Category Archives: Kisii

Kenya: “Special tribute to my late Mum”, by Pastor Birai

Leave a reply

God willing and should funds become available,then on Friday,April 2nd,2010, I will join my siblings,relatives,friends,the community, and all well wishers to wish Mama fare well @ her home in Bonyunyu, Nyamira, Kenya.

Like in any other funeral service,Mama will be remembered for all kinds of things.But as for me I will remember her and pay special tribute for the following:

1.Mama was born in 1925 and got married as a 4th wife to my late father in 1943 @ the age of 18 years old. She spent most of her life in great pain and agony as she laid to rest 7 of her children who died at different ages for who knows what.

2.She was a very faithful,dedicated,committed, peace loving,generous and loyal Christian. She spent most of her life as a deaconess.She returned her tithe both faithfully and systematically.She had no quarrel with any one and avoided gossip in all its forms.

3. She was a woman of prayer who daily prayed for her children and even her enemies.She was the first one to assist her enemies,something that you rarely witness or hear about.She had this way of talking to Jesus that really touched me. Her prayers on behalf of us,her children were very rich. They are what has carried us this far. Will always cherish them.

4.She taught us to fear/respect God, to be faithful in returning to God what belongs to Him and to be always ready and willing to support all, including our enemies.Every time I called to speak with Mama,most of what she told me was other people’s problems. She rarely thought of her own needs. God bless her soul.

5.She was a very hard working woman who loved a clean environment.

6.Amidst many years of pain, torture and dire poverty,she lived to be 85 years old and has left behind 5 grown up children,36 grand children, 21 great grand children and 1 great great grand child. Both my father and my 3 step mothers are deceased.

Yes, on that day-her burial day-as she will be lowered to her resting place until the resurrection day, I will deep in my heart whisper these words,”Fare thee loving mother. We truly appreciate all your sacrifice on our behalf. There is no question that you will be missed, but we look forward to seeing you in the earth made new.If we,your children will remain faithful,then in a little while,we’ll be home.” Rest in peace from all the pain that you have gone through.” On that day,you will be able to see your children again! Hallelujah.

Is your mother still alive? Please let them know how much you appreciate them. If yours is already gone then know that my prayers and thoughts are with you.

Even so come Lord Jesus and take your children home. We are truly sick and tired of this world. Amen!

Pr Absalom Birai
612-386-4608
www.pastorbirai.com

Campaign starts to heat up in South Mugirango, as Magara to face it off with 12 other aspirants

22 Replies

IT IS GOING TO BE A TOUGH CHOICE FOR SOUTH MUGIRANGO VOTERS AS 12 HIGH PROFILE INDIVIDUALS JOIN THE RACE SET FOR A JUNE, 2010 BY-ELECTION.

Reports Leo Odera Omolo From Rongo Town

The forthcoming by-election in South Mugirango constituency is going to be the toughest campaign ever seen in the Gusii region in the recent years.

Already twelve {12} high profile individual aspirants have declared their interest in the seat formerly held by the ODM national treasurer, Omingo Magara. Magara’s election in the 2007 as the area MP was nullified by the High Court Judge, Justice Masinga sitting in Kisii law court, on the ground of irregularities.

Magara himself is leading the pack of twelve aspirants, and the rumor making the rounds on the ground paints negative colors, that his chances of clinching the seat are rather deem. This is because of the widely common knowledge that he burned his bridges with the ODM leadership, particularly the party leader, Raila Odinga.

The Orange party is still very popular with the Gusii electorate, and appear to be a hard nut to crack in this constituency by another party. But this will however depend on the strength of the individuals contesting on the party’s ticket after the preliminaries.

Although the Independent Interim Electoral Commission has yet to set the official campaign date rolling, the aspirants were already on the ground at the weekend. They attended funerals and gatherings in marketplaces, schools sports meetings, and other gatherings, ahead of the official campaign time.

The indications on the ground are that the ODM ticket is expected to attract more spirants than any other party.
Reports from the ground say Omingo Magara might not be an easy push over, but still a power to reckon with, if only he gets the blessing of his party leadership. Whether the top brass of ODM are willing to forgive and forget remains to be seen.

