Politics: Why Kuria will be a launch pad to enter ODM Luo Nyanza turf

Ndaragwa MP Jeremaih Kioni, the introduces UDF presidential aspirant Musalia Mudavadi at Mabera when the party opened it's county offices.

Since their inclusion into Migori County the Kuria community, a minority tribe according to numbers has enjoyed a lot of national political activity with the run up of the coming elections.

The palpable fear within the community of being locked out by majority luo tribe within the county has seen some leaders, including the current MP and Assistant Roads Minister Wilfred Machage, to unanimously vote for NO during the past referendum and some to request Kuria to be joined in Rift Valley.

This fear coupled with the versatility of the tribe in voting for their leaders in line with their respective clans of; Bakira, Abagumbe, Nyabasi and Burege have seen chosing candidates from their clans irrespective of the party.

“The Kuria area in both East and West districts have 33 councilors with ODM being strong in the county having 11 with the rest divided between the score of PNU affiliate parties, Kanu and even Kenya Social Congress, a party associated with Mukaru Ng’ang’a having a civic seat” Tobias Range the Kehancha mayor explains.

Range says this dynamic politics makes it hard to predict the voting outcome of the Kuria area which within Nyanza bloc in the 2007 general elections gave President Mwai Kibaki 23,000 votes against PM Raila Odinga’s 19,000 votes.

Now with this versatility national parties with a keen interest to try to log out ODM’s grip from South Nyanza are using Kuria and Kisii area as a launching pad to infiltrate within Luo Nyanza which are hard to convince to get another party.

“The areas of Homa Bay and Migori counties are seen as hardcore ODM zones which has made politicians seeking to open their county offices in Migori to meet the IEBC guidelines to do so in Kuria which together with Kisii area may be instrumental in campaigning in Southern Nyanza” Patrice Musabi the Siabai councilor in Kuria East says.

To show the potential of the area, within the past two months the area have been a flurry of activities with New Ford Kenya presidential aspirants Eugene Wamalwa and United Democratic Front’s Musalia Mudavadi; and Kanu chairman Gideon Moi having a extensive road campaign in Kuria while giving a wide berth Luo section of Migori county.

Within this period UDF opened their county offices at Mabera town where Mudavadi was made a Kuria elder and christened ‘Mwita Chacha’, New Ford Kenya opened county offices at Isebania town while Kanu which has its National Vice Chairman and Kuria East legislative aspirants Shadrack Manga, who is also a former MP, opening two offices in Kehancha and Ntimaru towns.

This follows prior opening at Kehancha of Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper Democratic Movement-Kenya county offices and ODM Kuria branch offices with the activities expected to hot up with the run up to next general elections.

“With the demand by constitution to get at least 5% of votes in each counties there is a possibility of Kuria being an alternative in Migori County as a launching pad for parties hungry for votes in ODM turf to use it as a major base to campaign within the area” Thomas Mwita Maeta ward Kanu councilor and ward respective aspirant in next election explains.

Additionally internecine rivalry within the clans brought by cattle rustling and frequent war for land and posts can also be used by politicians to get their party officials to be elected irrespective of the party as long as they get the right member of the clan to stand.

But ODM sensing this loophole has resorted to ‘soft-politics’ of embracing the Kuria community within the county as neighbours brought together by the new county offices.

“We have an office in Kehancha specifically for Kuria region and also our county chairman John Meng’anyi Magaiwa is from Kuria, a post he took in the grass roots elections even when some politicians wanted to field a luo for the post” Joseph Olala the ODM county secretary says.

There have been options within local ODM party members to give an ‘acclamation ticket’ between the majority Luo and minority Kuria which fear being with elections being just a rubber stamp for their choice

The Raila Odinga for President Secretariat statement on GEMA and KAMATUSA Tribal Politics

Raila Odinga,presidential aspirant in the next general elections PHOTO/ Courtesy of Capital FM

THIS IS NOT A TRIBAL MOMENT, IT IS KENYA'S MOMENT

 1. We note with profound concern the return of the politics of hostile ethnic polarisation -through Gema and Kamatusa.

2. We have watched in keen silence as the leaders of these organizations have rapidly and dangerously postured in public for a return to their conceptual and injurious roots of the early 1970s and 1990s.

3. From the start, Gema has always been a hegemony outfit. It has been an exclusivist organization, keen on protecting narrow sectarian interests, disguised as community interests, while marginalizing everybody else.

4. In the 1970s, Gema attempted to enforce loyalty through a narrow, stringently imposed, ethnic agenda. It engaged in coercive and widespread oathing of its members. It planted terror and fear in everybody, both within and outside the'so-called Gema communities. This history is well documented.

5. Kamatusa, for its part, came into existence in 1991 in opposition to the democratization of Kenya. In particular, it was stridently opposed to the removal of Section 2A from the Constitution and the opening up of Kenya to multiparty democracy. It demonized the search for good and accountable governance.

6. Kamatusa is notoriously remembered for the Kapkatet Declaration of 1991. This declaration was an edict to the non-Kamatusa communities to leave parts of Rift Valley Province or be forcefully evicted. This was followed by systematic ethnic cleansing in Rift Valley Province. Kamatusa committed heinous crimes against innocent Kenyans. There has been no restitution to date.

