Following the defeat of former prime minister Raila Odinga by William Ruto on the August 9 presidential General Elections, a few insiders in the Azimio la Umoja coalition have been offering insights on what might have gone wrong.

One of the most prominently cited cause is the poor preparation and lack of care for party agents. On Friday, Viscount K’Owuor, a sociologist and civic educator who has been working with the ODM party shared a communication from frustrated Azimio la Umoja agents in Nyanza who were unpaid and unfed during and after the general elections. Here it is:

“The Azimio Secretariat failed us big time! And here are the reasons:

1. The communication for moving down to the constituencies for trainings was at the eleventh hour( short notice).

2. On the ground, we found Constituency and Ward coordinators who had half baked information on the whole training program and with zero resources for organization.

3. The training venues and materials were availed at the eleventh.

4. The legitimate expectation of the Agents in terms of transport, airtime,lunch and payment were and have not be met.

5. The failure by the Secretariat to avail in time the appointment letters and oaths of secrecy (being critical to the Agent’s work on the Election Day)turned out be the worst nightmare, and may contribute to some of the controversies around this election.

6. Discriminate treatment of Agents’ payments offends the constitution of Kenya and Labour laws.

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7. The secretariat acting mum on the question of payments smucks of dishonesty and bad faith.

8. I ask the Secretariat to apply the same zeal and energy in settling the Agents payments as they doing asking for forms 34As and 34Bs.

9. The Secretariat failed in delivering the ‘We Count App’ link to the Agents on the polling day.

10. Raila has fought many battles, Mungu atamuonekania kwa hii kura, lakini Azimio Secretariat nayo haikuwa serious!”