But the entry of the former area MP, David Kombo, and Ombasa Apepo, who appear to have done their home work properly, each hoping to clinch the ODM nomination, further complicates things for Magara.

Not to be left out of the equation either is the only woman candidate in the race, Rosemary Obara. She is the chairperson of the Gusii Water and Sanitation Company. If she wins the nomination phase, and go ahead to win the parliamentary contest, she will go down in the history books as the first woman to win a parliamentary seat among the Abagusii people.

The other woman who at one time had became so powerful politically in the region, and contested a parliamentary seat previously, was Mrs Catherine Nyamato, the former nominated MP who contested Mugirango West. Therefore Obara’s candidature could complicate the race for all the male aspirants, as the populous female votes are likely to sway her way.

The teachers fraternity will also be well represented by the KNUT Gucha South branch treasurer, Mr Zebedeo Nyaboga, as well as the retired former High School Principal, Mr. Ibrahim Otoi, who has also declared that he would be in the race for the same seat. Both of them enjoy good rapport with the teachers in the region, and are banking on cashing out on that popularity.

So if it isn’t a history of economic development initiatives that will tilt the decision of the voters, the educational achievement of a contestant will most likely do the trick. For besides teachers, there is also a doctor, and a lawyer. Dr. Ezekiel Okemwa, who is said to be having a good following on the ground, is maximizing on his profession to turn the tables on the other aspirants. Not to be outdone, a Kisii lawyer, Mr David Mugunde, is also counting on his local connections to get him overboard. A Mr. Mauti Sagwe is also in the race.

Yet the man to watch very carefully is Manson Nyamweya, the man who had petitioned the court and ensured Magara’s election was nullified. He is a staunch member of the Nyachae’s Ford People party. He has confirmed that he will contest the by-election on the same party’s ticket.

Nyamweya is a strong candidate and did fairly well during the 2007 general elections. He was mostly betrayed by the fact that the Ford People party de facto leade,r Simeon Nyachae, failed to appear on the ground to conduct the campaign for his party’s candidate. Had Nyachae appeared in any of Nyamweya’s public campaign rallies, things could have changed for the better for this particular candidate. But despite Nyachae’s absence and non-appearance in South Mugirango, his party candidate lost in a respectable position, a clear indication that Nyachae’s party is still a power to reckon with in Gusii politics.

During last Saturday’s burial of Mr. James Ochwando at Nyamarambe, seven aspirants appeared together and launched their campaign. Some were cheered up, while other were jeered and heckled. This is a clear indication that the forthcoming by-elections could breed violence and lawlessness in the area, due to the presence at the campaign rallies of the many drunken political goons.

While the seven launched their campaigns at a funeral near Nyamarambe, their rivals, Apepo and Mayonga, organized for behind the scenes strategic campaign meetings in various hotels within Kisii Municipality, about twenty kilometers away.

All the leading parties like PONU, ODM-Kenya, Ford People, Ford-Kenya, PNU and KANU are expected to sponsor a candidate for this by-election.

One issue which is likely to dominate the campaign is the poor and lackluster performance of Omingo Magara during the last eight years, when he represented the constituency.

The former MP has the worst record on development matters of any MP from the area. And his opponents are expected to hammer on this, as well as on his migratorykind of politics, which showed him to be close to Nyachae at one time, then moving on to Raila Odinga, and now being among the rebel ODM MPs, giving “Agwambo” sleepless nights, in William Ruto’s bandwagon.

As we were going to the press, two other aspirants declared their interests in the seat. They are Mr. Rashid Muyonga, Master Ondora.

Ends.
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com

Tea Growers in Western Kenya opposed the relocation of KETEPA from Kericho to Nairobi

5 Replies

THE GOVERNMENT OF KENYA IS FAULTED FOR FAILING TO GIVE DIRECTIONS, STOPPING THE PLANNED MOVE TO RELOCATE KETEPA FROM KERICHO TO NAIROBI.
The Move is aimed at strangling the region economically.

Business Feature by Leo Odera Omolo in Kisumu City.

Politicians and tea growers in the South Rift of the Rift Valley Province and in Kisii  region are up in arms against the planned relocation of the Kenya Tea Packers{KETEPA} packaging plant from Kericho to Nairobi.

