From: ouko joachim omolo
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
BONDO-SIAYA COUNTY
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2011
Today is fourth and last Sunday of Advent- I celebrated two masses at Bondo Township Parish. Just as the Jews have been longing for Jesus the saviour who would get rid of corrupt and exploitive leaders, my message today as Kenyans are preparing for presidential and parliamentary elections was that Kenyans must be prepared to get rid of leaders who for many years have not only been corrupt but also exploitive.
In Bond Constituency for example, despite the fact of CDF funds which would be used to build dumps to store water, the problem of water here is pathetic-you can imagine the whole District Hospital is run without water-this is only an example of many other constituencies that many of the leaders, some of whom have been recycled years after years have never minded about their electorates.
Since I have been on my holiday at home, the fourth week now I have practically travelled far and wide in Luo Nyanza and interacted with opinion leaders about the politics, what many have been tired of is the tradition where a leader is pointed for them.
If he is a leader from Bondo, Gem, Mbita, Ugenya, Muhoroni,-name them, they must be recycled despite the fact that people are tired with them. The vast majority in Luo Nyanza want such type of politics be buried once and for all.
Another concern I learnt from people, is that it was time for Luo people to accept other leaders from different parties other than ODM. It makes Luo people to look a fool, for example to stone former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Raphael Tuju simply because he is of a different party and that he is challenging Prime Minister Raila Odinga as the president.
In 2007 Tuju was not only re-elected as Member of Parliament for Rarieda, but even water projects he initiated for the people in the region were destroyed, simply because he ditched PM party ODM to Kibaki’s PNU party-even the house he had built for widows were burnt.
Some historians and political experts argue that Luo people cannot allow leaders who come with strange party because Joka Omolo, Joka Owiny, Joka Okech, Joka Ojok, Jo Padhola, each had a leader whom they were to obey and follow.
All these groups came from South Sudan and settled first in Kenya at Emanyulia, where Prime Minister Raila Odinga claims his ancestral root came from. It was from here they later called themselves Abamanyulia.
PM’s father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga whose Kowak clan is one of largest clans in Luo land, extending to Rorya district in Mara region, northwest Tanzania claimed to have been anointed Luo leader is the reason why the Luo communities believe that if Raila does not anoint any leader, even when he was not developed minded that leader must be elected-and recycled.
The major clans of Kowak comprise of Kakibira, Kachiemo, Kotho, Kamot, Kanyaguti and Kanyagak. Other clans include the Saramba clan, the Rucho clan, and the Awuor clan. That explains why when Jaramogi passed on in 1994, there was feverish activity to succeed him and who did that is his eldest son, Assistant Finance Minister, Dr Oburu Odinga as the MP for Bondo Constituency.
That may also explain why when Jaramogi Oginga Odinga died and Michael Wamalwa Kijana succeeded him as FORD-Kenya chairman, Raila challenged him for the party leadership. The elections were marred by controversy after which Raila resigned from FORD-Kenya to join the National development Party (NDP).
It is against the background that political experts argue that when Raila Odinga first ran for president in 1997 and in a merger with KANU in 2001 and was made the minister for energy in the Moi government, he was hopeful that Moi would nominate him to be his successor and when it did not go as he thought, he turned against the Moi team to form the Rainbow Coalition that eventually became part of the winning NARC coalition.
It is also why in the NARC government when he served as the minister for roads he eventually walked out of government when President Mwai Kibaki did not keep his side of the infamous Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
It is also to be noted that when multiparty politics was introduced in Kenya in 1992, Jaramogi Odinga differed with Kenneth Matiba over leadership for the original Ford party. There were outbreaks of violence, especially in Lang’ata constituency, where Raila hoped to be selected as Ford’s parliamentary candidate against intense opposition from Kimani Rugendo.
There were also several serious clashes in Kibera, the constituency’s largest shanty town. One of the clashes left an Odinga supporter dead, and during the Ford primaries, a supporter of Rugendo was stabbed to death when he tried to run off with some ballot papers.
