Reports By Arrum-Tidi Ogonglo In Migori Town.
The proposed power-sharing arrangement within the Migori County governance between the Luos and the Kuria is causing jittery in the regional politics.
Senior politicians from the Luo side have described the proposal as a mockery to the tenets of democratic principles, arguing that there is n negotiated democracy anywhere in the world. Moreover the idea is to cede all the key positions within the County governance to the minority Kuria community with aims to entice them to vote for Raila Odinga in his presidential bid.
The Prime Minister Raila Odinga toured the Kuria region two weeks ago. During his visit Raila steered out of the disputed power-sharing issue. The Prime Minister however; publicly extended an invitation to the Kuria MP Dr.Walter Machage to crossover from PNU and join the ODM.
Dr Machage, however, turned down the request, but is said to have agreed in secret that he could defect from the PNU and join the ODM if certain conditions were to be met by the ODM party leadership.
Some of the conditions set by Dr.Machage including the ODM big-wigs undertake to give him a direct nomination so that he could contest the Migori County senate seat without going through the normal nomination processes and campaign.
The ODM leaders on the Luo side argues that the Kuria have always vote for without the Luo community ceding any elective positions that is their democratic rights. Furthermore the Kuria have yet join the ODM and there not even on single functioning ODM office established in any of the two districts of Kuria East and Wes
It has since been established that during Raila visit to region the Kuria leaders had prepared a memorandum in which they set all the conditions they wanted the ODM to meet so that they could vote the County deputy governor.
The Luo leaders were kept in darkness and were not allowed to present their memorandum t counter the one presented to the PM by the Kurias. The issues has since sparked the controversy with Luos ODM leaders claiming that the ODM leadership had given them a row deal.
It has also been established that prior to Raila’s Odinga visit to the Kuri region, four Luo MPs from Migori County had met under the chairmanship of the Minister for the Public Service Dalmas Otieno and worked out a secret plan how they could share out all the elective positions within the County proportionately between the Kuria and Luos.The controversial arrangement and plans was hatched at a meeting in which only the delegation from Kuria was in attendance and non from the Luo side attended it.
What shocked the Luo ODM leaders that Dalmas Otieno had invited his former colleague in the KANU government Eng Shadrack Manga to attend the meeting of the task force committee, and yet Manga is a still one of the national officials of KANU?
ODM officials in Migori County region are wondering as to what role a KANU leader like Manga could be playing in what is an internal matter within the ODM and therefore does not require outsider’s intervention.
One ODM leader said the move has only done a lot of damage to Dalmas Otieno’s status an ODM MP and a Minister It has confirmed the suspicions on many people that the Minister is still pursuing the outmoded KANU’S draconian policy . “He is a KANU mole in the ODM.” said one party branch official who requested for his anonymity.
The trouble is simmering within the County, which require urgent attention. It cod hurt the party’s unity and even impact negatively to Raila’s presidential votes in the region.
The marginalized communities like Somalis, Kisiis, Luhyias and Maragolis appeared to have taken a firm stand that they were being sidelined and given row deals by the ODM party in preference to the Luos and Kurias.
The disagreement come at a time when several well-established political personalities within both Kuria and Luos have had their campaign for the various positions hit the ground. From Kuria side, J.M Magaiwa who is the ODM Migori County branch chairman had been on campaign trail criss-crossing the vast region for several years;’ The three now feel betrayed by the Luo MPs and the party leadership and have been heard crying out fault.
Two prominent Luo politicians in the name of the former Mathare MP Gilbert Ochieng’Mbeo, and the onetime two terms MP the larger Homa-Bay Phares Oluoch Kanindo.
A candidate who is one of those aspiring for the Rongo parliamentary seat Eng Phillip Odero Makabong’o scathingly criticized the four Migori MPs who met in secret and decided to hate the party positions among themselves an their friends. He said the mp have no role in deciding as to who should take what seat. This responsibility, he added lies in the hands of the voters. Let all the Kuria people who wants to be elected to any position within the County governance stand and contest the elections in the open like anyone else.
The four MP who are currently locked in power-sharing dispute between the Luos and the kuria included DalmasOtieno {Rongo},john Pesa{Migori},Edick Omondi Anyanga[Nyatike} and Cyprian Ojwang’Omolo{Uriri}.
Ends