Political aspirant reveals why he clobbered Homa Bay MP in front of Raila Odinga

Homa Bay Parliamentary aspirant Washington Ogaga wrestled down area MP Peter Kaluma in a public brawl during the ODM rally. He says he has since recorded a statement even though Homa Bay County Police Commandant John Omusanga did not confirm any such statements being made with the police.

Ogaga said he was assaulted and he beat Kaluma in self-defense as Kaluma had ‘pushed him to the wall’ and he had been ‘on his neck,’ hurling unprintable insults since he declared interest in the Homa Bay seat.

“Kaluma has even called me a morgue attendant and a failure who should not be competing with him, yet I am a qualified Biomedical Engineer,” said Ogaga who was previously based in the UK.

The brawl happened after party officials left Waondo Village where they had attended a memorial service for the late Senator Otieno Kajwang and proceeded to the county stadium for a public rally.

Ogaga explains that it was at the stadium where all hell broke loose after his turn to speak saw his supporters surging forward with his portrait as Kaluma rallied his supporters as well.

“The MP then moved to me and told me to instruct my supporters to move back, but when I declined he started insulting me and threw a jab and a kick which I did not allow to land on me. Then I grabbed him and wrestled him down.”

Kaluma and Ogaga were separated by colleagues and security personnel prompting a fracas that lasted ten minutes.

But Kaluma now says he was protecting ‘Baba’ when he was attacked by ‘someone he never knew’, only to realise it was ‘Washington Ogaga, area parliamentary aspirant’ he has been reading about on social media.

Kaluma claims that Ogaga was part of a group hiring goons to boo ‘Baba’ during rallies and he had also opposed supporters carrying unwanted banners to the rally.

“I was not meant to be at the rally. My children were to be baptised on the same day, but I changed my mind at the last minute and begged the church to allow me postpone the baptism so that I could welcome ‘Baba’ in my constituency,” explained Kaluma, adding “as I stood on the podium to ask people to keep away any other banners, someone pounced on me from behind and threw me to the ground.”

It was at this point that he ‘acted in self-defense’ by kicking away the ‘strange man’, leading to fracas which saw security personnel firing in the air to disperse the surging crowd.

Kaluma promised he will not take legal action arguing that beating Ogaga at the ballot would be a fair game since “Up to now I do not have a competitor and I believe I will be re-elected Homa Bay MP unopposed. Those are just some of the challenges in politics, and I would not wish that the party disqualify him over his conduct, but leave him to compete so that I defeat him fairly.”

 Although Ogaga called for a truce ODM party has indicated it will take action. “We are doing our own investigations and will announce our actions after giving both of them right of reply,” said party chairman John Mbadi.