They are putting up a strong resistance against the move, which is said to be having the blessing of the directors of the Kenya Tea Development Agency {KTDA}, a  semi-parastatal body, which is managing  nearly all the tea factories, scattered in all the regions that the green tea bushes are grown.

Ketepa managers argue that they want to relocate the plant due to constant politically motivated threats against its employees as experienced during the post-election violence of January 2008, and recent issuing of hate leaflets warning members of a certain communities to vacate the area.

Originally, Ketepa was established and built between 1949 and 1950 by the Brooke Bond Tea Company, in collaboration with the Tea Growers Association of East Africa, now Kenya Tea Growers Association of Kenya, and it was called the Central Packing.

The company also established a printing plant in an area adjacent to the Central Packing, which was printing the tea packaging materials of all grades and the sizes for local and international marketing.

All the tea factories in East Africa, mostly those from Uganda and Tanzania were supplying certain quantity for packaging. And all factories in Kenya were also supplying seven per cent of the tea processed to the Central Packaging Factory in Kericho.

The firm changed hands, and the new investors moved in, in early 1978, and changed its name from the Central Packing to Kenya Tea Packers {Ketepa} Company Limited. Immediately after the changes had been effected, an attempt was made to relocated it to Nairobi.

Members of Parliament, led by the former MP for Belgut, the late Alfred Kericho, vehemently opposed the move. They argued that the move would deny their people the opportunities for employment at the plant. The government of the day concurred and the idea was abandoned altogether.

The relocation plan was in similar fashion to the government sanctioned Passion Fruit Processing Factory established by the white settlers in Sotik, which was dismantled and relocated to Thika between 1969 and 1970s.

The Kisii sent a delegation to President Kenyatta at his Gatundu home, led by the late Mzee Johnson Keragori,who was then the chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation {ICDC}. Others in the delegation were two cabinet Ministers, the late Lawrence George Sagini and the late James Nyamweya.

The Kisii delegation frantically and desperately argued that the relocation of the plant from Sotik to Thika would deny the people of the region employment opportunity.

Kenyatta responded by telling the Kisii delegation that they had  nothing to worry about, as the Thika plant would still engage the same people it had on its  employment list in Sotik. They put forward other logistics, like the transportation cost of the raw fruits from Sotik and Kisii region to Thika, saying the cost would hurt the farmers most, through increased transport cost. But the late Kenyatta could not hear any of that, and he finally dispersed the delegation with tirades of unprintable insults, and the delegation dispersed in disarray.

The Abagusii delegation returned home, and after the information went around the villages of what had come out of President Kenyatta’s mouth, all the farmers in the region uprooted Passion Crops, which was minting millions of shilling for the resident of Kisii and Sotik regions.

The Kisii delegation, however, blamed the then Minister for Commerce and Industry, the late Dr Julius Gekonyo Kiano, for failing to advice the government on the logistics involved in the factory relocation plan.

The farmers also scaled down the growing of pyrethrum, which was another cash milking cow in Gusii  region, and they eventfully abandoned the two cash crops altogether.

The Kiposigis leaders however, never protested against the move of the Sotik factory due to the fact that the passion fruit crop was grown more on the Gusii side of the border, especially in areas like Mokomoni, Keroka, Birongo, Nyamasibi, Gesima,and Mosobeti, and in the new settlement schemes in Manga, Sotik, Nyasiongo, Kijauri  in  what is today known as Borabu district.

Now it is their turn. The tea farmers in Kericho region, led by the chairman of the Kenya Union of the Small Scale Tea owners {KUSTO} Rift Valley region, Mr Joel Chepkwony {Bwana Maendeleo}, said they were vehemently opposed to the move, which is a deliberate effort by selfish individuals to cripple the region’s economy.

Mzee Chepkwony blamed and severely criticized Mr Phillip Ng’etich, a retired former managing director of Ketepa, who is the region’s representative to the KTDA board of directors, for having not  represented the region’s farmers views effectively to the other directors.

He explained that the KTDA had deducted funds from small scale tea farmers countrywide, which it used to acquire the Ketepa factory, that was previously owned by Brooke Bond[Kenya} Ltd, now Unilever Tea Company Limited.

