Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Rongo Town.

The race for the Rongo parliamentary seat in the next general elections is expected to be the most interesting between the two major sub-clans of the larger Jo-Kamagambo groups.

This will come about following the recent sub-division of Rongo constituency into two with the creation of Awendo Parliamentary constituency by the disbanded Interim Boundary Commission, which was led by the former Vihiga MP Andrew Ligale.

The creation of Awendo constituency, which is hived out of the former Rongo, has separated the Jo-Kamagambo and the Jo-Sakwa group. Rongo constituency will now only covers five administration locations whose inhabitants are the Jo-Kamagambo groups.

And what is likely to emerge is the fierce competition between the two major sub-clans of the Jo-Kamagambo groups, namely Kanyawanga of West Kamagambo and the Kanyandiga groups of East Kamagambo.

The incumbent MP is Dalmas Otieno, who is also the Minister for Public Service in the grand coalition government of PNU/ODM, and a man who is regarded by many as the most astute and polished politician in Luo-Nyanza next only to the Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

Otieno once represented Rongo before when he won the election under KANU’S monolithic one party system the controversial queuing {Mlolongo} voting system of 1988, which was suspected to have been masterminded and introduced by the former powerful Permanent Secretary in the Office of the President ,the late Hezekiah N. Oyugi who was in charge of Internal Security and Provincial Administration.

Between 1988 and 2002 Otieno served in the various ministerial dockets under the retired President Daniel Arap Moi, and when he lost his Rongo seat in the 1992 Moi gave him a nomination and appointed to the cabinet. He was later sacked as a Minister but remained an MP until 1997 after when he petition the President of the sugar imports.

Otieno was later swept out of parliament under the euphoria of Ford-Kenya party led by the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga during the first multi-party election of 1992 when his cousin the late John Linus Aluoch Polo who won the election in a landslide majority. The late Polo, however, lost the seat in 1997 to the youthful lawyer George Ochillo Ayacko, who won the election under the Raila Odinga led NDP. Polo was among the Luo MPs who had stuck to the Ford-Kenya under the leadership of the Late Michael Kijana Wamalwa. Other who lost to NDP candidates were the late Ramogi Achieng’Oneko {Rarieda}, Justus Aloo Ogekja {Muhoroni},Otieno Karan{Nyando} James Dennis Akumu{Nyakach},Prof Anyang’Nyong’o {Kisumu Rural}, James Aggrey Orengo {Ugenya} and Joe Donde {Gem}.

Otieno made an abortive attempt to recapture his old seat in the year 2002 under KANU, but lost again for the second time when Ayacko beat him hand down on an LDP ticket. But he bounced back to Parliament in 2007 after winning a grueling election battle against Ayacko.

This tie around the election battle in Rongo constituency will be fought on a different political platform. This is because Rongo is one of the areas in Luo-Nyanza which is ODM stronghold, and this is the only party of choice. However, clan politics is said to be raising its ugly head and emerging to be stronger than the party itself.

The Jo-Kamagambo group is divided in two major groups namely Kanyandiga and Kanyawanga. Kanyawanga is comprised of the clan who lives in the West and part of the Central and South. The Jo-Kanyandiga groups are living in the East, South and North and part of the Central.

Although the Kanyandiga groups are said to be the largest, the Kanyawanga groups have dominated the leadership position in the region ever since independence. They had served like colonial chiefs in the pre-independence days and thereafter dominated leadership position in the independence Kenya.

Isaiya Owalla-Orwa became the MP for the larger Homa-Bay constituency in 1974. He was a member of the Jo-Kanyawanga group from the West. Dalmas Otieno who became the first Rongo MP in 1988 also hail from Kangeso in the West and member of the Jo-Kanyawanga group became the first Rongo MP in 1988. He was beaten in the 2002 general election by his cousin the late John Linus Aluoch Polo in the first multiparty elections in Kenya.

And in 2007 Dalmas Otieno made an abrupt about turn and crossed to the ODM in what looked like an old age English proverbs which says “if you can’t defeat them then join them” he joined the ODM at the last minute and recaptured the seat from Ochillo Ayacko and his tenure of office ends in August next year {2012}.

An amalgamation of smaller sub-clans into a larger Kanyandiga are looking for someone who is articulate enough and who could break the jinx of the Jo-Kanyawanga group of political domination. It has grouped together smaller sub-clan in Central, East and North Kamagambo , Rongo Town included.

These sub-clans comprises of Kong’udi, Kabuoro, Kambija,Kamwango and other smaller groups, They included immigrant workers in government offices in and traders in Rongo Town most of whom are immigrants from other Luo locations. The town’s population is consisting –of non-Luos and even Abagusii settlers and others who have bought land and built their homes within the environs of the fast growing Rongo Town..

It all started during the tie when the late Hezekiah Oyugi served in the government in senior position as the PC for Rift Valley and later powerful PS in the Office of the President where it was alleged he had influenced more development activities towards the West. And that Oyugi a made everything tilted towards the West and his own Kanyawanga home turf.

But what is emerging is that this time around Dalmas Otieno will square it up with a team of youthful and industrial aspirants whose number has since swollen close to ten. Most of them are newcomers, with exception of Joseph Ong’ondo Ng’ani {Rapul} who has contested the Rongo seat on two occasions in 2002 and in 2007. Born in 1946 Ng’ani runs chains of businesses both in Rongo and Nairobi and has worked in senior managerial positions with various private companies in Kenya. He is a graduate of Nairobi University where he studied Bachelor of Commerce degree.

