Category Archives: FEATURES

Kenya: The story of the mysterioiusly huge snake which the Luos allmost worsipped in 1940 and aftermath of the reptile’s visit

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WAS “NYANG’IDI THE HUGE SNAKE OF GOOD HOPE OR OF BAD OMEN, DISASTROUS AND NATURAL CATASTROPHE AND CALAMITY?.

Short Story By Leo Odera Omolo who traces a historical disastrous which occurred in Nyanza Province in 1940

It was in the early part of the year 940 when a mysterious creature visited some low-laying locations in Nyanza Province in what is today called Rarieda district.

A huge and excessively big snake visited Uyoma Peninsula. It slithered from the direction of Kunya in Kabudha a

The huge snake is believed to have slithered out of Lake Victoria in search of food, but it was of a snake species which has never been seen in the area and nothing in comparison with the known species as it was excessively huge and long

THe reptile is appeared to have traveled by night. Its presence in the village attracted thousands of people.

The big tree has previously been used as the venue of weekly administrative Baraza by the first colonial administrative chief of Uyoma, the late Chief Otumba Mbede. The place is called “Gunda Kotumba” it is situated next to the homestead of the former Chief’s son Nathan Ojungo Otumba, who had inherited his chieftainship, but was retired around 1927.

According to the account of some still surviving eye witnesses, the snake was which was baptized by the villagers as “Nyang’idi “was three time longer than the normal python and resembled the common python in color. Its body was so huge that the eye witnesses compared its size to that of the rear tyre of a tractor.

The reptile resembled the “African Rock python which is usually larger and longer than the common python, and even stronger. The serpent was not aggressive and posed no threat to anyone. Thousands of people came to Chianda villagfe,some of them travelling on bicycle or on foot as far as away as from Yimbo, Alego Usonga, Gem, Seme, Sakwa, Asembo and even across the narrow water way of the Nyanza Gulf { previously known as the Kavirondo Gulf} from Suba and other locations in Southern Nyanza just to come and have a glimpse of the mysterious snake.

It was being fed with two animals every day or half a dozen of chickens. The huge snake was never scared of disturbed by huge crowd that milled around the creature. The crowd brought the live animals which were given as sacrifice for feeding the creature.

The animals on which it feed on for a couple of weeks were sacrifices made by the elders and sub-clans in Uyoma. And because it was during the Second World War II, which had started in earnest in the previous year 1939, the colonial administration in Nyanza got the winds of the news and became alarmed, after the white missionaries had warned that the population in the region was just about to start worshiping the mysterious creature.

The white missionaries were also alarmed by the volume of people flocking to Uyoma the mysterious creature.

As the usual culture of the Luos, the musicians also composed songs of praise for “Nyangidi” sending the white missionaries into great panicking.

Acting under the pressure of the white missionaries, the then Nyanza Provincial Commissioner a Mr Hunter asked the Kisumu based colonial District Commissioner a Mr Winright to immediately dispatch the team of sharp-shooter Administration policemen to Uyoma to go and shoot, kill land destroy the huge snake.

When the three armed APs arrived at Chianda School, they were shown the tree under which Nyang’idi was resting after a mean of a sheep, the police men developed cold feet and refused to open fire on it saying it was a mysterious creature not worth killing and the policemen went back to Kisumu without firing even one single shot at the creature.

Some people who saw the creature included Hon Wilson Ndolo Ayah, the former MP for Kisumu Rural constituency. He had just joined lower primary classes at Chianda Primary School and was staying with his uncle the late Ex-Chief Nathan Ojungo Otumba.Mr Ayah on a telephone interview with this writer said he was among the smaller boys who collected grass and covered the body of the snake as it rested under a tree during warm hours of the afternoon. Ayah served in the Moi’s KANU government as Foreign Affairs Minister and at one time Minister for Water Development admitted that he had seen this mysterious creature before he physically saw any python. Mr Ayah is on his 85 years.

Another eye witness is Mrs Grace Deya Omoso, the daughter of the late Ex-Chief Nathan Ojungo Otumba who is now ageing abut 86.Contacted at her home near Wang’arot in SemeMrs Omoso said Nyang’idi was a harmless creature.Children could even move close to where it had recoiled under the tree and play around.

Mr Ayah said the creature left mysteriously and slithered at night and the next morning many people trailed its footprint which looked like a place where a D8 or D10 heavy earthmoving tractor had passed. It travelled toward the neighboring Asembo location and was later seen in Akado area of Seme west before it permanently disappearing in the horizon.

The following year 1941 the entire Luo-Nyanza was hit by acute shortage of food grain. The worse famine came about which was baptized Ke Ladhri or Ke-Aladhra which his the area like thunderstorm up to 1943. Many people died of hunger.

Two prominent colonial chiefs died. They were Chief Ahenda of Alego and Chief Onunga Amimo of Kano plains.

Two prominent medizinemen {Witchdoctors} also died. They were Katete Owuor {Rambo} of Rusinga Island and Abang’a |Oungu of Uyoma. A wealthy businessman on Rusinga Olunga Onyango also died.A unit of Luo soldiers mutinied in Madagascar laying down their armed and demanding to be told the reason and the cause on which they were fighting for.

The mutiny became so serious that the colonial administration ordered for A RAF war plane stationed in eastern Uganda to fly one influential Luo Chief to the Indian Ocean Island of Madagascar to go and persuade the soldier to continue with fighting. The late Mzee Paul Mboya from Karachuonyo was chosen for task. Mboya, however, failed and almost got assaulted by the rebellious Luo soldiers and was flown back. He was quickly replaced by the late Chef Muganda Opwapo of Ugenya. Chief Muganda succeeded.

It was one year after Nyangidi disappearance when the formidable anti-colonialist campaigner Coun.Daniel Ojijo Oteko, died mysteriously at a government hospital in Kisumu. Thedeath of Ojijo Oteko raised political temperature in the region as the population pointed accusing fingers to the chiefs and colonial administrators.

The sealed off casket containing the body of the late Ojijo Oteko was taken immediately to his home in Kanjira in West Karachuonyo and buried with only his wife allowed near the coffin which was buried under the supervision of security police and thousands mourners harshly dispersed.

The year after the appearance of Nyang’idi SNAKE IN Uyoma was the same when Chief Paul Mboya sent packing the late Hussein Onyango Obama, the grand father of the US Present Barack Obama and forced him out of his home at Kanyadhiang’ in Central Karachuyonyo to go to Nyang’oma Alego in Siaya.

The two had disagreed over Hussein Onyango Obama closeness to the politician the late Ojijo Oteko.The action came after Mboya who was the then the Chief of Karachuonyo had issued repeated warnings to Obama to steer clear of political activities in the erea. The two had disagreed on a trophy ,which Hussein Onyangoi bought while working in Nairobi and brought home and wished it be used on a football tournament involved inter-sub-clans, but the Chief retained the trophy to his own clan despite his team having been beaten.

People who were born at the time of the visit by the mysterious snake are now ageing about 62 and above. Most of them are found n Sakwa Bondo, Yimbo, Asembo and Uyoma and even in Karachuonyo.

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Kenya: OUR MPs deserves higher payment for a living and not a peanut

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KENYA MPS DESERVES TO EARN A BETTER SALARIES AND ALLOWANCES FOR A LIVING SO THAT THEY GIVE THE TAXPAYERS GOOD SERVICES AND PERFORMANCE.

Commentary By Leo Odera Omolo In KISUMU City.

MEMBERS of Kenyan parliament deserve to be paid adequately so that they could perform their duties diligently and avoid what kind of word which some people had coined in connection with the 10th parliament, which had depicted of legislator as the “MP for Hire.”

Our legislators are tasked wit heavy responsibilities, particularly those representing remote rural constituencies who on many occasions are being called by the village to use their personal car and vehicles as ambulances while assisting the sick.

Medical services in this country collapsed many years ago. Most health centers, which are located in the interior part of the country have no standing by ambulances, at time even mothers in labor seek MPS assistance and support so that they could be rushed to the nearby, but poorly equipped medical facilities.

Poorly paid MP cannot afford to shoulder all these responsibilities, therefore the proposed basic alary of USD 10,00O per month for an MP is very much reasonable. The government has the poor record of appointing numerous but useless commission of Inquiries or other commissions whose finding have no direct benefit to the taxpayer or added value, and whose members are known to have been minting million of shillings, but performing nothing.

Members of parliament are honorable people. We expect them to be living decently as the honorable people, not like papers who could not discharge their responsibilities and deliver the goods to the electorate. The adjustment of the MP’s salary and allowances upward should not be negotiable.

I must say here in emphatically clear terms that even those members of the civil societies who last week staged violent street demonstration outside parliament and took piglets and pigs to harass and antagonizes our Muslem brothers who are not even taxpayers.

But we are driven by the desire to be heard and to make things difficult or our elected legislators to intimidate them not to perform their duties efficiently and competently. They were merely petty mischievous people and political hirelings and goons.

The time is ripe for Kenyan of good will and intention to come forward and say “a big no” to political thuggery. Such moves if left unchecked could plunge Kenya into distasteful condition and political turmoil that could make life difficult and unbearable for our children.

Madame Sarah Serem should think twice and make sure that our MPs are paid adequately, though I also concur with those who opined saying the number has increased threefold, and could definitely overburden the treasury with heavy Wage Bill.

With the present tri-cameral parliamentary system, I have a feeling that the extra 47 women representatives in parliament is a luxury, though it is contained under a cause in the ne constitutional dispensation. Te 47 Counties are adequately represented and covered by the Senators.

Kenya, however, must accept that the new set of the constitution is a very expensive one and the government will have to go extra miles in search of funds to have all its clauses implemented fully. But we can afford it through dialogue and negotiations and not through the staging violence street demonstrations by mainly goons and job seekers.

Our MPs deserves good vehicles for their safe travelling, good houses while attending their duties in the City, security details.

It is also time for the government to tell members of the Provincial Administration pack up and go home, or reassign them elsewhere as it has become obvious that their continued present in the Counties is not in the interest of taxpayers.

They could be sabotaging the operations of the devolutions and undermining as well as undercutting the work of the governors and their regional assembly teams. The undercutting could be the source of insecurity in places like Bungoma, Busia and Trans-Nzoia and elsewhere. Sooner or later such insecurity would spread like bushfire to other peaceful areas. The PCs,D.Cs,,DOs were dismissed by the High Court and told that they have no role in the evolution system, but someone somewhere choose to ignore the court judgment. It could be a cartel within the defunct coalition government had special assignment for them during the March 14 general elections. However, the elections have come and gone. They should now be relieves of their duties

If the purpose of retaining the Provincial Administration was a secret weapon used in rigging the last general election, then their role is over, they should go home now.It is all duplication of work and responsibilities with the governor and their team safely installed.

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KENYA: THE TRUTH AND JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION {TJRC} DID SHODDY, SHALLOW AND HOLLOW JOBS AND FAILED TO CONVINCE KENYAN OF ITS SERIOUSNESS.

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COMMENTARY By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City

I have sat down for a length of time perusing and scrutinizing the report released last week by the Truth and Justice Reconciliation Commission and found them to be shallow shoddy and hollow, not even worth reading any sane person.

Perhaps the Bethwell Kiplagat team just wanted to justify the millions of taxpayers money its members had consumed during the stormy period it conducted it half-baked inquiries.

The TJRC did not caste its net wide open, though it came up with some names of leaders both in the present and past it has recommended should be probed further so as to ascertain the truth about their wrong doing.

In regards to past politically motivated assassinations TRC reported is highly rubbished for merely bush-beating, which are devoid of any iota of the truth.

The TJRC chairman Kiplagat himself had long been rejected by the entire Kenyan society that he was not the right person for the job, but insisted on carrying it out and even went to court so that he could be clear to proceed on with the job. Those had loudly raised objections knew it pretty well that Kiplagat was not the right person taking it into account his covert operations and flirting with RENAMO of Mozambique and its renegade forces under the rebel leader Dr Dhlakama .

The TJRC came out with the large number of names of innocent Kenyans, which it has recommended should be probed further in connection to human right abuse of the past regimes.

Conspicuously missing from the names that the TJRC wanted to be investigated was the name of the late James Kanyottu, the former director of the security intelligence police unit, which was known as the {Special Branch}.

Kanyottu who has since died after retiring from the security intelligence service which he headed ever since 1965 after succeeding Benard Hinga might have gone into his grave with the heaps of secrets about the past political assassinations in this country, therefore any inquiry report which exclude his names is considered by Kenyans of average intelligence as shoddy and shallow and not worth its salt.

Kanyottu might have not personally participated in actual assassination exercises, but definitely knew the political enemies of the victims who might have been involved in hatching plots to eliminate those whom their perceived to be their political enemies.