It is also being alleged that the Kenyatta family has the controlling shares in Ketepa, and had insisted that it must be relocated to Nairobi, so that it can serve the interest of farmers and tea factories in Central Province, at the expense of the South Rift, Nandi Hills and Kisii regions. This angle of argument could not be immediately confirmed.

Broke Bond had sold parts of its shares to the KTDA, and to certain unnamed individuals in 1978. Ketepa trade marks and logos are the most recognizable in tea production in Kenya. It is located at Brooklyn, situated about eight kilometers in the outskirt of Kericho town ,next to the main Kericho Nakuru road.

Mzee Chepkwony appealed to MPs from Western Kenya, especially those coming from the tea growing zones, like Kisii and South and North Nandi regions, to unite and lobby through their other colleagues from Nyanza and Western Provinces, against the move of the factory. He said hundreds of the company’s workers at the Kericho plant would rendered jobless.

The locals, particularly those from the Kipsigis rural area, do not need housing accommodation, as they regularly walk from their rural homes to work at the plant. It is economically important  to the community, therefore relocating the plant to Nairobi would deny them job opportunities.

The Road’s Minister, Franklin Bett, led the Kipsigis MPs in opposing the relocation of Ketepa from Kericho to Nairobi, arguing that the reasons given do not warrant the move. “It is utter nonsense to say the company is relocating to Nairobi because of insecurity for its workers, and yet the area has sufficient security agencies which could effectively handle any threat”, Bett said.

Chepkwony blamed the KTDA for the maneuvers to relocate the plant, and warned that the organization’s directors, who have attained the age of 70s should pack and go home. He is challenging the rule that entails farmers with the largest acreage of planted bushes for election as a directors of the KTDA. “This rule must be changed so that and youthful and highly educated people can serve the KTDA, and inject new ideas and management skills into its management”, said Chepkwony.

Kenya tea which is packaged by Ketepa, using state of the art machinery, is world renown for its superior quality. The company carefully selects and packs its tea blends from the best farms in Kenya, thus ensuring refreshing aroma and taste. Their blends contain 100 per cent pure Kenyan tea.

This writer once served as the Public Relation Manager with the Brooke Bonds Equatorial Limited in the late 1960s, and is very much conversant with the going ons within the tea industry.

Chepkwony has threatened that small scale tea growers in Kericho region would be sensitized and advised to stop delivery of green tea leaves to the KTDA factories in the region, and instead deliver their products to the Multinational Tea Companies factories in Kericho

Ends
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com

Leaflets threatening Luos to leave Kericho before Xmas hit the streets

5 Replies

LEAFLETS WARNING THE LUOS TO LEAVE KERICHO REGION BEFORE CHRISTMAS WERE DROPPED ALONG THE TOWN’S MAIN R0AD ON SATURDAY MORNING

Reports Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.

Police in Kericho town are reported to be actively investigating the source and authors of  leaflets, which were dropped in town over the weekend, warning members of the Luo community to leave the region before Christmas.

The undated and unsigned leaflets were dropped along the Kericho-Nakuru and Kericho-Kisumu Highway, starting from outside the main gate of the posh tea Hotel, up to the junction of James Finlay’s Tea Company, within the town.

Those responsible for dropping the leaflets appeared to have been using a motor vehicle, as some of the leaflets are bearing dirty tire marks.

These leaflets appeared to be targeting members of the Luo community working and doing business in the town. It reads as follows in English:
“Mary Christmas Our Brothers from the Lake”.
“Our staying together is being very limited, although we would have wished to be one. It is sad that we now wish you to leave. And thanks for the Prime Minister’s efforts to separate us.”…
“Siasa zake za uchochezi lazima zikome”, says one sentence in Kiswahili version of the seemingly well written leaflets.

The authors of the leaflets were roundly condemned by a section of Kericho politicians, led by Coun. Nicholas Tum, who alleged that he suspected the leaflets to be the work of the PNU agents and sympathizers. He urged the police to leave no stone unturned in their investigations, and to ensure that the authors of what he termed, “cowardice, seditious papers” are brought to book.

