secretary Alfred Opondo said attempts by a section of the party officials in the headquarters to interfere with the duly elected grassroots officials was likely to affect the party performance.

Opondo told party headquarters to be wary of a scheme by people intending to vie for political positions who are using money to position their unpopular cronies into party leadership positions.

“We know some of them who sponsored candidates from other parties against ODM candidates during the past elections,” he said adding that this was a scheme to kill the party in Gem constituency.

A delegate, Gabriel Odhiambo Anyango, said the party headquarters cannot feign ignorance on what is happening with the party leadership in the area.

“It is the party headquarters that ordered for elections to be done at Wagai, which we did. They should come clean and declare the results from the votes we casted and give us a list of bona-fide party officials,” he said.

• A Tell Media / KNA report / By Philip Onyango