During Kanyotu’s rein as the head of the security intelligence five senior Kenyan politician were gunned down or killed

The victims were Pio Gama Pinto, a specially elected member of parliament who was the first to die I a series of well hatched plots of assassination, Thomas Joseph Mboya, C.MG.Argwings-Kodhek, Ronald Gideon Ngala, Josiah Mwangi Kariuki {JM} and finally Robert John Ouko being the last one to die.

From my own intelligent guesswork Kiplagat ‘s commission job was only to rekindle the communal emotions of families and relatives of the victims while serving the interests of some evil and invisible forces still operating lie mafia groups in this country.

For Mr Kanyottu, there was no way someone of the late Tom Mboya status could be assassinated without the knowledge of the head of the national security intelligence unit unless the unit’s operations had long collapse or were on the verge of total collapse.

If it was so Kanyottu couldn’t have lasted on his job for close to 40 years after those painful events of the early and late 1960s.

We have been eagerly waiting to read from the TJRC report as to who ordered fro the closing down of all the phone communications between Nairobi an Addis Ababa as from June 29,1969 to July 4,1969 on the very day Mboya and his delegation to the UNCEA returned home to be killed the next day July 5,1969.

There were strong rumors making the round in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi ad its environs, that some of the late Mboya’s closes friend who hah heard o the assassination rumors made frantic effort to reach him in Addis Abba by phone for the purpose of alerting him about the dreadful rumor in Nairobi, but Nairobi Addis phone were severed off at the external-telecom. Surely such events if it is true they took place could not have escaped the knowledge of the head of the nation’s national security organ, and here is where the name of Kanyottu comes in hand.

Obviously someone in a very senior position in the government of the day might have been the one who ordered the phone line between Addis and Nairobi line severed of for a specific pupose.

These are some of the area which were so fertile for the TJRC team to visit an make thorough inquiries because all the records in those institutions are said to be still intact for probe.

In the case of Dr. Robert John Ouko, reports were made I courts tat his phone lines at his Koru Farm in Kisumu had also gone off during the fateful night of his mysterious disappearance and death. Obviously the head of the security intelligence cannot be exonerated for having been totally ignorance of these events.

The same could be said of the deaths by faked road accidents of Ronald Gideon Ngala and CMG Argwings-Kodhek. Like Mboya both died while serving in the cabinet as Minster for Foreign Affair and minister for Power and Communications respectively. All the four Mboya, Ngala, Argwings-Kodhek and Ouko were the possible future presidential materials during the reign of the late Jomo Kenyatta. And as such Kenyans were expecting Kiplagat’s TJRC to caste its net much more wider and come out with some truth about thee past politically motivated killings in Kenyatta instead of writing rubbish and perhaps copying some old reports from other regions.

Leo Odera Omolo

I was luck to be in attendance at the birth of the OAU 50 years ago

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A KENYAN VETERAN JOURNALIST WHO WITNESSED THE BIRTH OF THE OAU 50 YEARS AGO RECALS HOW THE LATE GAMAL ABDUL NASSER OF EGYPT AND AHMED BEN-BELL OF ALGERIA WERE RECEIVED WITH ULULATION AND STANDING OVATION IN ADDIS ABABA

By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City,Saturday 25th May 2013

I was lucky to have been among the youthful budding journalists who were privileged to witness the birth of the Organization of African Unity {OAU} on May 25,1963.

This was the second largest Pan-African political gathering to be held in an African independent country. The first such major pan-African political gathering was held in Accra ,Ghana in December 1958.

Thomas Joseph Mboya, then twenty year-old Kenya member of the colonial Legislative Council for Nairobi and a leading Pan-Africanist trade unionist was elected unanimously to chair the Accra meeting beating the host Ghanaian President Dr Kwame Nkrumah {Osyageffo} with the largest number of votes.

In Addis Ababa the summit of the OAU was initial attended by 21 heads of states of the African governments. 15 other joined later in the process brining the initial number of founding fathers to 36.

Today the OAU which later transformed itself into African Union has 54 member countries including the hotly disputed Saharawi Republic.

It was during the cold war, and there were evidence of covrt operations between members of the intelligence communities from ther East and West. The two blocs were scrambling for the control of Africa’s political and economies at the time.

The man who stole the show and looked the most popular head of state was the Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser, his popularity emanating from his firm stand and beating off the Allied Invasion of the Suez Canal in 1956.Thius was after the British and France combined forces had invaded Suez Canal and Alexandria, which sparked off the middle East Crisis of 1957.

President Ahmed Ben-Bell was just smarting from the .Both Nasser and Ben-Bella had become an house hold across the African continent.

Other heads of states in attendance at the initial stage were Hompught Boigny of Ivory Coast, Leon Mba of Gabon, the poet-writer Leopold Senghor of Senegal. Olympio of Togo,Ahmed Sekou Toure of Guinea,Jomo Kenyatt of Kenya, the Prime Minister of Uganda Dr Apollo Milton Obote, Julius \Kambasrage \Nyerere of Tanganyika. AlI Muhsin of Zanzibar,Dr Sharmake of Somalia,.Chiuef Leabue Jonathan of Lesotho

THe meeting took place before the formation of the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar which was later christened Tanzania a year later after the rug-tug soldiers led by a Ugandan carpenter John Okello overthrew the Sultante of Zanzibar in 1964 paving the way for the formation of the Union between the mainland Tanganyika and the Isles of Zanzibar and Pemba, which became Tanzania.

The African countries which were still struggling to free themselves from the Yolk of colonialism were given the observers status between the mainland Tanganyika and the Isles of Zanzibar and Pemba.

Notable present at the Africa Hall, which also houses the UN Economic Commission for Africa {ECA}

President Jomo Kenyatta a personal friend of the Emperor Haile Selassie was accommodated in a suit located inside Gion Hotel, a walking distance to Africa Hall and also a short distance to the Menelik Palace,the official residence of Emperor Haile Selassie.

Other prominent Pan-Africanists who attended the inception of the OAU included the late George Padmore of Trinidad and Tobago, Dubois. Padmore was the adviser of Dr.Nkrumah on Pan-African affairs.Dr Namdi Azikiwe of Naigeria, Sir Abubakas Tafawa Balewa the Federal Prime Minister of Nigeria,Kenneth David Kaunda nf Zambia and Dr Hasting Kamuzu Banda oif Malawi.

The radical camp which was led by Dr.Nkrumah and Nasser had an agenda of wanted the founding fathers to work out on the charter and agenda of for the creation of the United States of Africa the model of the USA, but this was found to be impracticable due to the fact that almost close to half of the African continent was still under the occupation and colonialists and racists white South Africans.

The meeting began after the official opening ceremony in an electrifying speech by the Emperor Haile Salassie on May 22nd.But it encountered problem in the afternoon of the same day when the government ofCongo Leopoldville presented two sets of delegations. One delegation had come from the ceciuonist leader Moise Tshombe of Katanga and was led by one Godfroid Munongo, while the Leopoldville delegation was led by its then Minister for Foreign Affairs Justin Bomboko.

There werealso several splinter delegation like those of the Srahawi Republic and Morocco.But our gounding father used their political magnanimity and cooled down the situation. The Francophone Anglophone differences also emerged during the meeting. but was shot down and watered with anti-colonialism sentiments.

Kenya’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Joseph Murumbi was busy shuttling between Africa Hall and Gion Hotrel whenever he was required for consultations by President Kenyatta. The other Kenyan minister who looked busy was Dr. Mungai Njoroge, who was also acting as the personal physician of President Kenyatta.Tom Mboya was another Minister assigned a lot of work by the President. He was the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs..

President Julius Kambarage Nyerere had brought along his Minister for External Affairs and Defense, the flamboyant Oscar Kambona who was then the Secretary-General of the ruling TANU party.Dr Hasting Kamuzu Banda had Kanyama Chiume a journalist as his country Minister for Foreign Affairs, whileDr. Obote had Sam Odaka and Adoko Nekyon as his principal advisers.

Dr Nkurumah the Ghanaian president had Alexei quesedion as his Foreign Affairs Minister.Things were so cheap in Addis Ababa, especially in the Mariketo area, one could buy an autoimatic pistal with full ammunition loaded in its magazine or a hunting rifles in the street provided you handed the gun to the captain or pilots of the plane while boarding it for home.Vials of drugs were sold in the open area and dd not require any doctor’s prescription.

Batteries of local and international journalists were herded into Ras Hotel ,for their accommodation.The hotel is located right in the middle if he City, but it is also a walking to the Africa Hall.Accreditation was noi very cumbersome as it is today.

It came at a time when I had already worked for the Uganda Argues in Kampala,and also edited PINY OWACHO,I had also served as s tringer for the East African Standardand later joined the staff of the BARAZA the weekly Kiswahili as its sports editor. and a regular contributor to the drum MAGAZINE East African edition

In 1963 each and every bar and restaurant in Addis Ababa had a compartment with well prepared bed for the revelers who wished to go inside for a rest with their girl-friends

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About the author LEO OIDERA OMOLO is a veteran KENYAN JOURNALIST NOW AGED 76 AND STILL WRITING AND COMMENTING ON TOPOIC ARTICLES. HE OPERTATES IN KISUMUCITY.

Kenya: Attempt to heckle Francis Atwoli was an act of shame and misguided

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Commentaries By Leo Odera Omolo.

A shameful act and politically motivated propaganda against the Secretary General of the Central Organization of Trade Unions {COTUK} during the Labor Day celebrations of the Uhuru Park by a few misguided elements was an act of shame, unwarranted and uncalled for.

The two hecklers, who have since been dealt with under the law of the land, had the ulterior motive of a shaming Atwoli before His Excellency the President of the Republic of Kenya Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta.

The unfortunate act of shame should now be forgotten and considered as having boomeranged on the perpetrators, because the thousands of Kenyan workers who thronged the venue left with smiling faces after our good President had officially sanctioned for the increment of salaries of the lowest paid workers in this country by 14 per cent.

The former photo-journalist Boniface Mwangi and his accomplice Mr Amwai should consider themselves the luckiest people because the narrowly escaped from being lynched by the angry Kenyan workers.

The good gesture at the end of the function showed that President Kenyatta equally loved the Kenyan workers and therefore was not shaken by Mwangi antics. Whoever sponsored Mwngi to cause commotion and mayhem during such important occasion when Kenyan workers were commemorating May Day / Labor Day, which is celebrated globally, should feel ashamed.

Atwoli is a dedicated servant of the workers of his country. He has come the long way struggling for the Kenyan workers and achieved a lot, and as such he deserved some amount of respect.

Whatever grievances or grudges Mr Mwangi is nursing against the secretary-General of COTU {K}, choice of forum and venue for airing such grievances was totally wrong..

If at all he disagreed with Atwoli for demanding that the MPS salaries should be left at where they were at the end of the 11th parliament.

Moreover Francis Atwoli is aiso acknowledged globally as an accomplished trade unionist of high reputation .He had all the mandate of the Kenyan workers to defend them on any contentious issues, MPs included because even the MP are also the workers in this country and they al falls under the armpit of cotu{k}

I passionately appealed to Mr Atwoli to soldier on with his service dedication to the workers and ignore the by irresponsible political demagogues and goons.

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KENYA: THE MUGO REPORT: March 2013

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From: Mugo Muchiri
Los Angeles, CA
April 1, 2013

THE MUGO REPORT – March 2013

Q: Habari ndugu Mugo? How’ve you been?

Mugo: Njema kabisa. Hope wewe pia?

Q: Been very well, asante. I’m glad we get another chance to look at Kenya, and to review the events of this past month. Of course foremost are the elections that occurred slightly over 3 weeks ago, on March 4, 2013. I’d also like to talk about CORD alliance’s dispute of the presidential election as well as the ensuing judical process which culminated in a unanimous ruling by Kenya’s Supreme Court, in favor of President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta.

Mugo: Yep, quite a bit these past few weeks!

Q: Before we go into that, let’s start with a small, buried piece of news about water which is a pointer, in part, to why societies have elections in the first place. There was a recent commissioning of a new water borehole in the town of Ol Makau, Kajiado County. Ol Makau is near Namanga town, right at the Kenya-Tanzania border. The area experiences some pretty rough dry spells being a semi-arid area. What really struck me about this KSh 10 million World Vision sponsored development were two things: first, they didn’t announce great plans for a water project in the glare of cameras; they just did it! And second, this was completely off the grid, that is, it’s powered by solar.

Mugo: Yes, quite exciting indeed. Talk about making life more livable and less dangerous. Prior to the borehole coming on line, these pastoral residents had to walk long distances to lead their flock to water. As if that’s not enough, they’d still have to contend with predatory dangers when they finally got to a water source. It’s a hardscrubble living. So your point is spot on. Elections matter and with an 86% turnout, Kenyans showed the world what the word ‘emphatic’ is all about. For its own longevity, Government must provide basic services to all Kenyan communities, big and small.

