2002 Elections

Ongeri, Manduku rivalry replayed

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Published on Saturday, 30 June 2007 22:26

Nowhere in Kisiiland will the battle for a parliamen-tary seat be as vicious as in Nyaribari Masaba. At the core of the do-or-die political duel in the constituency is the fact that, though he will be defending his seat, Health Minister Professor Sam Kegengo Ongeri, will also be doing the beat for Kanu in a region considered the territory of Simeon Nyachae.

Yet, it is not just that Ongeri will be fending off the Nyachae craze but he will also be at it with his perennial rival, Hezron Manduku, who is flying the rather popular Ford-People ticket in Kisiiland.

Both Maduku and Ongeri are medics by profession and they have been at each other’s necks these past 15 years, inter-changing the seat among themselves.

In 1988, Professor Ongeri trounced Manduku in a controversial election. At that point, Ongeri had been recruited by Kanu to help cut down to size a Nyachae who was seeking to extend his stay in public life by crawling out of retirement from the civil service into elective politics. In due course, Nyachae was denied the opportunity to offer himself to the people of the neighbouring Nyaribari Chache constituency. Concerted efforts were made to elevate Professor Ongeri as the alternative community leader. In their mutual political loss , Manduku and Nyachae forged a relationship that has lasted this long.

Come 1992, and in spite of predictions to the contrary, Nyachae was the Kanu answer for the opposition in Kisiiland. Perhaps casting his eye warily in the neighbouring Nyaribari Masaba constituency, Nyachae did not fancy the idea that Professor Ongeri should share the fun of being the Kisii Kanu point man. So Manduku was set upon Ongeri, with the former flooring the latter at the nominations level. Not believing the result of the primary, Ongeri brought pressure to bear on Kanu headquarters that a repeat was necessary. When the results of the repeat came in, Ongeri had again been thrashed and was consigned to the political cold.

Ongeri would bid his time, meanwhile taking up important jobs like being the Chairman of the University of Nairobi Council between 1992 and 1997. At the Kanu nominations, Ongeri sent Manduku packing and once in parliament, apart from landing a Cabinet Minister position, he went about consolidating his hold on the constituency by engaging in what constituents themselves admit to be an exceptional development record.

As it is, Ongeri will talk about gravelling of the Keroka-Masimba-Gesusu road, the affording of places for a generous number of his constituents in medical colleges and the building and stocking with medicines of Gesusu Sub-District Hospital and another medical facility at Masimba. In pointing out his development initiatives, he will be hoping that the fellow feelings his Kisii people are lining up for the benefit of their man, Nyachae, will not eclipse him.

Yet Ongeri must work in arrears if he must make a comeback to Parliament. His main opponent, Manduku, is known as a foremost Nyachae side-kick. Besides, there also is George Nyamweya of Narc.

Nyamweya is a scion of the late James Nyamweya who was a founding member of Mwai Kibaki’s DP. Nyamweya’s father was also a Cabinet Minister in days gone by. Nyamweya junior has been capitalising on his late father’s good name over and above his explaining that Narc stood a better chance of winning the General Election.

Of the three contestants, Nyamweya is the younger, more suave, candidate. His public speech delivery is said to be his main selling point. However, one of the lines of attack that Nyachae has been using against Narc is that there were conspiracies to impose Mwai Kibaki on the people and that Nyamweya connived in the whole process, being the apparatchik of Kibaki that he has been styled to appear in the eye of the Kisii public.

Nyamweya is contesting the seat for the first time and could argue that both Ongeri and Manduku have become something of a nuisance to the constituents, their political battles emanating from the 1980s as they do. During the 1997 elections, Nyamweya was retained at the DP headquarters to help out with the campaign there. Thanks to his being generally close to Kibaki, he would suggest to his constituents that bigger things await him, granted they vote for him.

As yet, neither has the Kanu or Narc presidential campaign machineries gone to Kisiiland. This is expected to happen this coming week. This should be the height of both Ongeri and Nyamweya to try and demonstrate to the people of Nyaribari Masaba that Ford-People is a wave, but only in the hilly terrain of Gusii.

Much as it was thought that Ongeri would team up with Kanu colleagues, Chris Obure and Joseph Kiangoi to campaign for Uhuru Kenyatta, the paediatrician has been so occupied in his backyard to criss-cross the region which boasts some 515,660 registered voters. It would appear that part of the strategy by Ford-People has been to keep Ongeri so busy that he has scarce time drumming up support for Uhuru Kenyatta elsewhere in the three district region.

Though clans are a consideration in the politics of Kisiiland, the likelihood of this factor playing a prominent role in Nyaribari Masaba is minimal. The leading contenders, namely, Ongeri and Manduku, all hail from rather inconsequential clans of Bosuche and Botondo respectively, meaning that they will be hunting from the bigger clans on equal footing.