From ouko joachim omolo
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2012

ICC-TAKE 2

Our ICC Take 2 today will continue from the fear expressed by Internal Security Permanent Secretary Francis Kimemia that a phased out elections, separating the presidential contest from other county elections, could cause chaos in the country.

Mr Kimemia says if the President is elected at an earlier date, he or she could negatively influence the election of governors and senators and members of parliament which may lead to chaos.

“Having elections done in two phases is a recipe of chaos. All elections should be held on the same day. The outgoing President should hand over to a full cabinet, Parliament and county government,” Mr Kimemia said on Sunday in function at Ikinu village in Githunguri.

If a Presidential contest is first held before other elections, he reasoned, the eventual winner may negatively influence subsequent polls in order to have his/ her favourite candidates win at the county level.

In a similar fear, Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi on Monday signalled out that post election violence comes as a result of favouratism and negative ethnicity where elected president refuses to realise equitable distribution of resources, instead distribute it to his or her own elite ethnic communities, region or friends.

Mudavadi who was speaking in a function in Mombasa said the only way forward to overcome such chaos is through the devolved government. In other words, Kenya does not need a unitary state to develop. What Kenya needs is economic integration and free trade where local revenue taxation would be used for regional planning for infrastructure-roads, rail, water supply, telecommunications, urban and regional planning, transport and environment, schools, hospitals, policing and administration.

This is because Kenyan politics have long been among the most “ethnic” in Africa. It is why ethnically marked electoral violence, largely instigated by the ruling regime. Jomo Kenyatta for example, presided over a growing economy that allowed him to distribute patronage with relative ease.

When Moi took over from Kenyatta on the latter’s death in 1978 he quickly set out to replace systematically the existing Kikuyu political elite with his own followers from his own Kalenjin ethnic group.

When his former vice president, Mwai Kibaki announced the formation of the Democratic Party (DP) as a second opposition force, it only attracted majority from his Kikuyu ethnic group and Mount Kenya region. This was because the aim of the party was to take back the leadership to his region.

That explains why within FORD, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and Kenneth Matiba could not agree on who would carry the banner as the presidential candidate, resulting in a split. Like Kibaki Matiba also wanted leadership to go back to his ethnic community and region.

Every party since then went ethnic- Odinga’s FORD-Kenya came to represent primarily the Luo, even though with allies in one section of the Luhya and on the coast from the banned Islamic Party of Kenya in solidarity, to form a voting bloc to ensure that power does not go back to Central Kenya.

While Kibaki’s DP and Matiba FORD- Asili came to represent the Kikuyu as well as in the cities of Nairobi and Nakuru, and a section of Luhya as well through Martin Shikuku, Odinga’s FORD-Kenya represented Luo.

While voting patterns became very heavily marked by ethnicity as the result of ethnic formed parties, overwhelmingly dominant in their respective “zones”, with the powerful machinery Moi had ensured KANU zones became literal “no go” zones for the opposition, thus resulting to 1992 ethnic clashes, mainly in Rift Valley where Kibaki’s Kikuyu communities were the target.

With the help of Youth for Kanu 92 (YK92) headed by William Ruto and Cyrus Jirongo, the local security apparatus used all means neces­sary to silence any opposition in the region. Moi was re-elected because many votes were divided among ethnic based presidential candi­dates, making Moi to win with minority of 36 percent votes.

The opposition continued to fragment during the next five years leading to the 1997 election. This time though, most Luo followed Odinga’s son, Raila, into the National Democratic Party (NDP) with hope that he could make it to presidency, not realizing that Luo alone and few Luyha and other marginalized ethnic communities who wanted change could not have enough votes to take him to State House. The votes were divided between Kibaki and Raila against Moi.

Note that there were also some ethnically based parties that emerged, the most significant of which came to be the Social Democratic Party (SDP), led by several university intellectuals and Charity Ngilu, a Kamba leader from the political battleground of Eastern province.

This enabled Moi to win again, increasing his vote from 36 to 40 percent. This is because of the many ethnic based parties that emerged. This time again Moi made sure the violence served to drive opposition voters “up-country” (Kikuyu, Luo, Kamba) out of a potential Rift Valley KANU zone.