Q: What’s the social impact of this, how many families does this provide a lifeline to?

Mugo: World Vision expects 1500 families to benefit as well as 700 animals. That’s made possible thanks to the 1 million liter holding tank. It’s quite laudable……a little step forward for the world, a large step forward for this Maasai community.

Q: Do you think we’ll see more of these developments in the near future?

Mugo: I hope so. The incoming team raised its ire against NGOs and their influence during the campaigns. So let’s see how vigorously they prosecute this notion of ‘Kenyans taking care of Kenyans.’ Service to the people is the raison d’être of any government. Hopefully, through their efforts Kenya becomes a water-secure nation soon. And by the way, these solar powered boreholes can have a regenerative impact on wildlife, not to mention the possibility of reducing human-wildlife conflicts.

Q: How so?

Mugo: Well one such illuminating example can be found at the MWABVI GAME RESERVE in Southern Malawi. What they’ve done there is to construct a borehole which, like the Ol Makau one, is solar powered and feeds about 24V directly to the pump. But instead of the water get pumped into a storage tank, it is instead directed to three or so large ponds, with each succeeding pond being at a slightly lower elevation. In other words, the first pond is higher than the second, and the second higher and so forth.

This way, when the first pond fills up, the overflow goes to the second pond and then on to the third. Now these ponds are where the wildlife comes to drink water either early in the morning or late into the evening. What I like about this model is that the weaker animals have choices; seeing an enemy at the first pond would naturally drive them to drink at the farthest one away.

The warden there says that this new situation has helped keep the animals from migrating in search of water during the dry season. He credits this more sedentary pattern to a significantly diminished human-wildlife contact.

Q: Sounds interesting. What are we looking at in terms of good old cash, how much does it cost to put this all up?

Mugo: Roughly 67,000 pounds back in 2009 when they implemented this project. The pump output is 8000 liters/day. Incidentally the rhino – both black and white – are being successfully bred at Mwabvi.

Q: Sounds like something KWS need to look at. Southern Africa is really a leader in the area of wildlife management and conservation and we can learn a lot from them, I’m sure. By the way, a buddy of mine Alex Njuguna from Long Beach, CA (via Kiambu) told me how amazing his trip to Krueger National Park in South Africa was.

Mugo: Yes, he’s one of our readers………..what’s up Alex? I haven’t been, but would love to go.

Q: Sawa. This was a real hot potato, bwana. But it appears to be cooled some, so let’s talk about the Kenyan election. WOW!!!!! Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta is in. He da man! Folks now have to get used to not calling him ‘Kamwana’(young lad in Gikuyu language) and start practicing ‘His Excellency’.

Mugo: A phenomenal achievement which all Kenyans need to heartily congratulate him and his running mate for. You have to hand it to them. Their sweat equity paid off big time. They traversed the country, pleaded with wananchi, extolled the virtues of their plans and so forth. At the end of the day, Uhuru’s side carried the day.

That said, I’d caution about the tenor of your remark about title and deference. Why we seem to want to rush to glorify leaders is baffling to me especially when you consider that leadership is about service. It’s about humility and a deep sense of responsibility. It’s not about being worshipped. I love Martha Karua for repeatedly coming back to the point that these folks are just like you and me. Respect them, yes…..but please do deify them, she said. After all power is relative – both in measure and duration. Kwani is Oloo Aringo in former President Moi’s will?

Q: Sawa. Let’s talk about the Supreme Court for a minute. Is there a stone they left unturned? This was quite the impressive bench, was it not?

Mugo: Yes kabisa. The ruling was a stroke of genius and the bench’s unanimity highly commendable. Any divisions on the bench would have opened the flood gates of conjecture and all manner of suppositions. This would have been quite unhealthy for what’s most important for Kenyans: the unity of the country, the cohesion of her people. Think about the fractured bench that decided the ‘Bush vs. Gore’ case. That decision contributed to a rocky first term for the President. Only in his second term, after his decisive win, was Bush really able to earn the respect of the side that didn’t vote for him in either cycle.

The togetherness of the Mutunga bench put a full stop to what you might call ‘Orengo talk.’ Notice how he’s been quite lately? Smidgens of negativity might still be here and there, but the direction of the national conversation is decidedly forward looking – it’s about the swearing-in ceremony; it’s about saying goodbye to the ‘zero tolerance’; it’s about the immediate task of putting together a Cabinet that signals freshness, regional balance and merit; it’s about the expectations of reaping the fruits of Kenya’s first ever truly free, fair, transparent and therefore credible presidential election . This is what happens when the rule of law is in effect.

Q: Prime Minister Raila Odinga has finally conceded defeat and sent goodwill wishes to President-elect Uhuru. Does the nation owe him a debt of gratitude for being gracious in his exit?

Mugo: Yes, but I don’t know that I’d use the word ‘gracious.’ If you listened to his statement after the court ruling, there was a lingering feeling of justice denied. It was the fully-throttled concession that one would expect from a statesman; rather it was a ‘nusu-mkate’ acknowledgement. Think about Romney saying that Barack Obama was “his president now” and asking his supporters to pray for him for wisdom. With Raila, you got the feeling that he hasn’t reached a destination called Finality.

Q: And I take it that your feelings of discomfort weren’t necessarily softened by his remarks on his most recent BBC interview?

Mugo: As I said, I would have loved it if he urged all his followers to give their unqualified support to the new government. Hilary Clinton comes to mind – her unequivocal support for Obama after her loss to him was critical in unifying a somewhat splintered Democratic party. Because of her, the Democrats approached the 2008 general election as a formidable force that ultimately delivered a victory for Obama and his agenda.

Q: I just can’t get my mind around how Raila lost this election. I mean it was his for the taking. How in your view did it happen?

Mugo: It’s an excellent question and one that I think historians will grapple with for a number of years to come. The biggest blow to his ambition to succeed Kibaki, in my view, was the news of mega corruption at the PM’s office. From a personal standpoint, I know that’s where my support for Raila started withering. Vilified as he certainly was, I think Miguna Miguna will come to be regarded as a singular force that unraveled Raila’s presidential ambitions.

There seems to have been a realization in ODM that to achieve equilibrium in government, they needed to begin to ‘eat’ and partake of the benefits of their‘nusu mkate’ or half loaf. The Maize scandal, the Kazi kwa Vijana scandal, the 800million hotel, the South African, Korean, Zambia and Malibu, California connections, $5000 suits, $250 belts…..all these just deflated my support. The fact that he chose not to address these issues brazenly and thoroughly; that he instead went on a name-calling spree to discredit Miguna, that really sealed the deal for me and many Kenyans I believe. “Qui tacet consentit” is a Latin phrase which means
silence implies consent.

Q: So you don’t think that his alienation of Ruto on both the Mau and ICC issues were mainly responsible for his deflation?

Mugo: These were important aspects, yes but they could have been overcome. The 800-lb gorilla was the perceived corruption, the opaqueness and temperament of the PM’s office. In particular, the Prime Minister got distracted, or at least appeared to so.

Q: How do you mean?

Mugo: Leadership is about service to the people. Only through effective leadership can the Kingmaker in this case finally get to be crowned. The PM and his team got distracted. He became a jet-setting Executive who rather preferred being seen in Davos than in Dago’s (Dagoretti Corner). He seemed to take pleasure in hobnobbing with world personalities and forgot that Kenyans wanted to see him leading in uprooting hyacinth in Lake Victoria so that the fishermen’s activities are unhindered. How could he finish a 5-year term and not even have a fish factory in Nyanza to show for it? We wanted to see him finally settle the Nubians in Kibera rather than give excuses for why the status quo remains; we wanted to see him settle IDPs rather than explain away bottlenecks in the bureaucracy that he’s supposed to supervise.

The wananchi didn’t see the benefit of all that travel which raked up millions upon millions of shillings. The PM’s team forgot that it’s not about which league Raila plays in, but rather about whether the ordinary wananchi are getting into a better league that THEY can play in. So this distraction, in my opinion, was another dagger into the heart of Raila’s presidential ambition. An excellent communicator but alas an ineffective leader!

Q: So he wasn’t being effective, he wasn’t hitting the home runs you expected?

Mugo: That’s right, he wasn’t. And ‘liberation, reform’ rhetoric can only take you so far. The vigor, vitality and creativity needed to propel the nation forward………did Kenyans see it in the Octogenarians around Raila? Maybe if kina Ntimama, Kosgey and Gumo could get past a 30-minute briefing without dozing off, then you might be convinced. But these are some of the lessons that I hope the Uhuru-Ruto team will be mindful of and avoid as they put their team together. You want the Mugo Kibatis, the Kokubos, the Martin Oduors, etc………. you need a spirited team.

Q: Haya, let’s wrap this up now. What are your wishes for President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto?

Mugo: You know I didn’t personally support them during the campaign and my reasons were quite clear. He who has lifted or cause to be lifted a machette against ANY human being didn’t deserve leadership, let alone the top two slots in the nation. But clearly a majority of Kenyans didn’t share that sentiment.

However now that the elections and petitions are over, the least we can do is offer our support to the new government and wish the President-elect luck. I hope Kenyans of all stripes align themselves with the Jubilee Alliance manifesto.

Q: Asante Bwana Mugo. It was refreshing talking with you, and I look forward to our next conversation next month.

Mugo: Thank you too, it was joy.

Kenya: Plans to have Raila Odinga ousted as the Luo political kingpin is in the offing

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News Analysis by a Special Correspondent in Kisumu City

REPORTS emerging from the outlaying administrative districts within the four Counties, which forms the parts of the old larger Nyanza Province have indicating that the behind the scene covert operations is in the offing in which members of the Luo community are unanimous that the time is ripe for the ousting and replacement of the ODM leader Raila Amolo Odinga with a young technocrat.

The plans is said o have received the blessing of Luo elders from all over the Four administrative Counties of Siaya,Kisumu, Homa-Bay and Migori.

The Prime Minister Raila Odinga who is now approaching his 70s year of age has thrice tried his hand at winning the presidency of this country ever since 1997 ,2007 and 2013but has yet to be fortunate enough to capture the top-most job on the land.

Senior members of the community have now a second feeling tat it is time that Odinga be replaced in readiness for the 2017 general election. This political scenario is likely to raise political temperature inside Luo-Nyanza and degenerate a lot of controversies owing to Raila Odinga enormous popularity within the community.

Several names are on the card being floated by the proponents of this scheme. They included that of the Nairobi governor-elect Dr Evans Otieno Kidero, the outspoken former Rangwe firebrand MP Dr. Shem Ochuodho, Rarieda MP Eng. Nicholas Gumbo, a Nairobi based business tycoon, Sammy Wakiaga, Suba MP John Mbadi,Rongo MP Dalmas Otieno who is the Minister for Public Services

The proponents and those floating the idea of replacing Raila Odinga with a young technocrat politicians have readily admitting that Odinga might not be too old in 2017 to have another shot at the presidency. They, however, maintained that “Agwambo’s” fortune appeared to have waned beyond repair.

Prior to his death in an aircraft crash last June, the former Ndhiwa MP Joshua Orwa Ojode who was serving the coalition government as an Assistant Minister for Internal Security ad Provincial Administration had his name on the lead.

The working relations between thef0rer abrasive Ndhiwa MP Ojode and Raila Odinga had gone sour at the time of his death following the rumors that the latter was nursing political ambition of becoming the overall. Dr Kidero a former Managing Director of Mumias Sugar Company is said to have contested and cliched the position of Nairobi-governor-elect against the wishes of Raila Odinga and some of his Luo handlers. The group advanced an argument that it was unattainable for Raila Odinga to occupy the Government House, while at the same time Dr Kidero is sitting at the helm of the City governorship.

The group had favored either Bishop Margaret Wanjiru or Jimnah for the Nairobi governor position. Dr Kidero an urbanized deployed his political dynamism and magnanimity to clinch the seat. Raila Odinga staunch supporters had viewed Dr Kidero’s bid for governorship as ‘spoiler’.

Prior to the 2007 general election Wakiaga who is still in the civil service as a senior government official had shown keen interest in joining parliamentary politics in his native Mbita constituency in Suba.

Wakiaga was to contest the seat against the then incumbent Gerald Otieno Kajwang’ of the famous bado Kuna Mapambano lyrics. However, those to insight information about Mbita politics have told us that it was Raila Odinga who prevailed upon Wakiaga not to contest the election against Otieno Kajwang’ on the promises that once the ODM win the election, he Wakiaga would be considered for another more lucrative position within the ODM administration.

Wakiaga who runs a chain of businesses in both Nairobi and Nyanza is closely associated with the Mbita Ferries Limited, whose ferries are currently plying the Lake Victoria between Luanda Kotieno in Rarieda and Mbita and also between Misori in Uyoma West and Mbita as well as between Mbita town and Mfangano Islands. He is also running a chains of hotels and air-travel agencies.