Kericho has a sizeable population of Luos. Most of them work as tea pickers for the two major multinational foreign owned tea companies. Others are jua kali artisans and mechanics in the town’s main garages, dress and shoe-makers operating on the verandas of shops in major town’s streets, masons and carpenters in the building industry. And they appeared to be getting on well with their host, the Kipsigis.

There are also a good number of hawkers of petty goods. Others are engaged by wealthy Kipsigis farmers and traders as laborers in their small scale tea farmer, which are spread in Bureti, Belgut, Konoin and Ainamoi constituencies.

There used to be thousands of Luos employed in the tea industry in Kericho and its environs, but their numbers dwindled to only paltry, following changes of work force in the tea estates and factories, and the introduction of robots, which also ushered in the mechanized teas picking system.

Coun Tum told the author of the leaflets to engage themselves on gainful occupations instead of intimidating the law abiding citizens of Kenya. He said the authors of the leaflets had criminal aims, and objective of dividing the ODM members, and weakening the party ahead of the 2012 general elections.

“We want our people to  ignore these warnings and to go about their daily core in the real task of nation building. The ODM is the party, which is so popular in the South Rift and the leaflets are the work of the disgruntled elements”.

“There is no point in certain people singling out the Prime Minister Raila Odinga as individual. What is happening in Mau Forest eviction is a government policy and all those serving in the coalition government are collectively responsible”, Said Mr.Tum.
Coun Tum urged the Kalenjin MPs to preach peace and reconciliation, instead of being hardened like animals, and taken for a ride by those serving selfish interests, through their kind of political deceits.

The next general election is schedule for 2012 and there is plenty of time. When the time come, the ODM like any other party in this country would work for a possible realignment and new political dispensation.

At the same time, discontent is high in Kericho, after the weekend revelation by the government, that a good number of Kalenjin Mps owned land in Mau, even those who in the recent past, went public denying having any farm in the Mau Forest.

Mr Tum blamed some of the Kalenjin Mps, whom he accused for having misinterpreting the common proverbs used by Raila Odinga, the Prime Minister, at most of his public rallies, citing the incident of frogs in the waters drinking cattle, and coined their own poisonous propaganda, and concocted these proverb words to mean he {Raila}, had insulted the Kalenjin, likening those facing eviction from Mau Forest to the ”FROGs”in the rivers..

These cheap lies must come to an end, and the Kalenjin MPs must behave responsibly like leaders and they should guard against selling their community cheaply to the outsiders nursing presidential ambitions. This is not how to win the presidency.

All the future presidential aspirants must exercise some element of responsible and quality leadership meant to attract the voters, must desist from tarnishing the names of their possible opponents.

The coined propaganda words are being spread in the interior parts of Kipsigis region, where the Prime Minister has maintained almost 100 support of the public, and the ODM has the lead. It is all the succession war against the Prime Minister.
“The Prime Minister has at no time abused the Kalenjin in general, the Mau Forest evictees in particular, therefore people must stop listening to these cheap propaganda aimed at tarnishing the name of the Prime Minister for selfish political ends”, said Coun Tum, adding that Raila Odinga is not at war with the community, but meant well for the region..

Coun Tum advised the Kipsigis community to ignore such propagandas. The Prime Minister has no war nor is he nursing any hate attitudes towards the community that voted for him in his presidential election in 2007 man to man. In fact Raila loves the Kipsigis and the entire Kalenjin people, except the few political enemies of the ODM who are allegedly being bankrolled by PNU agent and the advocates of the amorphous triple KKK{Kalenjin,Kikuyu and Kambas}, whose alleged main architect is the Vice President, Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka.

”These people have been taking us for a ride, and yet they were only serving selfish interests. And no wonder, the names of the very persons who have repeatedly denied owning any piece of forest land have now been revealed and their true identities.

It is shameful, and bad politics for the Kalenjin community, because the activities of the selfish landlords, who have been vocal, insisting they were fighting for the landless member of the community, and yet they are fighting for their own economic interest. These are the same people who have come out in the open and told us how bad is Mr. Raila Odinga, because he is the one who is hell bent on chasing our people out of Mau. What a confusion?”, asked Mzee James Kenduiywo of Silibwet in Bomet district.

