Writes Leo Odera Omolo.In Kericho Town
Political temperatures has arisen up followed by tension in the South Rift region of the expansive Rift Valley Province after several districts were Cannibalized together and declared the exclusive voting zone outside the jubilee Alliance.
The issue came to the surface immediately soon after the recently concluded Jubilee Alliance primary nominations. In the nomination exercise, TNA, which is the principal alliance and partner of the URP had its members barred from contesting the elective positions in areas which were classified as the URP electoral zones.
The districts which were grouped together and declared as the exclusive electoral zone of the URP included several Counties of Kericho, Bomet, Nandi, Baringo, Keiyo, Baringo, Trans-Mara, Molo, Nakuru Kuresoi and other places.
An aspirant who was vying the election in the newly created Sigowet constituency in the lower Belgut region of Kericho County said that those who turned up ready to contest the elections on TNA were turned away and told that they cannot contest any seat in those areas which had already been classified as the URP electoral zone.
A good number of aspirants have since sought for accommodation in other parties, and the fear persist that those who won in the URP primaries in the region might not make it to the next parliament after March 4, 2013.
In the same context, the jubilee Alliance is also risking being rejected by the electorate in the region due to its discriminative policy, which has Balkanized the communities on tribal line.
TNA members were denied the right of contesting the election on Jubilee ticket and told they can only do so on URP ticket. But not on TNA which is the umbrella of the Jubilee Aliance
Members of the Kipsigis sub-tribe of the larger Kalenjin ethnic group who form the bulk of the majority of the resident of the South Rift region are known not to be comfortable with the jubilee Alliance that has in the face of it brought together the Kipisigis and the kikuyu community.
This particular community has yet to e wholeheartedly in the Jubilee Alliance, and view the URPO leader William Ruto who has secured the powerful position in the alliance of being the running – mate for the Jubilee Alliance Presidential candidate as someone who has mortgaged the community for his selfish interests.
The Sigowet aspirant who requested for his anonymity has since moved to another political party outside the Jubilee Alliance and has appealed to other who felt grieved to do likewise.
The zoning of these electoral areas is illegal and was made deliberately to have William Ruto’s political surrogates and sycophants get political mileage over their opponents during the much flawed primary nominations. He also blamed the former Belgut MP Charls Keter for being the architect of the political zonng of the South Rift region, and warned that the former legislator who is now vying for Kericho County senate seat will pay dearly for his part in ill-advising the URP to create the tribal zoning.
The zoning of several districts had disarmed many would be aspirant for the various elective positions in these area. It has also raised political temperature in the region which could see the majority of the voters drifting back to ODM and CORD.
The common talks making the round in Kericho and its environs is that William Ruto the URP leader had miscalculated and underestimated the intelligence of the voters in the region in is plan to convince his Jubilee partners that he had the political clout over the voters in the zoned districts, something which he will pay dearly for his mistakes.
The zoning of the vote’s rich districts into URP exclusive electoral zones, might also have a serious repercussion on Uhuru Kenyatta presidential voting system.
“Our people are not for sale, and Ruto seemed to be hell-bent in auctioning the Kalenjin voters for his selfish interest, but we shall teach him a lesson that he will live to regret for years to come, let him just wait for the March 4, 2013,” retored Mr Josephat Lang’at a Litein politican.
The Kipsigis sub-tribe, the most populous among th Kalenjin ethnic group has about 12 parliamentary constituencies in Kericho, Bomet, Molo and Rongai. Some of its members live in Nandi, Cheranganyi, Nakuru, Narok South, Kilgoris,Trans-Nzoia and Subukio.
Ends