Another MP whose soberly character seemed to have attracted the elders who are considering him for the future role political leadership in Luo-Nyanza is the Karachuonyo MP Eng.James K. Rege.The newly elected Seme MP Dr.James Nyikal a former PS in the Ministry of Medical services is also being mentioned .

The coming weeks will witness a lot of the behind the scene activities inside Luo-Nyanza, because of the of the proponent of the change of leadership within the community has vowed to go out flat to canvass for their proposals.

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Kenya: Raila was let down by Luo Ministers and MPs who contributed nothing to popularize the ODM inside Luo-Nyanza

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THE ODM SHOULD CARRY OUT A POST-MORTEM THROUGH AUDITING AND DISCOVER ITS AFTERMATH OF THEIR DISMALL PERFORMANCE AND ANY OTHER LOOP HOLES.

News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo

NOW that the genera elections of March 4, 2013 has come and gone leaving behind many looming faces of the election losers, and at the same time, the jovial faces of the winners, the time is ripe for major political parties to take the stock of what happened during the polls.

Instead of engaging in the blame games, these parties should go back to the drawing boards of their secretariat and immediately start examining the reasons why some of them had performed disastrously below their expectation.

I would rather concentrate in examining in detailed accounts, some of the most valid reasons why the Orange Democratic Movement {ODM], the party which has its stronghold inside Luo-Nyanza.

The ODM performed dismally in Nyanza. First of all there was apathy on the part of the registered voters. Only a paltry number came out to cast their voters, while the majority stayed at home. This is contrary to claims by the IEBC that the turn out in many places of Nyanza Province, the turn out was slightly above the 75 percent.

The most populous constituencies inside Luo-Nyanza are Ugenya, Rongo,Kasipul-Kabondo and Karachuoyo. And going by the statistics of the votes casted, this was far much below the voting patter shown in 2007, Rongo,Ugenya,Kasipul-Kabondo had all been subdivided into two parliamentary constituencies.

The populous Karachuonyo remained intact, while the old Rangwe created the Homa-Bay Town constituency. At the same time Migori saw the birth of the Suna East and Suna West

Ugunja was curved out of the of Ugenya, while there were major constituencies realignment in areas like Kisumu Town West and Kisumu Rural constituencies with the creation of the Kisumu Town Central and Seme constituencies. The creations of these rather smaller constituencies, however, were insignificant as far as the voting pattern in the region was concerned. This did not alter the voting pattern

What happened is the fact that the immediate former Luo MPs who had served in the 10th Parlilament did not bother to sensitize the population to register themselves as voters in their respective constituencies during the registration of voter’s exercises.

Out of the 21 MPs from Luo-Nyanza none came home and mobilized or sensitized the rural folks in their respective constituencies to take the voter’s registration exercise seriously.

The Luo MPs only made cosmetic appearances in their rural constituencies during the emotionally charged burial and funeral ceremonies. These MPs spent most their valuable times trailing the Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga wherever he went.

The people who are credited for having let down the Prime Minister down were Ministers Gerald Otieno Kajwang’, {Immigration and Registration of Persons, Dalmas Otieno {Public Services}, James Aggrey Orengo,{Lands}and Prof.Anyang’ Nyong’o{Medical Services}.

Two Assistant Ministers also had the lackluster performance. These were the PM’s own elder brother Dr Oburu Oginga, the Finance Assistant Minister. Also contributing immensely to the ODM waned popularity were the frequent belligerence and reckless utterances of the PM’s cousin Jakoyo Midiwo the MP for Gem.

There were too much undercurrent and undercutting among the Luo MPs and the ODM local party branch officials, something which had placed the Luo-Nyanza under the election mood all the time.

The registration of voter’s exercises came about in Luo-Nyanza at the time when the relations between the Luo MPs and members of the Provincial Administration had gone a sour.

The administrators who included PCs, DCs.Dos, Chiefs and Assistant Chiefs are the pillers of administration within the localities and have always been responsible f9rmobilizingthe voters during the voters registration exercises.

IMMEDIATELY SOON AFTER THE ADOPTION OF THE NEW Constitution, some of the Luo MPs went around shouting at the members of the Provincial Administration asking them to pack and go, “because their services were no longer needed. These administrators were humiliated in nearly all the public gatherings. This what killed their morale of serving the public.

On one occassi9on the whole Minister Otieno Kajwang’ [Immigration and MP for Mbita went public and requested the administrat0orstopackandgo.

The Minister’s utterances prompted the then Assistant Minister for the Internal Security and Provincial Administration the late Joshua Orwa Oj0de and his then boss Prof.George Saitoti to withdrew the entire administration officials in Mbita district.

Mbita district despite its proximity to the sensitive border was without the D.C. for close to six months.It was the OCPD who remained the senior most government official in Mbita durng the period when the D.C. was not there.There were no DO

[1], Do for Lambwe Division and D.O.in-charge of Mfangano Dvision.

Answering a parliamentary question as to why the government had not posted a DC to Mbita, Ojode told hushed House that there were no plan of posting any D.C. to the area as the services of this calibre of officer were not required by the residents. And this was precisely the time when the voter’s registration exercises was taking place in the area. The chiefs relaxed and went about their daily scores without urging the population to register themselves as the voters.

In Rongo district some unknown people hired six vehicle loaded with political goons hired from 0utside Rongo constituency and send them to Kitere village specifically to go and break a meeting of local elders.The fighting that ensued saw close to7people hacked to death by the villagers.

Despite of the death of people, investigations were done haphazardly carried out and nobody was punished for this heinous crime. Rongo is the constituency represented by Hon.Dalmas Otieno.

On top of all this the ODM primary nomination was the most flawed exercises.It was mismanaged by the ODM headquarters and even some senior staff at the PM’s office and also at the Orange House headquarters were heard giving the names of people considered as not favored by Raila Odinga whom they advised not to be issued with nomination certificates even if such persons had won their primaries.

As Raila Odinga traversed the country while canvassing for the votes for his presidential bid,some people perceived to be close to him were engaged in political war of attrition in his Luo backyard.

Ends

Africa: THREE YEARS DOWN THE LINE SINCE THE LUSAKA DECLARATION OF THE ICGLR SPECIAL SUMMIT ON THE FLIGHT OF ILLEGAL EXPLOITATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES IN THE GREAT LAKES REGION HAS YET TO BE IMPLEMENTED.

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News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo

The Great Lakes Region is one of Africa’s richest region in terms of natural and human resources. However, it remains largely impoverished and its political, social and economic development has been hindered by conflict and absence of the rule of law.

It was in response to the regional conflicts that countries in the region, under the auspices of the United Nations and then Organization of African Unity decided to form the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region {ICGLR} .

Last week, the regional leaders signed a deal aimed at bringing peace and stability to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo with plans to reinforce a UN-led mission to combat rebels activities in the region after years of unrest.

Eleven countries in the Great Lakes region – including rebel groups – signed on to the accord at a ceremony in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa in the presence of the UN Secretary General Psan Ki-Moon

The entire region is hoping that this time the accord such an accord will hold its waters, after many similar agreement brokered before collapsed even before the ink dried up. D. R. Congo has remained unstable nation in Africa ever since it attained its political independence from its former colonial masters the Belgium in June 1960.

On December 15th, 2010, Heads of State and governments of Member States of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region {ICGLR} gather in the Zambian capital, Lusaka

The summit passed far-reaching 19 resolutions dabbed The Lusaka Declaration. However, these resolutions which formed the part of the Lusaka Declaration have remained ineffective and no signs of implementation Ha been put to practical work.

LEO OIDERA OMOLO, A veteran Kenyan journalist who attended the Lusaka summit in this two parts analytical article is examining what has since become of the Lusaka Declaration.

The main theme at the Lusaka Summit was “The Problem of illegal |Exploitation of the region’s natural resources.”

The problem of illegal exploitation of natural resources spans the mining sector and trade in valuable minerals of the region which perniciously deprives the region of vital resources of revenue so much required by social and economic development. These resources can create greater prosperity for the member countries, but ii used poorly, the wealth will cause economic instability, conflict and environmental degradation.

It was with these special challenges sand special opportunities in the mind of the leaders of the Great Lakes Region that they resolved at the Lusaka Summit to mobilize existing technical expertise, human resources and their political goodwill under the auspices of the ICGLR to fight against illegal exploitation of natural resources being one of the ways of transforming the region into a space of peace and stability and socio-economic development.

In attendance at the Lusaka Summit were President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos {Angola} Denis Sassou Nguesso {he Republic of Congo Brazzaville}.Pierre Nkrunzinza{Burundi}.Joseph Kabila Kabange {DR Congo} Jakaya Mrisho Kikweteb {anzania}, Rupiah B Banda {Zambia} oweri Kaguta Museveni {Uganda}, (mar Hassan Ahmed Bashir {Sudan} Mwai Kibaki {Kenya}, Francois Bozize {Central African Republic}.

The 19 resolutions were as follows: We, Heads of State and Member States of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region [ICGLR} who gathered in Lusaka, are concerned about the persistent illegal exploitation of natural resources in the Great Lakes Region and its linkage to the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, financing of armed groups and perpetuation of crimes against humanity.

We, are aware of the need to streamline the activities of local, regional and multinational actors involved in the exploitation of natural resources.

We, are cognizant of the commitment, mutual trust and cooperation in the implementation of the Pact on Security, stability and development of the Great Lakes Region.

We are, recalling the decision of the Mini-Summit held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 1 February 2010, in which the ICGLR Secretariat and the Democratic of the Congo [DRC}government are urged to organize a Special Summit to address the issues related to illegal exploitation of natural resources in the Great Lakes Region;

We, are deeply concerned about the negative impact of the illegal exploitation of natural resources which deprives states of resources needed to fight poverty and aggravates environmental degradation.

We are fully aware of the economic conflicts and persistent insecurity caused by armed groups and the Great Lakes Region financed through the illegal exploitation of natural resources and trade in minerals, in particular gold, Colombo-Tentalite, Woliranite and Cassiterite and concerned about the negative impact these armed groups have had on the population in the region including crimes against humanity, and massive violation of human rights such as sexual and gender based violence.

Please watch for the second instalment.

ends

Kenya: The Inter-clan clashes in Kuria is all about politics and not because of cattle rustling as claimed in certain quarters

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News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Migori Town.

He latest flare up between the two rival sub-clans in Kuria district within Migori County in which thee people have lost their precious lives and close to 70 houses torched leaving more than 570 people displaced did not come about as the result of the traditional cattle rustling, but has some political connotation which need to be investigated thoroughly by the government.

There is something in the skirmishes more than meet the eye. The Kurias are protesting against a political party which is trying to impose an unpopular candidate, who has also long been suspected to be foreign, to represent them in the Senate.

The former Kuria |MP Dr Wilfred Machage is the official ODM candidate for Migori County Senate seat. The latte,r who is also an Assistant Minister for Public Works, has represented the community ever since 2002. He has served as an MP leaning on the PNU side of the ruling grand coalition and was also the deputy PNU party leader.

However, early this year Dr. Machage successfully persuaded the ODM leader Raila Amolo Odinga to accept him with a promise that this new arrangement would give “Agwambo” political mileage over his rivals by harvesting 100 per cent of all the votes within the two Kuria districts of Kuria East and Kuria West.

The Kuria constituency which was created in 1962 has since been splinted into Kuria East and Kuria West. Dr Machage had demanded that he be given a direct nomination as his prerequisite and conditions of rejoining the ODM.

Raila Odinga following intensive persuasion by his front man in Migori County, who is Dalmas Otieno, the Minister for Public Service hastily and readily accepted Dr. Machage’s plan as viable.

Dalmas Oteno while working in cohorts with some Luo MPs from the Migori County who included Edick Omondi Anyanga {Nyatike}, Cyprian Ojwang’ Omolo {Uriri]. John Pesa {Migori} followed the arrangement with a series of night meetings held behind the closed door of the various posh Nairobi hotels.The group later tried in vain to sell the idea to the electorate, but they prove to be so adamant, forcing Raila Odinga himself to make a series of unscheduled visits to Migori in order to bulldoze and coerce the voters to accept that the Kuria community is one of the marginalized minority communities in Kenya and as such need pr0tection by way of reserving certain elective seats with the Migori County governance exclusively for the Kurias.

At the same time, Raila had assured the voters that nobody would be given direct nomination by the ODM and that all the interested aspirants would have to compete in the open for votes.

However, what might have been known to Raila is that Dr.Machage is not a popular leader of all the Kuria people. The former Kuria MP is not a member of any of the four major Kuria sub-clans livng in Kenya. He is a member of Abakenye, a small Kuria sub-clan living in the North Mara in Tanzania and neighboring Jo-Sakwa Kowak and Rieny Kowuoyo.