He however, came out in defense of the retired President Daniel Arap Moi, and appealed to the government to spare his important investment in the Mau Forest. “The tea estate and factory should be exempted from eviction as the industry has offered employment to hundreds of Kenyans from all tribes”, said Mr. Kenduiywo.

In the tribal clashes of the 1992 -1993, quite a good number of Luos  living and working in the Kipsigis region were attacked, injured and even some of them killed. These attacks later spread into the full length of the Kalenjin-Luo borders. But in the 2008 post independence violence, the Kisiis and Kikuyus suffered a great deal, when their properties were torched, and some of them killed by the Kalenjin youths. This time around, the Luos, who are supporters of ODM were spared.

Ends
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com

Is OMINGO Magara facing a bleak political future after falling out with Raila Odinga?

16 Replies

DISQUALIFIED BY COURT, SOUTH MUGIRANGO FORMER MP OMINGO MAGARA IS NOW FACING BLEAK AND UNCERTAIN POLITICAL FUTURE, AS A RESULT OF HIS FALLOUT WITH AGWAMBO!!

News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Rongo Town.

OMINGO Magara, the outspoken former ODM MP for South Mugirango constituency, has lost his seat following one of the longest and toughest legal tussle in an election petition.

This is the second MP within the Southern Gusii region to have lost his parliamentary seat as a result of irregularities committed in the last general election, and after the wronged aspirants and voters had petitioned the court, before the same judge, Justice Daniel Masinga.

The first MP to be disqualified by the same court was the former Bomachoge MP, Joel Onyancha, who was the only PNU candidate to have won a parliamentary seat in the Kisii region during the 2007, but who, in the consequent by-election, was trounced by an ODM candidate, Simon Ogari.

There is clear evidence from the ground that the entire Southern Kisii region is an ODM stronghold area. However, the situation on the ground appeared to be rather tricky for Magara, who the locals believed had already burned bridges with the ODM party “supremo” Raila Odinga, and as such, cannot be 100 per cent sure of clinching the party ticket in the forthcoming by-election, although Magara is the registered ODM national treasurer.

SOUTH Mugirango constituency was first created as South Mugirango/Bonchari constituency in 1962, and its first MP was Samuel Omweri Kibwagea, a well mannered politician, who won the seat in the 1963 general election on a KANU ticket, that ushered in political independence in Kenya in the same year.

In the 1969 election, Kibwage lost the seat to a former trade unionist, Silvester Ayieko Nyakweba, who represented the constituency up to 1974, but lost the seat to S Kombo, who represented the constituency between 1979 and 1983, when it fell to a prominent Kisii Town based businessman, Reuben Oyondi. Oyondi again successfully defended his seat in the 1988.

Oyondi, however, was swept by the bone-fire of the first multiparty elections of 1992, which saw Kombo’s return on a Ford-Kenya ticket, beating Oyondi hands down, and ending his political career temporarily. Oyondi, however, bounced back in1997 on Nyachae’s Ford People’s party ticket, but lost again to a Kisii based young lawyer, the late Nyakieya Magara, Omingo Magara’s younger brother, who clinched the seat on the NARC ticket in 2002 general election.

The late Nyakieya Magara, however, did not complete his tenure of office. He died in a fatal, but controversial road accident near Sondu, on the Ahero-Oyugis Kisii road, while he was speeding up, in an attempt to catch up an evening flight for Nairobi at the Kisumu Airport.

In the subsequent by-election that followed, his elder brother, Omingo Magara, won the seat for the first time on Nyachae’s Ford People’s party ticket. But Omingo Magara immediately burned his bridges with Nyachae, and the fallout saw him teaming up with Raila Odinga’s ODM, leading to his controversial victory in 2007, which has since been contested in the High Court, and consequently resulting in his disqualification by the High Court.

Bordering Rongo in the Southwest and Bomnachoge in the Southeast, Bobbasi in the East and Boinchari in the north, South Mugirango inhabitants, who are a mixture of Abagusii/Luo people have a heavy Luo vernacular, mixed in heir Abagusii bantu language. but in most cases, culturally behave like their neighboring Luos in Kamagambo Locations.

