Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News
from ouko joachim omolo
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAKURU-KENYA
THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2011
It is a litmus test for Prime Minister Raila Odinga and ODM as PNU on Thursday evening retained the Kamukunji seat after its candidate Yusuf Hassan garnered 19,030 votes to win the by-election, defeating his ODM candidate, Ibrahim Ahmed who came second with 15,476 votes in an election which saw a low turn-out and a clash of party agents.
This is not the first time ODM has been defeated. Dr Bony Khalwale defeated ODM candidate by-election few months ago, a move that became a big surprise to several ODM politicians who thought that whoever Raila said tosha would make it to parliament.
Khalwale argued that that a victory for the ODM candidate would mean that the Luhya vote was done and dusted for Mr Odinga’s 2012 presidential bid. In fact Khalwale and Hassan victories imply that that several tosha’s of Raila candidates may not make it to parliament.
That explains clearly Khalwale’s remarks that after his victory, it was high time the PM realised there were other power bases in Western Kenya beyond Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi and that he needed to consider them all.
It also confirms the remarks by Kaddu leader Cyrus Jirongo that the outcome of Khalwale underlined the fact that voters are opposed to tribally incline political parties.
“ODM’s candidate managed an almost 50:50 sharing of the vote. It is a wake up call to join a party with a national outlook or be seen as the community that never learns from the past,” Mr Jirongo argued.
“If Dr Khalwale’s association with Eugene Wamalwa’s presidency was as popular as they think, then ODM candidate would have not lost by a slim margin of 3,000. This is a worrying sign that we are already splitting our votes, he added.”
Jirongo argued further that when Wamalwa Kijana ran for the presidency in 1997 on a Ford Kenya ticket, he failed miserably, but when he joined a party with a national outlook, Narc, in 2002, people voted for him overwhelmingly.
Saboti MP Eugene Wamalwa was also right when he argued that the New Ford Kenya’s victories in Ikolomani Constituency and Kimilili North Ward have dealt a blow to ODM and Mr Odinga’s presidential ambitions.
In summary this is how the Kamukunji results were: Mr Brian Weke of Narc Kenya was third with 4,064 votes. Agano Party’s David Waihiga garnered 367 votes, while Mr Geoffrey Muthini of TIP got 317 votes. Ms Muthoni Kihara of GNU took 248 votes against Ford People’s Daniel Omao who had 205 votes. Kenya Social Congress’s James Matagaro was last with only 36 votes.
ODM conceded defeat, with Housing assistant minister Margaret Wanjiru describing the elections as free and fair as Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka saluting Mr Hassan’s win, saying that it was a signal that a united PNU alliance would be a force in next year’s General Election.
The Interim Independent Electoral Commission chairman Issack Hassan said that the by-election was conducted well. There are 128,562 registered voters in the constituency.
People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail- ppa@africaonline.co.ke
omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org
Your title presupposes that you were going to present some analytical work, and you ended up just giving a journalistic version of the results. Let me tell you bro; ODM as a single party showed its might, against a conglemeration of other parties. Do you know the ethnic demography of Kamukunji voters? Out of the 130k+ registered voters, 68000 are Kikuyu/Gema. I fyou take into account also that the Wariah votes would go both sides, then you conclude that it may have been really difficult for ODM to clinch the seat. DONT FORGET; KENYANS STILL LARGELY VOTE ON TRIBAL LINES
that is the sign of democracy maturing in our country,but Ageambo remains the best presidential candidate in 2012
Yahuon,that is exactly what happened in 2002 when a conglemeration of parties in the name of NARC purported to have won against a single party KANU and its candidate Uhuru Kenyatta.
Raila claimed the outcome of Kamukunji would give a pointer as to how next year’s vote would go. He made the same prediction in Ikolomani. In both odm lost. A loss in Ikolomani in Western Province, supposedly odm’s stronghold is a serious blow to odm. Odm has lost in coast province, Western, Nairobi and North Eastern. So in my analytical prediction Odm is finished and Raila will lose the 2012 elections, thank GOD