The major Kuria sub-clans living in Kenya comprises of Abanyabansi, Abairege, Bugumbe and Abakiria. Dr Machage is not a member of any of the four sub-clans and as such he is being treated by the Kuria people as a immigrant and a foreigner and specifically a Tanzanian.living among them.

Another Tanzanian Kuria who in the past has succeeded in sitting inside Kenyan parliament for two parliamentary terms of five years is Eng Shadrack Mangawho was elected an MP between 1992 and 1997 and has served in the defunct MOi KANU government as an Assistant Minister.

Manga is a member of another smaller Kuria sub-clan living across the common Kenya-Tanzania borders which is known as Ntimbaru. After his election, some Kuria intellectuals and politicians made a concerted efforts and even moved to court to have him {Manga} out of Kenyan parliament on claims that he was a Tanzanian and therefore a foreign an ineligible to sit in Kenya in vain. The case was thrown out by the court.

Kuria parliament seat was created in 1962 by the British appointed Boundaries omission, which was led by Prof. Mackenzie in 1962.Its first MP was Benjamin Maisori -Itumbo who was appointed to the post-independence cabinet as an Assistant Minister for Social Services. He had also served as a member of the defunct colonial Legislative Coucil in which he was nominated by the governor Sir.Patrick Renson in 1961.

Maisori-tumbo hails from Bugumbe sub-clan and had dominated Kuria politics for close to three decades. He was later replaced by Samson Marwa Mwita, and later by Walter Mwita.Al the three past MPs were the indignant Kenyan Kuria people.

By the time the ODM made the disastrous decision to have the the Migori County Senate seat reserved for the Kuria, several political – personalities had already hit the peak with their campaign for the same seat. Tey included John Magaiywa , the ODM MIGORI County branch chairman,

The result of the ODM nomination was most disappointing. Raila’s preferred candidate Dr Machage garnered paltry 51,000 votes against Magaiywa’s 72,000 votes. Strangely enough the ODM headquarters issued Dr.Machage with nomination certificate and denied Magaiywa his hard won election victory.

Those privy to information about Kuria politics have confided to us that the latest inter-clans clashes had just come about as the protest by the voters against the ODM decision of supporting the nomination loser while leaving out the winner. He skirmishes cannot be dismissed as caused by cattle rustling, but as the result of bad politics.

Ends

William Henry comments on – – Mideast; World crisis vs. citizens activism for mutual love;

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From: octimotor

Hi:

In the midst of concerns about attacks on liberty and peace, by those who may care to notice, comes a significant comment from William Henry. Audio of his message is at web link below.

Indeed it is time for sovereign peoples of many nations to reach out to each other, opposing run-away leaderships’ quests to bring chaos and atrocities.

Audio Link

Source:
Whitley Streiber’s website, Unknowncountry.com; section titled Revelations with William Henry;

http://www.unknowncountry.com/revelations/latest#ixzz2KhpYZjaC
Wednesday February 6, 2013
The Threat to Our Freedom and the Looming Danger in the Middle East

Kenya & EU: The NCIC is sleeping on the jobs while Minister Ongeribri’s reaction to EU and US statements was a big diplomatic goof.

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News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City

The casual way and manner with which the Kenyan Minister for Foreign Affairs Sam Ongeri had handled the sensitive diplomatic exchanges between Kenyan leaders and the EU countries ambassadors to Kenya on the need to have fair and free elections was a big diplomatic goof.

And the said could be said of the recent brotherly caution and advice by the US President Barrack Obama was a big diplomatic blunder if not an act of miscalculation and underestimation of facts.

Ongeri’s reaction had reduced the sensitive diplomatic issue to be of a simple and petty local political party affair between the competing Jubilee and Cord alliances.

The Minister’s utterances did not measure up to the international diplomatic standards. He down played the important role the EU envoys are playing to Kenya and the important part their countries contributions to or national budgetary system and development activities.

The Minister further displayed his total ignorance about the pivotal role the EU member states are playing as key development and economic partners of Kenya. He ought to have been well briefed and knew that the EU states are state parties to the Rome Statue and are its members bound by its legal obligation as much as is Kenya.

In the same context I am tempted to ask a question about the cardinal role played by the NCIC, which appeared to be ineffective and looked like a simple talking shop. The NCIC is like a toothless bull-dog, therefore its members and the executive director Dr. Mzalendo Kibunja were simply milking the public coffers. The commission should be dissolved with immediate effect, because it has failed to live to the expectation of the peace –loving Kenyans.

Kenyans from all walks of life are increasingly getting worried about the casual manner with which, the politicians, particularly those vying for the presidency have defiantly ignored NCIC repeated warning about the hate speeches.

In this context, I have in mind the speeches made by the Jubilee presidential candidate Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and his running –mate William Samoei Ruto during the letters recent tour of the Nandi County.

Many people were shocked and taken aback when the two made reckless statements at their campaign rally in Nandi County. Without any provocation fro any quarters the two principals leaders of the Jubilee Alliance, made unfounded allegations attacking the EU countries and the United States of America saying the two institutions were issuing threats and intimidation to scare their Kenyan supporters.

‘These nations must stop playing about issues they should come out openly and tell Kenyans that they are supporting the Prime Minister Raila Odinga.”We will not have a problem with that,” said Ruto.What an unfortunate statement?

Ruto was further quoted by all the dailies as saying that a number of Western nations including the US and Great Britain have already warned Kenyans of the consequences should they the elect the two ICC suspect

Ruto further alleged that what America and the UK had done was tantamount to violence tom intimidate KENYA VOTERS. Perhaps Kenyatta an Ruto were playing local politic s of provoking tribal emotions

Ruto’s frequent mentioning of Raila Odinga’s name in a derogatory manner and negatively whenever he opens up his public addresses, an action that carries risk wiping out the emotions of Raila supporters.

What were the NCIC agents doing. Did such remarks not amounting to hate speeches? Or the NCIC would like to wait until the supporters of the two camps get embroiled into physical confrontation.

Ends

KENYA: THE MUGO REPORT – December 2012 – January 2013

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From: Mugo Muchiri
Los Angeles, CA
Febuary 3, 2013

Q: Happy belated New Year, Bwana Mugo! I know we’re well into 2013 but tell us how you sum up the year 2012? What for you were some of its highlights?

Mugo: Asante sana and Happy New Year to you too. 2012 was a good but tough year. I’m sure the continuing challenging economy has made a more resilient lot of us Kenyans in the US. But the thankfulness has also been there, at least on my part, for the good things that we mustn’t take for granted: additions to the family, good health and meaningful work.

The icing on the cake has got to be my recent visit to Kenya which provided a rare opportunity to be with my Mom, brothers, sisters and in-laws, and to be introduced and fall in love with a whole bunch of hitherto unknown nephews and nieces. That, plus connecting with long-lost friends……..could you ask for a sweeter Christmas gift? I don’t think so.

Q: So how’s Mom doing? You always sign out as the son of Ndunge….so tell me how the mother of ‘the son of Ndunge’ is fairing?

Mugo: Asante for asking. Mom is doing reasonably well for an 81-year woman. She’s still her old jovial self. Her gait is obviously a tad bit slower. She occasionally has to use a walking stick, but in her eyes, you still see the joyfulness of life. It was a warm presence to be around with so many beautiful memories shared.

When you see your mother live (rather than through Skype), you feel like blessing all the mothers of the world. In your Mom, you see the center that nourishes everything around, that’s at the basis of all family relationships and values. So for two weeks, every day was a joyful ‘Mother’s Day.’

Q: So when was the last time you were in Kenya, if I may ask?

Mugo: Slightly over 24 years! I see your jaw dropping, bwana. This was the first time I went to visit Kenya since coming to the United States in August of 1988. It was a long absence.

Q: MUNGU WANGU! You mean you had chuchuma’d here for 24 years! I think you’ve set a record among Kenyans in the US. I thought Ngugi wa Thiong’o had the ‘gold’ but you’ve outdone even the Great African Bard!

Mugo: Well life is interesting, isn’t it? However, I only recently found out that our family friend from Miami, Bwana Paul….. well he’s at 27 years and still counting. So I’ll have to settle for ‘silver.’

Q: So how was Kenya, especially after all those years? You must have been overwhelmed by the changes.

Mugo: Overwhelmed yes. Actually I was floored. The changes are simply amazing. Nairobi is just teeming with people. So is Nakuru, Thika, Makutano and other places I visited. You feel this raw energy in the air. Kenyans are just everywhere. And they’re mostly young. I rarely saw wananchi with gray hair like me in the city center. Perhaps most had retreated to the countryside for the holidays. It was a sea of mostly under-30-somethings.

One of the things that impressed me was attire. This was especially true among the ladies. When I remarked this to my brother Kamande, he told me that Mitumba (second-hand clothing) had been a savior. To my eyes, there was minimal difference between dress codes here in US and back in Kenya. And perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising; most clothing is actually sourced from the US.

Q: Did you get a chance to travel around some. Were folks in rural areas equally presentable?

Mugo: Yes I did, and yes they were. Now two weeks is a very short time especially since most of the things I intended to accomplish needed my presence in Nairobi. Still I managed to go to Murang’a from where I hail. It was critical for me to visit some of the 2007-8 hotspots and this led me to Nakuru, Naivasha and Nandi Hills. And yes, everywhere I went, people including small children seemed to be well-fed. They were certainly decently clad.

Now 24 years ago, it was common in my hometown of Saba Saba to see kids with long shirts (no undergarments) with makamasi dripping from their noses, and flies mulling around their faces. In fact kids didn’t even bother to swipe at the flies. You don’t like washing dirty laundry in public, but this was the reality. Today, it’s a 360 degree turnaround: children are clean and well dressed. I didn’t see a soul without shoes. So this was gratifying. You saw before your very own eyes the benefits of cross-border trade. And I think this mustn’t be lost to Kenyans, especially during this electioneering season, where it’s common to hear isolationist hues and cries.

Q: So would you say that living standards have improved since you were last there?

Mugo: With respect to what my eyes saw, I’d say yes. But it’s a qualified ‘yes.’ Time didn’t allow me to go areas like Kibera, Mathare and Mukuru where the bulk of our population resides. Now take Kibera as an example. It’s one of the biggest slums in Africa. In fact, according to Ngugi, an in-law of mine who lives in Karen, there’s only a forest of about a mile – the time of a brisk 20-minute walk – that separates Kibera from Karen. So the sprawl is alive and well, and will increasingly put the squeeze on high-cost, up market areas. Standards of living cannot be gauged without taking this significant portion of Kenyans into consideration. That’s why you have to ringfence my answer.

Q: Tell me more about Nairobi. Has it physically grown? And what’s the state of traffic in and around Nairobi?

Mugo: I didn’t care much for Nairobi. Its livability index is very suspect in my eyes. The area encompassing the City Center is nothing short of hazardous to your health. The main reason for this is the pollution from the seemingly numberless matatus and City Hoppers that rule the roadways. They all run on diesel for the most part.

You remember how President Obama described the first-ever US debt downgrade as “a self-inflicted wound?” Well, the hike in sickness rates in the coming years will have been a self-inflicted wound in a similar vein. We’re just doing it to ourselves, we’re acting in a manner to precipitate higher asthma and cancer rates among Nairobi urbanites. The only entities to benefit will be Big Pharma and all who come under its umbrella. In my mind, the government really has to get going on regulating the matatu industry. Not tomorrow, but NOW. Otherwise a rapidly gathering health threat is sure to morph into a fully-fledged crisis.

Q: Haven’t they partly done it though? In our last encounter, we talked about the inauguration of the new Syokimau railway station by President Kibaki as a step in the right direction.

Mugo: This is true. I continue to laud the investment efforts of Kenya Railways. They’re well-reasoned and appropriate to the need. But when you’re actually on the ground, you’re confronted with the issue of immediacy, the urgency of speeding things up. Let me give you an example. I was staying at the Transcendental Meditation ™ center in Valley Arcade in Nairobi. One day, I decided to take the 30-minute walk to Hurlingham. I then hopped onto a matatu which proceeded to head to downtown Nairobi. My brother Ng’ang’a was waiting for me in his office.

Q: Yes, I recall Hurlingham being on the tonier side of Nairobi.

Mugo: It took me another 30 minutes of waiting at the Hurlingham terminal before I boarded the matatu. While waiting at the bus stop, matatus would come, slow down, then leave. Each vehicle would belch diesel fumes into our faces. You cannot avoid ingesting the poison. By the time I got to my brother’s office, I was actually ‘high’ on diesel. And I thought, ‘What about these folks who have to endure this every single day of their lives.’ A Maasai friend I met in Namanga told me that folks from his community enjoy almost perfect health until they go to Nairobi. Then all hell breaks loose on them.

Q: What about the physical aspect of Nairobi?