7. Over the years, Kenyans who rightfully own property in Rift Valley Province have been steadily traumatized. They have been disinherited of their property by the architects of Kamatusa. Some of these leaders have not hesitated to "inherit", personally, land belonging to evictees. It is appalling that such unjust leaders nurse ambitions of higher national office, including Office of the President.

8. If leaders can rally tribes under dangerous organizations whose history is well known, how more dangerous could they get, should the country suffer the misfortune of having them as President? How many more people would they dispossess of their property and displace, now they brazenly flaunt potentially violent ethnicity with impunity?

9. Gema and Kamatusa were never about representing the poor. Instead, both have oppressed the poor people from the communities they purport to speak for. Both are regrouping themselves around precisely the wicked old objectives and ways.

They are still protecting narrow sectarian interests. In the case of Kamatusa, the injustice of forced evictions and dispossession is once again on the cards. The big irony is that some of those targeted for the next wave of eviction are from the same communities that Kamatusa leaders fraternize with in daytime. They laugh together and hug each other during the day and plot evictions in the night.

Both Gema and Kamatusa are still attempting to enforce loyalty through a narrow ethnic agenda.They are beginning to look like cults that everybody in the tribe must kneel before.

Those who refuse are demonized and terrorized.

10. It is instructive that both Gema and Kamatusa leaders have threatened to take away the right of the people of Kenya to go to free and fair democratic elections. One speaker after the other at the Gema meeting in Limuru last month stated that there would be no peaceful elections in Kenya if Uhuru Kenyatta's name was not on the presidential ballot paper.

This is overt incitement to violence and a threat to the rest of the country. We call upon the Minister for Internal Security to assure Kenyans that they can continue to feel comfortable, at peace, and safe in the belief that they can approach the forthcoming elections without being afraid.

11. Equally instructive is the threat by Kamatusa leaders to disrupt the election calendar (read the elections). They have promised to engage in dangerous ethnic based mobilization to ensure that there will be no elections. Alternatively, they intend to unleash violence during the elections.

The Minister for Internal Security needs to reassure Kenyans against threats of this kind. We have the history of threats of this kind. It informs us that these are not idle threats. Are we safe?

12. We hail leaders from Central Kenya and the greater Mt. Kenya region, as well as those from the North and South Rift who have distanced themselves from the ruinous intentions of the two sinister organizations. This is Kenya's time. It is not a tribal moment. We cherish the pursuit of the Kenyan dream of one people, one nation, one voice.

13. Finally, the time has come when we must say a firm NO to the shameless and cheap propaganda and hate speech that has been spewed against the Prime Minister. The politics of lies, hostility and threat to violence have no room in the democracy that we crave. Democracy must be digniSed.

We are keeping a keen eye on the captains of violent lies and propaganda. We know their history very well. We know the history of Kenya. From now on, we shall no longer quietly stand by as they spin lies and use them to prepare communities for tribal violence. We shall robustly expose them for what they are.

14. Kenyans have the chance to save this wonderful country that God has given us from slipping into the culture of hate and violence of the kind we saw in 2008. It is a culture that has sunk other countries. We have no need for it. We want our children to grown up in a peaceful society where people respect and love each other.

We must begin by rejecting the captains of hate and injustice. We must reject cheap propaganda and dangerous ethnic mobilization. We must reject thos,e with no respect for citizens' rights to life and property; those who believe you have no right to live in some part of the country. This is not a tribal moment. This is Kenya's moment. Let us not lose the moment to tribal chieftains.

The Raila Odinga for President Secretariat

Do not polarize nation against Kikuyus by By Mwangi Wilson Murimi

Wilson Murimi

The raging debate over the amicability of a third kikuyu president and the legitimacy of a kikuyu inspector-general of police is eminent but being indecently conducted.

This crucial debate has surpassed purviews of decency, not only in the mainstream media but also in the social media, to the extent that GEMA candidates for top posts are being viewed with cynical criticism.

The debate is gratuitously charging the country towards a Kikuyu-phobic attitude, which is unhealthy considering that the country is healing from the 2008 post-poll chaos.

Whereas it is true that domination of a country’s government bureaucracy and armed forces by a single community in a heterogeneous society is dangerous, it is more perilous to create a tribal rift in a nation healing from post-poll chaos.

The danger of tendering an anti-kikuyu attitude is that a repeat of 2008 chaos in 2012 will lame the country’s ailing economy owing to the fact that very many businesses in the country side are owned by Kikuyus.

I am shocked that even Omar Hassan, one of the expected panelists in the selection of the next police boss, could so imprudently display his anti-Kikuyu viewpoint yet he will be expected to be impartial during the candidates grilling exercise.

In his viewpoint that a Kikuyu should not lead the police force, Hassan created an impression that a Kikuyu’s candidature is illegitimate. It creates an impression that the grilling exercise should be veered towards eliminating Kikuyus from the police boss race! What law segregates a community from producing a police boss?

Into the bargain, this Kikuyu-phobic attitude seems to be brewing a ‘Kenyan Spring’ against the election of a Kikuyu president even if he/she captures the seat in a democratic and a constitutionally justifiable election.

Democracy might blossom in a society where the citizens are free to engage in debate on key issues, but this discourse must be done in an admissible manner without infringing into the rights of any section of the society, or messing up national unity. The way out is empowerment of the recently created electoral body so that the 2012 elections are democratic.

The writer is a communications and media student at Maseno University and a sub-editor of Equator Weekly.