Commentaries

The fall and fall of FORD-People

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Published on Friday, 13 March 2009 00:58

Simeon nyachae's resignation as party leader of FORD-People last week was the last nail on the "watu wengi" party's coffin.though surprising,it was not entirely unexpected.the party's fortunes have been declining steadily ever since the 2002 elections.

in the run up to the 2002 elections, mr. nyachae grossly miscalculated when - contrary to all norms of wisdom and practicality - he decided to run for the presidency instead of teaming up with the rest of the country and supporting mwai kibaki to remove KANU from power.however,mr. nyachae's - and FORD- P's - popularity in gusii started taking a nose dive after he and his cronies in FORD-P agreed to be co-opted into mwai kibaki's government of national unity after the latter had trashed the famous MoU.

while they occupied powerful positions in government,they stayed mum as almost all prominent kisiis in the government were systematically hounded out and replaced by members of "a certain community".allocation of national resources was skewed in favour of this "certain community" and its cousin communities leaving out the abagusii and the rest of the country.these as well as other national issues such as corruption,unemployment and other failings of the kibaki government made it very unpopular among the abagusii.

as this was happening,mr. nyachae,who seemed to suffer from a messianic complex believed that only he could chart the political destiny of the abagusii.so much that even when it was clear that the kibaki government was extremely unpopular among the abagusii,he still supported it at the referendum on the draft constitution.needless to say,the abagusii resoundingly rejected it.eight of the ten gusii constituencies - including nyachae's nyaribari chache - voted NO.

the FORD-P MPs however did not draw any lesson from this and committed political suicide by joining the makeshift PNU coalition.by some strange logic,the abagusii were supposed to vote for mwai kibaki enmasse because nyachae had asked them to.however as they set out to campaign for mwai kibaki,reality dawned on them.they realised what the mood on the ground was and because it was too close to the election,they resorted to desperate measures to contain the ODM wave that was sweeping through gusii.

it was hoped that ethnic emotions could be whipped up by creating the impression that the abagusii were under siege from outsiders.the nyamarambe incident where "chinkororo" were supposed to defend "mwanyagetinge" backfired.the "mwanyagetinge" that was supposed to be defended was angered by the use of such methods.however the worst effects of the nyamarambe incident were to be felt during the post election crisis when the kalenjin attacked the abagusii for having "attacked william ruto"

soon after the nyamarambe incident,raila odinga toured gusii.the ecstatic and heroic reception that he received everywhere he went left FORD-P dumbfounded and confused.kisii town came to a standstill as "mwanyagetinge" poured to the streets to wellcome raila.at that point it was clear even to the blind that the days of FORD People were numbered.