Mugo: This is definitely an economy on the march. If you asked me, we’ve stolen Uganda’s national symbol – the crane is now our ‘bird’ – and lately it’s been busy in the service of building, building, building. As a point of fact, cement manufacturers aren’t able to keep up with demand. I don’t understand where all this credit is coming from, but it’s flowing like booze at a sailor’s party. What we need to watch out for is planning. The planning function is weak. Towns I visited like Kitengela, Juja, Thika and Makutano (or Kenol) to pick a few all exhibited deplorable planning.

Unlike what we’re used to in the States, there’s a dearth of park areas, broad streets, walking pavements, biker lanes, etc. These are important elements that contribute to a more superior quality of living. The multi-use functionality that newer buildings in LA have incorporated is a lesson that needs to be imported. This way, lofts, studios and apartments on higher floors co-exist with the ground floor service functionality of restaurants, dry cleaners, salons and what have you. In Kenya, outside the higher cost areas like Westlands (very admirable developments), it’s a jungle. Planning is haphazard.

Q: But I don’t imagine the LA of today is the LA of, say, 100 years ago.

Mugo: This is true. But must we wait for such a long time to achieve parity? Let’s appeal to, reach out and grasp ‘best practices.’ The LAs of the world may have had to develop it by themselves. This was an awfully slow roast. The advantage for today’s younger economies is the wealth of knowledge that exists out there and the relative ease of securing cooperation across seas. New city design and planning in China continue to benefit significantly from infusions of American expertise and ingenuity. Remember, a stitch in time saves nine.

Q: Would you say that Kenya is the land of opportunity?

Mugo: There is no doubt that Kenya today is the land of opportunity. The amount of wealth generation is simply staggering. As Hillary Clinton said at her going-away speech at the State Department last week, 7 of the 10 most rapidly growing economies are in Africa. Return on invested capital in Kenya towers over their comparables here in the US. What I’m saying is that the Carnegie Mellons, the Rockerfellows, the Huntingtons of Kenya are being created as you read this. It’s a hugely exciting and inviting time for investments in Kenya, and by extension in Africa. This there can be no doubt about.

Q: Where specifically are opportunities rife?

Mugo: The most obvious is land. About 6 years ago, an 1/8 of an acre in Kitengela was going for KSh 350,000. Today, it easily fetches KSh 1.5 million. In the last 6-7 years, Kenya has seen an explosion in land prices. Populations are moving further out for more spacious, better quality living. Now future increases in land may not be as dramatic as what I’ve just described. Even so, I think land especially in farther-out areas like Kitengela, Konza, Utawala can be good holding investments.

Residential construction is another area that can provide home-run returns. The demand –especially in the lower cost market segment – continues to far outstrip supply. I visited several home and apartment developments, notably Bahati Ridge in Gatanga, the Chania development in Thika and so forth.

Bahati Ridge is pioneered by the Kibe family. The family patriach was a Permanent Secretary in the Water ministry many years ago. In any case, he’s hived off half of his 180-plus acre farm and is developing so very beautiful homes whose quality is nothing short of outstanding. The contractor is Epco Builders of Industrial Area. The development is definitely a thumbs-up and I’d invite readers to check out bahatiridge.co.ke. Despite the hefty prices, they’re going, going and going.

I hope that my next visit will allow me more time to scout investment opportunities that I can share with my fellow Kenyans in Diaspora. But take it from me, this is NOT a time to whine about trust issues. Just find a good partner and jump in there. Opportunities stare you in the face.

Q: OK Bwana Mugo, asante for your insights. It’s been a joy to share and tuonane next time.

Mugo: Poa. Tumesmake. GOOD LUCK PETER KENNETH, GOOD LUCK MARTHA KARUA!!!!!!!!!! AMKENI KENYANS, GOOD LEADERSHIP IS STARING YOU RIGHT IN THE FACE. RISHI

KENYA & USA: US PRESIDENT OBAMA GOODWILL MESSAGE TO KENYAN VOTERS MOST WELCOME BY ALL PLAYERS WITHIN THE COUNTRY’S POLITICAL DIVIDES

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News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City

The US President Barrack Obama’s goodwill message to Kenyans people urging them to conduct peaceful election and at the same appealing to the electorate to reject intimidation and violence to allow free and fair general election was well received last night.

President Obama ‘s message which was beamed over the country via all the television stations appeared to be neutral and impartial and did not favor any particular party of individual presidential aspirant.

The message conveyed in a video posted on the US Embassy website opened up with the President Obama speaking in Kiswahili “Habari” a local dialect which is the joint official language with the English. In the message President Obama urged the candidates to resolved disputes through the courts, rather that on the streets.

While not speaking directly on how the US government would interpret the choice of Kenyan

Make on March 4, 2013, Obama said if the election were credible” you Kenyans will continue to have a strong partners in the US.”.

“Above all the people of Kenya must come together before and after the election to carry on work of building your country,”he said.

President Obama made explicitly clear that the United States of America had not endorsed any candidate and would instead support free and fair elections work of building your country,’ he said, adding,” you can show the world that you are not just a member of a tribe or ethnic group, but citizens and great and proud people nation.

“I cannot imagine a better way to mark the 50th anniversary of Kenya’s independence.”

President Obama message is viewed by the local political pundits and observers as representing positive neutrality and impartiality on the part of the US administration, and a country which has maintained economic and military ties with Kenya ever since it achieved its political independence in 1963.

Obama cited his personal commitment to Kenya saying, he was grateful; for the welcome Kenyans had given him and his family in their beautiful country.”

President Barrack Obama has a family root in Western Kenya where his late father Barrack Hussein Obama hails from. His elder step brother Malik Abong’o Obana is in the race contesting the elective position of regional governor for Siaya County as an independent candidate.

The US President family and relatives lives in Nyang’oma village, Alego Kogelo in Siaya County, about 80 kilometer northwest of Kisumu City.

Many Kenyan had expected President Obama to throw his weight behind the Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga, who is one of the leading contenders for the presidency, and who had a blood relationships with the Obama family family, but the perception did not materialize. The US President steered clear of the local politics, and this is viewed as a diplomatic coup and score.

Perhaps this was in realization that the slightest mentioning of Mr Odinga’s name could have given the Prime Minister undeserved political mileage over his seven other rivals.

Meanwhile both the US and the UK, the two principal economic partners of Kenya have separately assured the Kenyan voters for the impartiality and non commitment..

Kenyans will to the polls to elect the 4th President on March 4, 2013, and eleventh parliament, This time round there will be a tri-cameral legislative bodies which include the Senate and regional assemblies in all 47 counties governance.

The two Western powers have stressed their neutrality ahead of the historic general election and allayed fears of endorsing any of the eight presidential candidates.

They have also assured the Kenyans that the outcome of the presidential votes will not affect trades ties with Kenya and sanction would not be imposed no matter who become the next President.

President Obama’s message come in the background of some European countries hgave recently said it would not be business as usual if Kenyans elected the candidates with criminal, tugs on their heads, particularly the ICC suspects Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and the former Eldoret North M William Ruto.

Kenyatta is the Deputy Prime Minister and the son of the post-Independence President the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.Ruto is Kenyatta’s presidential running-mate. Both the two men had criminal cases of committing crimes against humanity. Their cases are pending before the Hague based International Court of Criminal Justices {ICC}.The candidature of the two has elicited a lot of discontents and criticism by many Kenyans who felt there was no need electing the pair while they have serious criminal cases hanging on their heads before an international court.

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KENYA: THE ZONING OF EXCLUSIVE KALENJIN DISTRICT BY URP LEADERSHIP MIGHT BOOMERANG AND HAS RESULTED IN NOT EVEN ONE SINGLE PARTY PARLIAMENTARY ASPIRANT GETTING ELECTED UNOPPOSED.

From: Arrum Tidi
Date: Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 8:10 AM
Subject: Ruto URP could come out of the South Rift empty handed without a parliamentary seat after March 4, 2013.
To: “jaluo@jaluo.com” , “Sally H. Jacobs” , “citnewspaper@yahoo.com” , “editor@truthnewspaper.com” , “news@bbc.co.uk” , “oped@nytimes.com” , “opinion@nairobistar.com” , “InsideAfrica@CNN.com” , “news@ugandacorrespondnet.com”

THE ZONING OF EXCLUSIVE KALENJIN DISTRICT BY URP LEADERSHIP MIGHT BOOMERANG AND HAS RESULTED IN NOT EVEN ONE SINGLE PARTY PARLIAMENTARY ASPIRANT GETTING ELECTED UNOPPOSED.

News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo

IF the former Eldoret North MP William Ruto had a dream that by partitioning several Kalenjin districts in the South and North Rift to be his party’s exclusive votes zone would result in several of URP party candidates getting elected to parliament and senate seat unopposed, the exercise has since turned out to be a pipe dream, because not one aspirant had sailed through to parliament and other legislative bodies without strong opposition.

The strategy had even sealed off aspirants who wanted to contest the election in various constituencies on the TNA ticket, though this particular party is a senior partner within the Jubilee Alliance.. Balkanized together were districts like Nandi North, Nandi South in Nandi County, Uasin Gishu County, Elkeyo County, Baringo County,Kericho and Bomet Counties.

It is even worse in the South Rift region covering Kericho and Bomet Counties. Ruto’s original plan was to shelve his party’s loyalists so that some of them could sail through to the official nomination exercise without much opposition from candidates armed with tickets of other parties. It didn’t work that way.

In Kericho County alone, most of its seven parliamentary constituencies are so crowded by aspirants from other political parties. In the newly created Sigowet constituency, which is located in the lower part of the old Belgut, the URP candidate Justice Kemei, a former director with the Chemelil Sugar Company is facing five other aspirants. In the neighboring Ainamoi, the URP candidate Benjamin Lang’at the former area MP is facing six other candidates, all sponsored by other parties.

Justice Kemei is facing his fellow former Chemelil Sugar Company manager Eng. Richard Koech. All the other parties like KANU, UDF, ODM,, KNC,SAFINA, Kenya Labour Party and others have produced candidates who are giving William Ruto’s men sleepless nights.

The South Rift region who’s inhabitants are member of the industrious Kipsigis sub-tribe of the larger Kalenjin ethnic groups is a votes-rich region.

William Ruto, the self-styled king-ping of the Kalenjin community, according to the locals had made a technical errors by accepting to play the second fiddle to the Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta as his presidential running-mate within the Jubillee Alliance, something which the members of the populous Kipsigis community seemed not to have approved.

Had Ruto contested the presidency on his own, he would have galvanized the majority of votes in this region very comfortably. But for close to three years, Ruto had traversed the region telling the voters that his name will definitely be on the presidential ballot papers before making an abrupt about turn. Ruto’s waves in these two region was so strong, and when he succumbed to a lesser position than the presidency, the voters have since viewed him as someone who is pursuing selfish interests and politics of deceits.

A section of the Kalenjin now blames Ruto for having mortgaged the community for personal aggrandizement, and this will definitely have an adverse repercussion and even affect the whole of the jubilee Alliance.

Waiting in the wings to benefit and harvest more parliamentary seats in the two regions is the 60 year old party of independence, KANU, which is campaigning under the umbrella, of the Amani Alliance led by the Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi.

Parliamentary constituencies at stake in the South Rift regions included Chepalungu, Bomet West, Bomet Eastm Konoin, Soitiki, Buret, Belgut, Sigowet, Ainamoi, Kipkellion West and Kipkellion East.

Two of William Ruto’s most loyal supporters in the two regions, namely Charles Keter {Belgut} and Isaac Ruto {Chepalungu} are not defending their parliamentary seats. The two have switched to Senate contest. Ruto is contesting the Bomet County Senate seat, while Keter is in the race for the Kericho County Senate seat.

The other party which stand to gain by way of harvesting several parliamentary seat at the expense of Ruto’s URP and its Jubillee alliance is the Orange Democratic Movement {ODM}, which is led by the Prime Minister Raila Odinga. The party has planted its candidates in early every constituency, and the local believes and maintains that Raila Odinga is a true reformist despite of concerted effort by the William Ruto and his cronies campaign to discredit him as someone who hates the Kipsigis people due to his role in the controversial mass eviction n of members of the community from the Mau Forest water catchment area.

Some of Raila’s supporters in the 10th parliament from the two regions had deserted him and run into the URP, hoping they would find an easy nomination to parliament and other legislative bodies with little opposition. But things have since turned in the opposite direction.

ODM has only one of its former MPs in the region who is defending his seat. He is Magerer Lang’at the former Mp for Kipkellion. The other former Mp Franklin Bett has since declined to defend his seat and is now playing a different role as the ODM election board chairman.

The last of the former ODM MPs in the region to ditch the party was Mrs Beatrice Kones, who is an Assistant Minister for |Home-Affairs. He has since lost her bid to be nominated the URP candidate for the Bomet seat, which she had inherited from her late husband the late Kipkalia Kones.