The Abagirango, is the largest Abagusii sub-clan. Apart from South Mugirango, the Abagirango also occupy what was previously known as North Mugirango Location. There, the community is represented in Parliament, in two parliamentary electoral constituencies, namely Mugirango West and North Mugirango-Borabu constituencies. The latter extends its boundaries covering the new Borabu district and Manga Settlment scheme in Sotik areas of Nyansiongo and Kijauri towns.

The Abagirango of the north east in Nyamira district are the cousins of the South Mugirango people. For many years, this particular community has been producing the best known politicians in Gusiiland. The late John Kebaso, who took part in the early struggle for independence, along with Kenya African Union in the 1950s, hails from North Mugirango.

Kebaso became the first Senator for Kisii district in 1963. He was later to transfer his services to the newly created North Mugirango, which he later lost to a former Regional Assembly member, Livingstone Atebe Marita. The constituency later produced one firebrand MP in the name of the late George Justus Morara, who died in a road accident near Kakamega.

Things were looking good, with better future prospect, with the Magara’s 2007 election victory in South Mugirango on an ODM ticket. But those privy to Magara’s side of information have confided to us that Omingo Magara’s relations with the Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, took a sour turn when he was not given a cabinet post, after the enactment of the National Accord.

Magara, they say, felt he was more deserving of the cabinet post than the Road’s minister, Chris Mogere Obure, who had just joined ODM and was fresh from KANU.

And immediately soon after the formation o the coalition government in which he was appointed an Assistant Minister for Trade, Magara went silent and stopped his previous outbursts in defense of Raila Odinga on various national issues. He began leaning more towards the side of the Minister for Agriculture, William Ruto, and became classified as one of the ODM rebel MPs.

Te Fact that the relationship between Omingo Magara and the Prime Minister Raila Odinga had gone sour resurfaced in the open, during the last year campaign for the Bomachoge by-elections. On one occasion, Magara, who was expected to lead the campaign and assault on PNU candidate Onyancha, stayed away. And while Raila OIdinga and other ODM leaders, who included Chris Obure, Richard Onyonka and Ms. Janet Ong’era, the ODM executive director, were addressing a mammoth crowd in a campaign rally held at Kenyenya Divisional head quarters, Omingo Magara was hosting William Ruto and another 12 Rift Valley MPs in the next door, for what was said to be an Harambee fund drive for a primary school.

Magara’s reluctance to campaign for the party in the Bomachoge by-election was viewed as a rebellion against Mr Odinga, the party leader, who in turn demonstrated his unshaken popularity in the region by delivering the Bomachoge seat to ODM.

But a more humiliating exercise to ODM team, led by Mr.Odinga, was Magara’s move at the fund raising meeting presided over by Ruto, when the South Mugirango MP paraded officials of the little known People’s Democratic Party{PDP}, and asked his constituents to watch their steps. His public display, in an area where the Raila led party is the one calling the shots, and association with PDP, might be used to deny him the ODM party ticket, in the forthcoming by-election.

Despite Magara’s political antics and gimmicks, Mr Odinga has avoided mentioning anything in public to do with the differences between him and Magara, but political pundits within the constituency maintain that the ODM ticket will obviously land in the hands of another aspirant in the forthcoming by-election, and not to Magara.

The agriculturally rich South Mugirango constituency produces large quantities of both tea leaves and sugar cane as cash crops. It is one of the cane growing zones within the Awendo based SONYSUGAR factory, and also delivers a lot of green tea leaves to the Ogembo based KTDA managed tea factory.

The area also produces a lot of maize, vegetables, finger millets, bananas and other cash crops. Farmers have introduced the more economically important graded dairy animals.

Its short borderline with the Trans-Mara district is, however, volatile, due to intermittent attacks as the result of hostilities between the Maasais and the Kisiis, along the Nyamaiya border areas.

These hostilities have at times extended along the Luo-Kisii border around Kamagambo, due to the presence in South Mugirango, of a large number of youths, believed to be members of the outlawed Chinkororo outfit, believed to be gravitating around Simeon Nyachae, along with another banned group “Emachuma” as private armies.

But considering the fact that in politics, there is no permanent friendship nor permanent enmity, Omingo Magara might still mend his fences with Mr.Odinga and win back the ODM ticket. This, however, remains to be seen as a matter of public conjecture.

Ends
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com