News Analysis by Leo Odera Omolo In Kericho Town.

The newly launched United Republican Party is nothing new, but a replica of the dreaded infamous KANU Y92 outfit which the retired President Daniel Arap Moi used to perpetuate falsified election victory during the first multi-party elections I 1992.

It has regrouped all the top of leadership of the defunct KANU Y92 which was
famed for having inflicted injuries to many Kenyans in its effort to restore the presidency of the retired President Daniel Arap Moi by way of hook and crocks means, which included the alleged dishing out of millions of fake currency notes to the voters and event torturing the perceived opponents of KANU regime either real or imagined.

The URP does not reflect to be a party with the national outlook, but a regional and tribal outfit whose leadership is perhaps armed with fictitious imagination that it could use the three million votes in the votes rich Rift Valley Province for power bargain after losing out to other parties during the impending general elections. And of course its failure could be inevitably projected in advance.

The URP has brought on board a highly respected individual personality, like the former Speaker of the National Assembly, Francis Ole Kaparo. It dumped the retired former KNUT National chairman and perennial parliamentary election loser in Buret constituency, Joseph Arap Chirchir, who it has used to destabilize the UDM in a vain attempt to gain a foothold in the party through the backdoor.

The URP might have succeeded temporarily in using and dumping Chirchir, but its entry as an acceptance in the vote’s rich Kipsigis region in the South Rift would be an uphill task, which would require a lot of political magnanimity and acumen.

Asked if the UDM would accept Chirchir back in its hierarchy, a top official of the party told this writer at the weekend that it is up to Chirchir to decide as to which party he would wish to join. He should either to remain an ordinary UDM member and forfeit his claims to the party leadership or move out and stay put in the URP. The choice is for him to decide.

Speaking to this writer by phone the UDM leader Lt. Gen {rtd} John Arap Koech dismissed as mischievous those claiming that without the support of the Eldoret North MP William Ruto the party is doomed to fail and would soon be on the verge of total collapse.

Koech reiterated that UDM, which is allied to the ODM, is here to stay and would soon launch its own programme of membership recruitment countrywide. The party has one MP in the tenth parliament in the name of Prof Hellen Simbili and elected civic leaders in several Urban, County and Town Councils throughout the country. It has been performing extremely well at the recent parliamentary by-elections until an attempt to grab its leadership was made by a group of disgruntled ODM rebel MPs. They had grand design to make the UDM their soft landing political party after breaking ranks with the ODM.

“This move by the MPs landed the otherwise vibrant UDM party into a series of legal tussles through courts and tribunals thereby temporarily interrupting and interfering with the party’s programmes and schedules. The intruders have finally seen the lights on the other side of the tunnel and moved to their newly found party and the UDM wished them well.” Said Koech.

A good number of political personalities among the Kipsigis elites insist that the Kalenjin MPs who are allied to William Ruto are thriving in politics of riding on the back of other people and as such are not leaders worth trusting. They are thriving on persistently calling the name of the Prime Minister Rala Odinga whenever they opened their venomous mouths and wherever they go. They lacked visionary kind of politics an the policy to sell to the voters apart from bashing the PM.in the hope of cutting Raila to size, and yet by doing so they are unknowingly making the PM a hero in this country.

Uncoordinated and recklessly designed attacks and unfair criticism of Mr Odinga, which some of the politicians are in the habit of using in this country to popularize themselves, is actually working in favor of the ODM leader, and those doubting this political scenario should wait and see the outcome of the next general election. This is because many Kenyans believe that Raila Odinga is the genuine and true reformist.

Agwambo is also being credited for having fought a long battle and won by making the Kenya citizens to realize the new and modernized Republican Constitution, whereas those who have since ganged up with the aims and objectives of thwarting his presidential bid have done nothing Kenyans.

So many political parties have sprung up in the recent years and months with short sighted leaders who thrives on gaining political mileage by way of incessant attacks on Raila Odinga for the cheap aims of whipping out tribal support, but according to a civic leader in Kericho County all the uncalled and unwarranted attacks by Raila’s critics appeared to have boomerang and worked in the opposite direction in his favor instead.

Councilor Nicholas Tum of Kericho Municipality says Raila is the darling of thousand of Kipsigis people who for many years were marginalized by their cousins from the North Rift who took the lion’s share during the long reign of the retired President Daniel Arap Moi. “The people of this region want to be right inside the next government and not in the periphery and the only short route to that dream is through Raila’s ODM party, and strictly not via any amorphous and unrealistic political alliances,” said Coun Tum.

Ends