Urp’s other headache is the emergence MOI’S new waves of support among the Kipsigis people which appeared to be heading to cutting William Ruto’s influence and political clout in the region into size.

The retired President Daniel Moi is a man who no sane person can underrate his influence among the Kalenjin people; The community believes and maintains that Moi is the true professor of Kenya’s politics. He has since thrown his weight behind Musalia Mudavadi‘s Amani alliance which is using his old political slogan during the Nyayo era of of Peace Love and Unity.

The contest of political supremacy in the South Rift cannot be accurately be predicted at the moment, but from the looks of things, William Ruto will be the loser, due to the fact that the majority of the Kipsigis voters will not vote for Uhuru Kenyatta under all the circumstances.

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Kenya: What has happened to the Kenya National Language Board? Has it been abolished ?

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SINCE WHEN DID THE ICEBC ABOLISH THE ENGLISH / KISWAHILI LANGUAGE TEST FOR PARLIAMENTARY AND SENATORIAL ASPIRANTS IN KENYA?

Commentary by Leo Odera Omolo

The concerted effort recently made by the Independent Electoral and boundary Commission{IEBC} to ensure that the candidates aspiring for the elective positions of County governorship have obtained university degrees from the recognized institutions of higher leaning and universities is commendable.

However, we have so far not been told of what happened to the National Language Board, that has always been tasked with the responsibility of conducting tests and interview for the purposes of assessing the communication skills of all those aspiring to be elected into our legislators system.

Have only heard and witnesses candidates aspiring for the parliamentary and senatorial seat being cleared by the IEBC officials to contest the election minus the compulsory certificates of proficiency in both English and Kiswahili languages.

What has happened to the National Language Board. It been abolished? Long before independence in 1963 these language boards were always constituted at the Provincial {PEOs} levels under the supervision of the Provincial Education Officers, whose duties were recently changed and transformed to be the Provincial Directors of Education {PDE}

The Provincial language boards were later replaced by the National Language Board. There were categories of candidates who were automatically exempted from sitting before the board, particularly those armed and equipped diplomas from learning institutions and colleges.

The idea behind these tests were mainly to ensure that those who seek for elections into our legislative bodies were people capable of fo0llowing the proceedings and debates in those bodies.

I have gone through the new constitution, but failed to locate any clause within the sacred document that speaks about the abolition of the National Language Board. And now that under the new constitutional dispensation, Kenya has returned to the tri-cameral parliamentary system, it would be prudent for the IEBC to ensure that those elected to the next parliament and the Senate, should be men and women of high integrity and communication skills.

There are special cases when our legislators are sent to represent Kenyan in the regional and international forums at which communication skills are most essential and compulsorily required to enable our delegates to actively participate in the deliberations of such forums.

In this context, am aware of the |Nyayo eras, during which politically correct individuals were exempted and nominated to serve in parliament and in other bodies irrespective when they were able to follow the proceeding or not. This were the period when the likes of Mulu Mutisya, Ezekiel Bargetuny, Joseph Leitich and other were made MPs by KANU big-wigs.

I happen to be privy and regular attendance at the various regional and international forums including ministerial councils of the African Union or other regional bodies. Kenya had became the laughing stocks attracting derogatory comments by delegates from our neighboring countries, who were wondering why a country like Kenya which is reputed for having excelled in producing more intellectuals and technocrats could send team of mediocre to represent her I n such important forums.

The way I see things happen and in the absence of a competent National Language Board I can accurately predict that the next [parliament could be filled by MPs with half-baked education, academically dwarfs and semi-illiterate legislators. The same could be said of the Senate.

It is only the IEBC which can rescue our country from the impending bug shame. I have heard some of the parliamentary and Senatorial aspirants speaking while arguing their individual cases in connection with the recently flawed political parties preliminary nominations exercises, and I have come into conclusions if these are the same people expected to be voted into our legislators system on March 4, 2013

I am sure for certain that the likes of Mike Mbuvi {Sonko] of Makadara, Mary Wambui of Othaya constituencies just top mention a few example are not sufficiently qualified to sit in the August House.

The 10th parliament had its share of semi-illiterate MPs who sat there fir five years and left without even framing one single question or the supplementary question, leave alone making their maiden speeches in the House owing to language handicaps.

In this age of the dot-com generation we need to move a high notch and deviate from the couture of electing to our supreme legislative bodies people with questionable academic background.

In the 10th parliament we Kenyan should be grateful and thankful to the Speaker of the National Assembly Kenneth Otiato Marende whose skills got us where we are today, because the last parliament faced myriad of constitutional problems during the constitutional dispensations and debates of hundreds of most complicated and important bills related to constitutional advancement.

The former Emuhaya had succeeded in guiding the House to the higher scale of debates despite of the intrigues of the coalition government. I wish the next MPs would be compelled to re-consider Mr.Marende to be given a second chance to serve Kenyans in the same capacity

There only a few regular contributors to these constitutional debates, with good numbers of MPs who sat there and earned millions of shillings from the public coffers without making any meaningful contributions to the debates and deliberations in the House. We should therefore not allow similar situation to arise again. Kenya is not short of the technocrats therefore the voters should be sensitize to cast their votes for only the mature and

The time is also ripe for Kenyans to desist from the political culture voting for heavily moneyed aspirants. It has became evidence that in this country anybody who come u with ill-gotten drugs money makes it easy to Parliament even if such a person have no leadership quality. This makes it clear that Kenyans have become money worshippers.

Let us go for men and women whose integrity and performance would portray our country as the land of dissent men and women. We should know that communication skills is power Anyone who cannot communicate well in any of the two official languages, namely English and Kiswahili has no business seeking to be elected an Mp or a Senator.

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Corruption is rampant in rural areas as APs are said to be running illegal “Kangaroo Courts”s

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INVESTIGATIVE Report By Our Special Correspondent

CAN anyone in the higher authorities either in the Office of the President, the police and the Administration Police authorities make a move with speed with the view of bringing sanity in the services of the Administration, which is denting the image of the country.

The image of the Kenya government which needs cleansing has been soiled and defaced by rampant corruption practiced by traffic police and administration police officers.

It has been established beyond any reasonable doubt that the administration Police officers posted to work in the outlaying district, divisions and rural administrative locations have shamelessly and corruptive established illegal “Kangaroo Courts”

These ‘Kangaroo Courts are only there and meant for the purpose of minting money earned illegally from unsuspecting members of the public..

A case in point is an ugly incident which occurred at Rapogi Trading Center in Uriri district,within Migori County.

The head f the Administration police unit posted at the nearby District Officers Divisional office in the company of several other APs made a surprise visit to a local bar located in Rapogi Market. There were several revelers as the raid took place during the wee hours of the night. After the exchange of harsh words with the revelers, the visit by policemen degenerated into a brawl.

The brawl resulted in the head of the AP sustaining minor injuries on his arm. THe revelers took to their heels scampering for safety in all directions.

THe next morning the head of the AP fook a P3 form, arrested one of the patrons of the bar, a young trader at the market who is running a butchery shop and locked him into police custody at the DO’s office. Acting on the fake P3 form which was later to emerged had not been filled and signed by a competent medic to warrant the suspect to be charged with the assault case.

The mother of the suspect who had by then spent two night in police custody struggled to raised Kshs 30,000 and paid the money to the head of the AP for the release of her son. No criminal charge was preferred against the young man.

A few days later the no nonsense Uriri D.C George Lagat got a wind of the matter. The D.C.immediately summoned both parties and the head of the AP to appear before the district security committee for interrogation. It was during this exercise when the P2 Form was established to have been a fake one. And the D.C’s team found that no criminal offence had been committed by the suspect and ordered the AP boss to refund the money which he had taken from the suspect’s mother immediately. The AP boss admitted having received the bribe money. To-date no money has been refunded to the family and the matter has since degenerated to hide and seek.

Similar cases are so common with the APs posted to work in the rural locations and divisional headquarters in the remote part of the country far away from towns. People apprehended by the AP for the allegedly committing petty criminal offence have always bought their freedom after parting with colossal amount of money. The money is pocketed by the AP and never get into the government coffers via the established courts of laws and other government coffers such as the KRA

Brewers and consumers of the illicit ”Chang’aa” are more prone to abuse by the APs. Some of them are forced to part with large sums of money on weekly basis as ‘Protection Fees”.

It is not uncommon for the culprits suspected for having committed serious criminal offences to escape punishment so long as they could raise bribe money, such criminals go scot’s free.

Another category of the Wananchi targeted by both APs and Traffic Police officers are the Boda Boda motorbike riders, particularly those rising on rural access and feeder roads. It is no longer secret that traffic police officers are always demanding the bribe money with menace. Some of the Inter-regional highways linking Kenya with the neighboring Tanzania and Uganda are commonly used by foreigners from those countries who come here for businesses while using country buses and matatus of the country. These foreigners sit inside these vehicles and witness the illicit transactions. The exchange of bribe money is done in full view of these foreigners, who when they get back home started soiling Kenya’s good name and question the sanity to our roads.

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Kenya: Will the Luo – Kuria power – sharing arrangement brokered by Raila Odinga stand the test and earn him votes in the region?

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News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Migori Town.

The power sharing which was recently hatched and brokered by the ODM leaders in Migori County which resulted in the apportioning of all important elective positions in the newly devolved County governance. Will this work in favor of the Prime Minister galvanizing the Kuria votes for his presidential ambition ?

The answer is “big No”. This is because the arrangement which was brokered under the Minister for Public Services Dalmas Otieno in collaboration with few Luo MPs in total secrecy behind the locked doors of hotel room in Nairobi had excluded many stakeholders in the Migori regional political derby.

The original aims and objectives of this arrangement was meant to ensure the minority Kuria community, which is one of the smaller and marginalized communities, would not be swallowed by their neighboring Luo majority when it comes to the allocation of decision making positions within the MIGORI county under the new constitutional dispensation.

The idea was noble, though it cane very late and only after several Luo and Kuria political personalities had already launched their campaign for the various elective positions.

Under the new arrangement several positions a were dished out exclusively for the Kuria. The senior most of all was the coveted Senatorial position. The County governor position was given the the Luos, while the Deputy Governor position went to the Kuria as well as the County CEO and Speaker of the Regional Assembly.

Among the Luo politicians whose campaign trail had already hit the ground included the former Mathare MP and at one time a member of the East African Legislative Assembly, Gilbert Ochieng” Mbeo, A one time two terms KANU MP for the larger Homa-Bay constituency Phares Oluoch Kanindo. Also in the ace for the Senate seat was a prominent Kuria politician John Magaiwa is the current ODM Migori County branch chairman.

Migori County is a region whose inhabitants comprises of communities from diverse communities. There are thousands of Abaluhyia, Maragolis, Kisii, Abasuba and Somalis therefore it was a great mistake and miscalculation of the fact for the ODM having thought of the Lus and Kurias only.

There were several Luo personalties who were also eying the governor position. They included Prof Edward Akong’o Oyugi, a young technocrat Mark Nyamita, a member of the Kenya Sugar Board Zachary Okoth Obado.

The decision which is believed and suspected to have been influenced and brokered by the former Kuria MP Dr Wilfred Machage. DR Machage is a Kenyan Kuria politician whose family is deeply rooted in the neighboring Tanzania. He has been an MP for Kuria ever since 2002. But wanted to find a soft-landing spot after sensing that PNU was heading for political limbo.

The arrangement was readily approved by the Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who made two quick tour of Kuria region for the purpose of ensuring that the new arrangement between the two communities is harmonized ahead of the March 4, 2012 general election.

The new arrangement of power-sharing between the two communities was endorsed by th Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who made two quick tour of the region to try to harmonize the frosty relations between the two communities.

What Raila Odinga did not know was that Machage has no political clout over the Kuria people, though he has been their MP for two terms. He is not welcome in many parts of the two administrative districts of Kuria East and Kuria West.

Dr Machage had demanded that he be given direct nomination to the Senate seat by the ODM leadership to the chagrins of the voters and other ODM politicians Dr Machage was found of bashing Raila and the party. The former MP remained the most vocal of critic of ODM and Raila Odinga while he was serving in the coalition government as an Assistant Minister for Works on the PNU side.

At one time he was arraigned in court and charged with making inflammatory and hate speeches the charge which prompted his close to one year suspension from the cabinet

The Kura community is divided into four major sub-clans, namely Nyabansi ,Bugumbe, Bukiria. And Buirege. The constituency has since been sub-divided into two parliamentary constituencies and named by the IEBC Kuria East and Kuria West. It was one of the 80 extra parliamentary constituencies created last year by the ICEBC and endorsed by an Act of parliament .Most of the four sub-clans had close tie with their cousins living across the Kenya-Tanzania borders.