As revenge, some politicians used outlawed militia groups, most controversial of these being the Kikuyu Mungiki sect and Kisii Chinkororo to retaliate. The Mungiki sect proclaimed the “Kirinyaga Kingdom”, an administrative district in Kikuyu Central province. Mungiki represents a radical alternative to main­stream Kikuyu politicians’ definition of the community’s interest.

While outlawed militias were used for defence, ethnic based parties went along with the blessing of elders, whom politicians believed could use their influence to endorse or support a particular candidate.

In Meru, the njuri ncheke, a council of elders that was virtually completely eliminated in the colonial era, had gained significant strength in 1990s. The local administration had used it to help resolve several major land disputes within the Meru community and between it and neighboring communities.

Similar councils have emerged among the Luo, Luhya, Kamba and Kalenjin. Among Luo when Raila alleged that Luo Council of Elders, Mr Meshack Riaga Ogalo was relating with Raila’s political enemies he had to be dropped for another.

In Ukambani they were to anoint Charity Ngilu as a warrior for 1997 preferable presidential, even though it raised significant gender questions in the local community because a woman had never been anointed leader.

Some political scientists and experts argue that the ethnic based parties or movements goes back to colonial era when for instance, Kikuyu formed the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA), the Akamba, Ukambani Members Association (UMA), the Luhya, the Luhya Union (LU), the Luo, the Young Kavirondo Association (YKA), the Kalenjin, the Kalenjin Political Alliance (KPA), the Coastal, the Mwambao Union Front (MUF), and Taita, the Taita Hills Association (THA) in that order.

The aim for these movements was the scramble for the scarce national resources and facilities. Ethnicity therefore, became the main vehicle through which the dominance and preservation of power as well as resources could be achieved.

Mau Mau which was predominantly Kikuyu for example, was fighting to acquire the land from the British colonial. It explain why after independence when Kenyatta took over as the president he awarded his Kikuyu elite communities the fertile land formerly occupied by the British, mainly in the Rift Valley Province.

To dominate other ethnic groups Kenyatta formed a political force comprising of Gekuyu, Embu, Meru- Alliance (GEMA) which often stated that the membership of these land buying companies and cooperatives was strictly ethnical-contrary to constitutional and company law provisions.

It is to be noted here very clearly that this movement did not benefit ordinary and poor Kikuyu who remain to be poor just as poor as other Kenyan ethnic groups. In other words, even if Uhuru becomes the president it will not benefit majority of Kikuyu people, just like whether Raila or Ruto becomes the president it will never benefit poor Luo and Kalenjin communities.

Since then Kenya has often relied heavily on ethnicity to remain in leadership. It can explain why Uhuru Kenyatta is using PNU-Alliance as a vehicle to succeed President Mwai Kibaki. The aim of course, being that for a long time in the history of this country, land has remained a thorny economic and political issue, with Uhuru himself owning chunk of land in almost every region in Kenya.

It is against the background that when the Eldoret MP, Mr William Ruto, Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta, Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, Internal Security Minister, Prof George Saboti and MP Eugene Wamalwa came together to form what is now known as the G7 Alliance with the sole intention of preventing Mr Odinga from winning the next elections it could not work.

This is because every community wants their own to be the president. Kalenjin community for instance, would not prefer Uhuru as the president except Ruto, and likewise the Kikuyu would not do the same, so it is for the reason why Uhuru is to use PNU-Alliance, whereas Ruto the United Republican Party (URP) as vehicles to State House.

Trade minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere, Dujis MP Aden Duale and former South Mugirango MP Omingo Magara among other MPs were to join Ruto given their political orphanage. They need sympathy and where they can be absorbed.

That is why cabinet ministers Franklin Bett and Sally Kosgei, who had earlier appeared to warm towards Mr Ruto, and nominated MP Musa Sirma remained in the PM’s camp because they only see Raila and his ODM as the only movement that will secure their ministries and at the same time serve as their security.

Although Kalonzo has joined the PNU Alliance, which is working out a way to ensure Raila does not get 50-plus percent as required by the new constitution, he is calculating that if Uhuru stands with Raila he will not get the 50-plus percent-for that reason if there is re-run Uhuru will win with simple majority-or if Uhuru is charged by the ICC Kalonzo would have the chance of becoming the victor.

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