2022 Elections : Maungu garnered 15,298 votes while Omulele bagged 12,271 votes and UDA’s candidate Tom Atingo got 3,057 votes whereas Peter Omucheto got 3,000 as an Independent camdidate. Luanda constituency has 56,310 registered voters but only 34,620 voters turned out to cast their ballot in the 2022 polls.
By Faith Anene, Luanda
The high octane politics being witnessed in Luanda constituency, if anything is to go by, will go a long way in determining who becomes the next Member of Parliament after the 2027 General Elections.
With the clock ticking to the 2027 polls, battlegrounds have already been drawn by different political formations, strategizing on how to cut to size their opponents in order to win the prize.
The race is turning out to be between two political antagonists- Luanda MP Dick Maungu and his predecessor Chris Omulele. Peter Olala Omucheto who got 3,000 votes in the last polls will also be trying his second stab at the parliamentary seat. For Tom Atingo, he has resigned to fate.
Others in the race are, a perennial loser Albert Obbuyi and political novices – Vincent Angatia, a cousin to Kakamega Deputy Governor Ayub Savula and Robert Owuor, the son to Ken Owuor of Stone Mountain Hotel – Kima.
Harold Mbati who has been running annual football tournament is said not to be keen on the race but is said to be supporting the candidature of Mr Omulele, the former MP
On the other hand, Members of Vihiga County Assembly from Luanda constituency have already aligned themselves to Mr Maungu and Mr Omulele.
MCAs supporting Mr Maungu are Patrick Akhwale (Wemilabi ward) and David Onjiri (Luanda Township ward) while Zakayo Manyasa (Mwibona ward) is in Omulele’s camp together with former Emabungo ward rep aspirant Oscar Ndanyi.
For lightweights like Kelvin Mwangu (Luanda South) and Mike Okoba aka Sonko (Emabungo ward), word has it that none of the two leaders (Maungu and Omulele) wants them in their camp.
“There is nothing Mr Mwangu and Mr Okoba can bring to the table at the moment, for their supporters have shifted allegiance to other candidates and may not make a comeback,” said Shadrack Alinyo, a political analyst from Ebusakami, adding, “Their survival depends on the mercy of the two leaders,”
Maungu vs Omulele fireworks
After Maungu (DAP-K) defeated Mr Omulele (ODM) in the 2022 polls, he was helped with ODM leader Raila Odinga to become the Speaker of the County Assembly of Vihiga, against Governor Wilber Ottichilo’s wish who wanted a speaker from Hamisi Sub County to entrench regional balance.
Maungu garnered 15,298 votes while Omulele bagged 12,271 votes and UDA’s candidate Tom Atingo got 3,057 votes whereas Peter Omucheto got 3,000 as an Independent camdidate.. Luanda constituency has 56,310 registered voters but only 34,620 voters turned out to cast their ballot in the 2022 polls.
The two leaders have been facing each other mano a mano, with each accusing the other of incompetence and clashing over their development track record.
They have mastered the art of washing their dirty linen in public where accusations and counter-accusations flew between them. The latest outburst was when there was an incident at PAG Paradiso – Epang’a where faithfuls consumed contaminated food that saw over 50 of them admitted at Emuhaya Sub County Hospital.
After Maungu visited the patients in the morning on the fateful day, Omulele and his team came to the hospital in the afternoon and later claimed to have paid the hospital bill for all the patients who were affected at the hospital, something that is yet to be proven to date.
Earlier, Mr Omulele accused the current MP of spreading falsehoods to discredit his development track record.
Omulele, who served as Luanda MP for two terms before his current role between 2013-2022, saying there was no school in the constituency where he hasn’t built classrooms.
“We don’t have a school in Luanda constituency that doesn’t have my classrooms. These projects you are seeing did not spring up overnight. You can’t walk around saying I did nothing during my tenure.”
Omulele said he has built storey buildings at Esiandumba, Mumboha, Esibeye and Khwiliba among others. This was during the burial of Mzee Javan Haggai Omondi at Esibeye Secondary School last year.
He also claimed that he lost unfairly to Maungu in the 2022 election, insinuating that the election was marred with irregularities. He asked the current MP to focus on delivering to the constituents rather than engaging in political mudslinging.
But in a bare knuckle, Mr Maungu dismissed Omulele’s claims, accusing his predecessor of taking credit for ongoing projects initiated under his current term. “Let Mr Omulele tell us in the 10 years between 2013-2022, Luanda received Sh2.4 billion. What did he do with the money? I have evidence he did nothing.”
According to the first-time MP, he has been forced to allocate afresh money to projects that Mr Omulele started despite the funds allocated to the projects having been spent to the last cent.
Maungu said that Omulele started a storey building for Mumboha secondary school, the project was allocated Sh54 million and when he took over as MP, the project was 70 percent complete but Sh53 million had been already spent and only Sh1 million was in the account.
On rigging him out in the last polls, Maungu told Omulele that he had the opportunity to seek redress in court but he did not do it and therefore he should wait for another heavy defeat in 2027. “I defeated him with a cool 3,500 votes but come 2027, I want to defeat him with over 10,000 votes,”
According to Isaiah Sikhuli, a political analyst from Emuhaya, the race for Luanda MP seat is between Maungu and Omulele, saying, Mr Maungu has no serious competitor, as he is not confrontational and enjoys broad support even from Omulele’s stronghold.
“Omulele has never accepted that Maungu defeated him squarely and come 2027, a ward like Mwibona will vote over 50 per cent to Maungu in contrast to Omulele, who is currently losing influence, now at around 20 per cent,” said Sikhuli
He went on: “Omulele’s leadership style is characterized as repetitive and unchanging, particularly in terms of his approach to cooking food during the Christmas festivities, which seems to symbolize his leadership or lack thereof. People want tangible development and not food,