When Ford split to Ford-Kenya and there was elections for official members, elections that Raila lost in Thika, on March 19, 1994, it resulted in violence. There are other examples. But the point is that it was time Luo people destroyed this tradition.
One fact however, remains that Raila still commands a very loyal crowd behind him. He is enjoying good support from many regions in Kenya even though he faces a hard fight in the Central region despite the fact that two of his sons have married from there.
Political experts see the move for these marriages as Raila’s strategy of an attempt to appease the Kikuyu community and their wealth in voting power. The first born Fidel Castro Odinga married Veronica Shiro Ng’ng’a ahead of 2007 presidential elections.
Raila Junior also married Yvonne Wambui Kibukosya this year prior to next year presidential elections. Yvone is the great-grand daughter to Peter Kibukosya, a patriotic Kenyan who helped in writing the national anthem.
Retired President Moi, Moi’s former aide Joshua Kulei, Attorney General Githu Muigai, Central Bank Governor Njuguna Ndungu, Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi, several Cabinet ministers, and MPs attended the wedding.
Another fact is that of late Raila has also come under severest criticism for having failed to recognize the existence of the Luo-Abasuba community inside Luo-Nyanza. The Abasuba are Bantus who were coined into Luo communities to make them behave as if they were Luos but not. They feel they have been marginalized.
The criticism emerged after meeting at Sindo trading center in Kaksingiri Location, Gwassi constituency within Homa-Bay County where the Suba Council of Elders led by their chairman Mzee Apollo Okeyo Omuga who said it was time Raila Odinga accepted and acknowledged- recognized the existence of the Suba community.
The Suba elders accused the Prime Minister of trying to antagonize the Suba people with the aim and objective of marginalize them and hence his distortion of the community’s history in every funeral gathering as witnessed in the recent past as reported by veteran journalist Leo Odera Omolo.
The issue here is not only the Abasuba people who feel marginalized-in fact the entire South Nyanza people feel the same, especially when Raila was being accused for having allegedly favoured his relatives and friends as well as the financial heavyweight luos in the recent cabinet appointment to the grand coalition government, leaving out South Nyanza equally attended to.
All those who have been favoured are from Siaya and Kisumu Counties respectively. They include Caroli omondi, a former banker and a lawyer- Appointed the administration permanent secretary in the office of the prime minister.
Prof Jacquiline oduol, although married to Raila Odinga’s uncle in kaka sub-clan, she hails from Siaya County. Dr Oburu Odinga, Raila’s brother also comes from Siaya, James Orengo and Phillip Onyango, all from Siaya as well as Dr Nyikal.
Although in South Nyanza Dalmas Otieno and Gerald Otieno Kajwang are full ministers whereas Orua Ojode is Assistant Minister, this according to Luo people of South Nyanza is an insult.
If it is true in what is reported in one of the gutter newspapers that Mbadi and Ojode are contemplating to join Tuju’s support for presidency then it explains well how South Nyanza leaders are fed up with Raila’s leadership.
It explains further why Ojode’s wooes is said to have culminated from his disagreement with Raila’s elder brother Dr. Oburu Oginga, the MP for Bondo, who at one time attacked Ojode publicly during a funeral gathering in Kanjita village West Karachuonyo in Rachuonyo district- South Nyanza.
It was during the burial of the late Mama Phoebe Rege, the step mother of the Karachuonyo MP Eng James Rege, when Oburu from the blue moon burst into scathing criticism of Ojode before a large crowd of mourners who also included his brother Raila who did not utter a word.
People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
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you must be joking leave raila alone and vote for whom you pkease
Fr. What exactly is your point here? How is Raila’s acknowladgement of Subas going to change their lives – if anything in terms of infrustructure development its south Nyanza that has gained the greatest. This devide tactic you are advancing is not peace mided. Your story and skewed analysis is very unfortunate.