The Luos in Migori County vehemently objected to the new arrangement arguing that apportioning the political seats would mean balkanization of the tribes in the area, though they two communities have lived in peace and harmoniously in the past.·

The power-sharing issue had elicited the heated debate and argument , but Raila Odinga insisted that the Kuria must be brought to the mainstream of ODM so that he could harvest their votes.

When the ODM primary nomination was conducted in the region on January 17, 2012. Raila Odinga’s man Dr Wilfred Machage was handed down e devastative defeat by John Magaiwa who polled over 72,000 votes against Dr. Machage’s 51,000.But strange things happened, Magaiwa wad denied the nomination certificate, which was handed over to the Defeated Dr. Machage.

Magaiwa who had been steadfastly an ODM leader in Kuria for the last two decades was kicked out of the party. He has since reportedly sought for an URP ticket. But on the ground the decision made by the ODM headquarters of denying Magaiwa the party’s nomination certificate despite of his landslide victory over Dr. Machage has disappointed the Kuria people who have now vowed not to vote for Raila Odinga.

Other short-changed aspirants for Migori Senate seat and that of governor have jumped the ODM bandwagon. Other like Ochieng’ Mbeo have decided not to contest the election on other party tickets, but vowed not to campaign for the ODM and Raila Odinga in the area.

With the populist Magaiwa jumping the ship and joining the URP, the ODM should as well forget the Kuria votes. Also short-changed was Ms Ghati, a young Kuria woman who had vigorously campaigned for the Migori women representative. Although she had won in the primary nomination, she was denied the ticket which went to Mrs Owino Acholla, the wife of the one time former Migori MP was dished out to Mrs Anne Omodho Anyanga, the wife of the Nyatike MP Eick Omond

Ends

THE FIASCO OF ODM PRIMARY NOMINATION IN NYANZA HAS EXPOSED THE PARTY LEADERSHIP AS NOT BEING SERIOUS WHILE CRUSADING FOR REFORM AND DEMOCRACY IN KENYA.

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News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.

.It is like as if the ODM leadership is preaching water while they drink wines. The outcome of the last week’s flawed ODM primary nomination should place the party leadership into a very shameful position which needs a lot of concentrate and more energy in public relations work.

This mismanaged nomination has obviously given and equipped Raila Odinga rivals in the presidential race with ammunition with which they could use to discredit his crusading for reforms and democracy.

Despite of the strong of massive rebellion against the Prime Minister by his Luo supporters in his home backyard in Nyanza, the corruption ridden and much flawed ODM preliminary nomination exercises has left “Agwambo” like a wounded bull of buffalo.

What has since emerged like selection and not election will see Mr Odinga sitting in the eleventh parliament with not very credible MPs who can be said to be enjoying the public confidence, but a bunch of selected group rigged into the August House. And because the Prime Minister is facing an up-hill task of overcoming his opponents in the presidential race, he really needed a solid support and backing from his Luo home backyard in a similar fashion which he enjoyed in the 2007 general election.

This is so important because of Kenya’s politics is based on ethnicity strength and numbers, it appears here as if the Prime Minister had taken his tribesmen for granted and made no effort of sensitizing the on the importance of maintaining high standard of discipline in their undertakings, especially on matters related to the competitive politics.

Here are the list of the number of parliamentary constituencies where no genuine voting took place, and people purported to have won the nomination and those who are purported to have won the primaries in these constituencies were only handed the nomination certificates by the ODM in silver platter.

In Homa-Bay County, there were no elections which took place in Kabondo-Kasipul, Kasipul, Rangwe, Homa-Bay Town, Ndhiwa, Mbita and Gwassi..It was a big miss because the election materials either arrived in those places twenty four later after the expiry of the dateline and deadline set by the ICEBC.

The valid reason for the apathy shown by the voters in those places could as well be attributed to non-arrival or late arrival of election materials from the ODM headquarters in Nairobi, massive corruption practiced openly by those who were appointed and sent into those rural constituencies either as presiding or returning officers as well as polling stations clerks.

These personnel who were supposed to be responsible in supervising the nomination exercises went into bribery spree accepting money from the competing aspirants and then declaring those who had performed dismally at the polls as the winners to the chagrins of the electorate. After accepting bribes the returning officer later faked stories of kidnapping, some said they were intimidated and that their lives were placed in great danger. and yet some of the were known to have laughed all the way to the banks after receiving fat bribe money.

Still in Homa-Bay county, here no voting took place in places like Mbita, Homa-Bay, Town, Rangwe, Kabondo Kasipul, Kasipul Gwassi and Ndhiwa. Thee only place where members of the public had the slightest chances of casting their votes was in Karachuonyo constituency. Bribery is said to have not been confined within the constituencies, but had also started all the way from the party head office where some ballot boxes were poorly packed and sent out in insecure condition which were prone to interferences while the documents were still in transit

Some places receiving ballot boxes and ballot papers without bearing the names of some candidates or some candidates had their names missing from the ballot papers. This was the case of Kabondo-Kasipul. .In Migori County, genuine voting exercises only took places in two constituencies, namely Migori East and Migori West. It was only in Rongo constituency where the actual voting exercise took place, though there were inadequate election materials.

In the newly created Awendo cons politician with contact and influence at the ODM headquarters is believed to have prevailed upon the party’s election board members to have his political surrogate and sycophant declared the winner in a place which had not received even one single ballot box.

Rumors were also rampant that a vehicle loaded with panga Machetes] had ferried the consignment from Kisumu to Awendo. The machetes are said to have been distributed to the youths, for the purpose of committing a felony during the primaries and thereafter during the election proper.

He residents have appealed to the police to launch a thorough investigation with the view to unearth the whereabouts of the huge consignment of machetes. The same could be used on March 4, 2013 for the purpose of causing mayhem.

Hired political goons were deployed everywhere, including inside polling booths. In places where the goons perceived that their master was on the losing end, they moved, invaded the polling stations,seized ballot papers and destroyed election materials including the votes which had already been casted. To-date nobody had appeared before a court of law charged with the offences causing willful damages to property.

It was in Uriri constituency within Migori district where the voters were able to vote, though in a small scale. And they sent the former MP Cyprian Ojwang’ Omolo packing and replace him with the populist Eng Kobado, a former Principal of the Kenya Railways Training School, the only man in greater Southern Nyanza who is believed to have won his primary nomination genuinely.

The former Luo-Nyanza MPs who lost the nomination, though some of them later found their way after their names had been submitted to the ICEBC include Ayiecho Olueny [uhotoni} Otieno Ogindo{Rangwe} Oyugi Magwanga {Kasipul], Edick Omondfi Anyanga [Nyatike}, Fred Outa {Nyando}, Pollyins Ochieng’ Daima, {Nyakach, Jakoyo Midiwo {Gem{, Olago Aluoch {Kisumu Town West[.

Hose who had defended their seats successfully included Eng. Nicholas Gumbo [Rarieda],Shakeel Ahmed |Shabbir {Kisumu Town East, Dalmas Otieno,{Rongo}John Pesa [Migori East}Eng James Rege [Karachuonyo} and John Mbadi {Gwassi}.

KENYA: BRIBERY, NEPOTISM MANIPULATION OF VOTERS WHILE THE HIRED POLITICAL GOONS REIN SUPREME EVERYWHERE FEATURED PREEMINENTLY DURING THE MUCH FLAWED ODM PRIMARIES IN LUO-NYANZA.

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News Analysis By Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.

MASSIVE bribery of voters, political manipulation, nepotism and undercutting were the order of the day during the two days of the much flawed ODM primaries conducted inside Luo-Nyanza.

The outcome of the poorly conducted nomination primaries could spell doom to the presidential ambition of the ODM leader Raila Odinga, and perhaps ruins his chances of clinching the presidency come March 2013.

Failure to conduct credible and fair nomination primaries in many parts of the region has left many wounds in the hearts of the electorate who are left nursing the feeling that the Orange Democratic Movement {ODM} and its enlarged CORD alliance lacked disciplinary of making credible nomination in its own.

According to the chairman of the ODM election board, Mr Franklin Kipng’etich Arap Bett, who is also the Roads Minister all the nomination exercise should have come to an end by |Midnight on Friday. However, by Saturday morning, the voting was still going on in some places, like Homa-Bay, Ndhiwa, Mbita Awendo, Nyando and Muhoroni in total defiance of the IEBC rules.

What is most interesting is that one of the newly created parliamentary constituency in Migori, Awendo never received even one single election materials include ballot papers and voting boxes.

Awendo had ten aspirants, each of the paid a nomination fees of Kshs 100,000 bringing it to a total of Kshs One Million. But the aspirants had waited from Day one, Day two, up to Day three, in vain without receiving any election materials.

In places where the voting took places, the polling stations were marred with acts of lawlessness such as stone throwing and destruction of the election papers. In some places the coordinators and returning and presiding officers were forced to flee the polling station as drunken bands of hired goon emerged from the nearby “Chang’aa drinking dens, settled on the election materials with kicks and destroyed even ballot boxes.

A number of Raila’s loyalists were floored and forced into exit. Other who survived did so narrowly, but with flurry of complaints from their rivals claiming they were shameless rigged in.

Raila’s own older brother Dr Oburu Oginga suffered heaviest defeat in his ambition to become the first governor of Siaya County, forcing the election coordinator a Ms Monica Amolo, a perennial parliamentary election loser in Ndhiwa to use mobile tallyng centers, which the voters in Siaya violently disputed as not “ very credible’.

Citing insecurity and safety of her team, Ms Amolo shifted from Siaya Town where she was supposed to announce the outcome of the governorship contest between Dr Oburu Oginga and the populist Paul Oduol and moved to Bondo,.The voters were, however, not amused and saw the move as one way of rigging Mr Oduoo votes. It actually happened, when the figures were turned upside down with new figures reading that Dr.Oburu Ogingsa had [polled 62,000 votes against Oduol’s 35,000 sparking off the strongest protest.

Fears now persist that with thousands of voters in the region dissenting the outcome of the ODM primary nomination, the likelihood massive fallout cannot be ruled out. Those voters who feel offended after being denied the right to choose their own representative could turn into a major rebellion and cast their voters to Raila Odinga’s rivals in the presidential race.

In Homa-Bay County, things were so bad that marauding political goons destroyed or burnt most of the election materials meant for the various constituencies in the region. These included ballot boxes and voting materials meant for Kabodo-Kasipul, Kasipul, Homa-Bay Town, Ndhiwa and Mbita.

In some places the goons beat up election officials and party leaders sensilessly. In Muhoroni within Kisumu County one man suffered serious knife stab and had to be rushed to Ombei Dispensary in Nyando district.

In Kisumu Town East, the outgoing Shakeel Ahmed Shabir had won his primary, But the rumor went round that the party bosses were in the process of issuing Shabbir’s rival a Mr. Micholas Oricho with the nomination certificate. This deadly rumor immediately raised political temperature in the violence prone Kisumu City.

In the contest for the lucrative and powerful position of the Kisumu County governor, the excessively arrogant Raila Odinga’s sister Ruth Adhiambo Odinga became another casualities within the Odinga family She lost the governorship to the former senior accountant with the KRA Jack Ranguma who beat close to six other aspirant.

Ruth Odinga is the managing director of the Kisumu based Odinga family business flagship The Spectre International, which is managing the Kisumu Molasses.

This particular position was contested by among other aspirants Mrs Rhoda Ahonnobadha, former AFC regional manager for Nyanza and Western Provinces, the former cabinet Minister Ojwang’ K’Ombudo, Prof.Menya Kariaga, a senior lecturer in one of the US universities Dr. Barrack Abonyo, a Nairobi based business woman –cum-lawyer Atieno Otieno.

The outspoken Raila ‘s sister Ruth Adhiambo Odinga had been advised to abandon her ambition for the governorship by close friends and relatives, but she defiantly went on and contested the position fairing badly.

Other Raila casualties included the abrasive Nyatike MP Edick Omodi Anyanga, Uriri MP Cyprian Ojwang’ Omolo who lost to a former Principal of the Kenya Railways Training School Eng. Kobado. Nyakach Mp Ochieng;’ Daima,Eng Philip Okundi, who contested Homa-Bay County governor, Raila’s cousing Jakoyo Midiwo, the gem MP

Other whose position remain unclear by late last night included Muhuroni Mp Patrick Ayiecho Olueny, Nyando MP Fred Outa who is married to Raila Oding’a cousin.

In Karachuonyo constituency also withinHoma-Bay County, the election loser ganged up hired drunken goons ws were heard singing derogatory songs saying No Adipo Okuome No Raila or Rege Must Go.

The song implying that without Adipo Okuome they voter would not votefor raila in his presidential bid on March 4, 2013.

This was so despite of the fact tat the outgoing MP Eng. James Rege had beaten his rivals hands down with a big margin.

ODM need to out its hoiu8se in order, and instill high discipline among the party youths.

Ends