Photograph of MR JOSEPH Ong’ondo Ng’ani “Rapul”, ONE OF THE ASPIRANTS CONTESTING RONGO PARLIAMENTARY SEAT;

Others include Eng. Phillip Makabong’o, a retired former senior postal employee, the youthful, industrious and populist David Otieno Onditi {Dot.Com} who owns Marryland Hotel, which is situated on the outskirt of Rongo Town on the main-Kisii- Migori highway, and which is now a popular spot for the accommodation for the visiting VIP as well as tourists.

Onditi who is popularly known in Rongo town and its environs as ‘Dot.Com’ is also a farmer keeping graded dairy animals for milk and has a plan in the pipeline to establish a full fledged dairy to process milk in the area.

PHOTO OF DAVID OTIENO ONDITI {Mr. Dot.Com” ONE OF THE ASPIRANTS CONTESTING RONGO PARLIAMENTARY SEAT

He has established businesses in Nairobi and in Arusha in Tanzania. Previously he has worked in senior managerial capacities both in Kenya and Tanzania has business connections in Tanzania and Rwanda.

Other potential aspirants whose campaign for the Rongo race have hit the ground include Phillip Olela, the former Principal of Kanyawanga Secondary School Eric Amuka, a businessman in Nairob, Chris Migunde a resident of Nairobi, James A. Ondege, and a Mombasa based trade unionist Awuor Ngare.

So far Dalmas Otieno has yet to state publicly whether he will defend his Rongo seat when his tenure of office ends in August next year. Other unconfirmed rumors making the round within the locality says he night be contemplating contesting the more covenant Migori County Senate seat. If Otieno goes for the Senate seat, then the Rongo parliamentary seat will be open for the grab, and the grueling battle is expected between the experienced Ong’ondo Ng’ani and Onditi ‘Dot.Com’.

The Minister is currently facing myriads of accusation including the allegations that soon after winning the seat in 2007 and thereafter being appointed to the cabinet he had burned the bridges between him and most of his campaign lieutenants and supporters. He said to have become inaccessible to an extent of not even picking up phone calls from his constituents

Other allegation including accusation that Minister has got not interest of the development of his home town of Rongo, and that he operates like a foreigners and owns nothing in Rongo town in terms of businesses and property. All his businesses are established in Nairobi and as such he only comes home in search of the votes during the elections.

The man who is being credited for having promoted Rongo Town is the late powerful PS Hezekiah N Oyugi who had established a magnificent building, which is now a tourist class Lasjona Hotel right in the middle of town. The Hotel which is being run and managed by Oyugi’s family has become the centre of attraction to the visitors in the region .It has ultra modern rooms, conference hall and other facilities found in most modern hotels in big cities., and it is situated right in the middle between Kisii and Migori towns and also between Rongo and Homa-Bay Town.

Otieno’s opponents are crying foul that the Minister is allegedly fond of using hired political goons, and depends on the Provincial administration and police in furthering his heavy handed and draconian policy in handling political rivals. The goons are used in violently dispersing meetings called by his rivals, and that the Minister is highly intolerant of any slightest criticism of his leadership.

ODM party stalwarts inside Luo-Nyanza are known to be still treating Otieno with suspicious eyes that he might be a KANU mole in the ODM, despite of his sterling performance during the crucial negotiations under the chairmanship of the former UN Secretary General Dr. Kofi Annan that brokered the National Accord, which paved the way for the formation of the Kibaki-Raila led grand coalition government This came about after the highly disputed presidential election result of December 2007 which plunged the country into a total darkness and political turmoil.

In some quarters, it is arguably that Otieno is one of the most articulate politician in Luo-Nyanza only second to the Prime Minister Raila Odinga. He is a moderate and level minded who is reported in government circles to be one of the most efficient cabinets Minister in the coalition government.

His appointment by Raila Odinga to the cabinet was to the chagrins of the ODM stalwarts who felt that to strike a regional balance, the abrasive Ndhiwa MP Joshua Orwa Ojode should have been the right person for the jobs due to his unswerving loyalty to the Prime Minister and seniority in the party hierarchy.

Other issues which are likely to feature prominently in this agriculturally rich Rongo constituency are poor state of the roads in the South and also in the North, In the South roads linking places like Ko-Oyar and Kitunja are impassable during rainy season. The same could be aid of the road linking Kamwango and Kameji in the North. In the southwest, the road linking Nayarach and Rangwe is only maintained up to a place called Oboke on the Rangwe side, but the Rongo side is the worst.

Rongo is bordering several constituencies, namely Rangwe in the North and Northwest, Ndhiwa in the Southwest, Awendo in the South, Kilgoris in the South East, South Mugirango in the Southwest and Bonchari in the Northeast.

Its economic dynamics depended entirely in farming, and the leading cash crops are sugar-cane and tobacco. The cane is processed at the Awendo-based SONYSUGAR Company and also sold to several jiggery factories which are scattered around. Some farmers have ventured int tea and coffee growing in the constituency, while the number of graded dairy animal is on sharp increase in the constituency.

The main trading center is Rongo town and Kodero-Obara, which is also known in other names as Riosiri, Mamboleo, which is also known as Nyabera, and Maroo. These are border market places placed along the South Mugirango and Rongo constituency’s boundaries.

The insecurity along the usually volatile common borders separating the Abagusii, Maasais and the Luos is currently calms and intra- tribal trades is thriving well between three communities.

The area, however, lacked the processing cottage industries which could offer employment to the youths. And any candidate talking of such venture would be most accepted by the electorate.

Other accusation against Otieno is based on biased disbursement of the CDF revolving funds. He is said to be favoring his Kamagambo West an discriminating the South and the North. In the current financial year the West is said to have received Kshs 6.2 million from CDF kitty, while the South and North received a meager figure of Kshs 1.8 each. These anomalies are.

Ends

leooderaomolo@yahoo.com