Political Blogs
Leaders used forum to curry favour with President
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- Published on Wednesday, 22 October 2008 01:03
Moi had invited Gusii leaders to State House, Nakuru, as a reassurance that the community would remain solidly behind him amid the raging multi-party storm. Later in the day at Moi’s Kabarak home, the Nyaribari-Chache team, led by former nominated MP, the late Stephen Michoma under the patronage of Education Minister Sam Ongeri, appealed to Moi to reconsider the dropping of Omanga from the Cabinet.
A tense mood engulfed the forum, remembers Anyona, when the memorandum was being read. Moi did not comment on the request, but two months later Omanga was appointed an Assistant Minister for Natural Resources. "State delegations are quick fix solutions to development agenda that would otherwise take ages to implement if due government procedures were to be followed," Anyona says.
He recalls that the same delegations asked for the elevation of then Kisii Teachers College to university status. In 1991 it was made a constituent college of Egerton University, and renamed Kisii University College. On his part, Mzee John Mariaria, of Nyaribari-Masaba constituency, says delegations to State House provided opportunity for communities to bond with the country’s seat of power. "Apart from giving grassroots leaders an opportunity to hold a one-on-one with the President, locals are accorded a sense of responsibility and belonging to the Government of the day," says Mariaria, a former chairman of the Pyrethrum Board of Kenya. He contends the delegations give the masses- a perfect chance to air their aspirations and wishes directly to the President.
"Indeed such meetings are necessary ingredients to the recipe that causes the baking of good governance at the heart of subjects’ daily lives," says Mariaria. And Mzee Mainga Nyaberi, of Kitutu-Masaba constituency, recalls how a delegation in 2002 expressed dissatisfaction before retired President Moi at Kabarak over the stalling of Kisii-Chemosit road for more than 25 years.
The idea led to the fast tracking of the project shortly before the General Election, later that year. The trio aver that the delegations give the Head of State a true touch with the grassroots and the consultations provide several development proposals that could otherwise gather dust in Government shelves were they to pass through normal channels.
During Moi’s time, the president could invite selected leaders from sub-location level to State House complete with well-rehearsed memoranda. Also during his many working tours of districts, Moi would meet grassroots leaders at district headquarters before venturing out to address public rallies where he would make major announcements informed by the discussion with their leaders.
When President Kibaki took over, he adopted a different style based on documented ideals and strategic plans until the run-up to the 2005 referendum when —due to the prevailing circumstances— he had to play to the public gallery to win support for the Government’s position on the vote. Councillor Charles Sagwe says delegations to State House is what the Kibaki administration is lacking and this has served to alienate the President from the people.
"The situation obtaining now is where development proposals from grassroots leadership are killed by Government heads of departments. The President never gets to know about them. This has kept President Kibaki out of touch with the people," says Sagwe, who is an ODM nominee to Nyamira Town Council. A resident of North Mugirango constituency, Sagwe was one of the organisers of State House visits during Moi’s last term in his office when he was chairman of Nyamira Town Council.
He remembers one such visit to Moi’s Kabarak home in 2000, when he led a delegation of seven leaders drawn from Nyamira’s North Mugirango/Borabu, Kitutu Masaba and West Mugirango constituencies. The team under the patronage of then North Mugirango MP Joseph Kiangoi went to lobby for the completion of the Kisii-Chemosit road, which they felt, was being blocked by an influential politician.
"We presented our issues before the President as we ate boiled maize. A month after our visit work on the project started," he says. Other requests they presented include appointment of a member of the delegation to be a judge and elevation of Manga, Keroka and Ekerenyo health centres to sub-district hospitals, which were all implemented. "Thereafter we established rapport with Moi and would visit him anytime on Thursdays at State House, Nakuru. We only alerted the DC of our visit and there was no vetting," he says.
In 2001, Sagwe led a team of councillors to State House, Mombasa, where they met the President on a bonding session and to reassure him of their support. One evening after such a meeting, they met Public Works Minister Chris Obure (who was then handling the Finance docket) and Kiangoi then a Local Government Assistant Minister, waiting at the gate to see Moi.
"They were astonished to find us there given that we had not informed them of our visit. The President usually hosted grassroots leaders to establish whether we had similar views with those MPs gave him," Sagwe adds. A delegation of Gusii councillors to see President Kibaki, led by the Nyansiongo Town Council chairman Kennedy Riogi under the patronage of then Cabinet Minister Simeon Nyachae, yielded the creation of Kisii South and Masaba districts, which did not go down well with a group of local MPs.
The MPs were accused of influencing the location of their headquarters against majority of the residents, a factor that greatly contributed to their being hounded out of Parliament in last year’s elections. The grassroots leadership feels the delegations are an integral part of good political governance.
