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A Solid Home-Base Teeming With Formidable Enemies
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- Published on Sunday, 22 July 2007 21:35
In fact, it goes without saying that his recent forays that have netted important opposition personalities recline on the perception that when push comes to shove, Kisiiland will vote to a man in his favour.
Not that Nyachae will afford to sit pretty as pertains Kisiiland given that Kanu, his main nemesis in the area will attempt to steal the thunder from him in his home turf. In ministers Sam Ongeri and Chris Obure, Nyachae has formidable enemies who will fight tooth and nail to dip their fingers into this otherwise ample bank of votes.
Take Nyachae's Nyaribari Chache seat. Despite his political heavy weight stature, one Julie Maranya will serve a nuisancical role akin to the tiny mosquito that cannot entirely be ignored. Miss Maranya, the director of Julikei International, an NGO dealing in women and youth affairs made news last year when she declared that she would unseat Nyachae on a Kanu ticket. Could her loud silence in the recent past be the case of chickening out?
The appointment, last year, of Jared Kangwana to the East African Community parliament effectively removed from contention one of strongest anti-Nyachae Kanu politicians from Nyaribari Chache. However, this will be pointed out not only in Nyaribari Chache but throughout Kisiiland as Kanu's love for the Omogusii. Were it not for his failing health, Andrew Omanga, now in his late 70s, the man who surrendered his seat to Nyachae in 1992 would contest.
Coincidentally, Kanu's foremost point-man in Kisii, Minister Sam Ongeri, hails from the neighbouring Nyaribari Masaba. One of Ongeri's onerous tasks will be to forestall the near-cult Ford-People enthusiasm that has been growing by the day in the region. But while he does so, his own seat will be under siege by the likes of Ken Ombati, a Nairobi-based lawyer who will square it off with Dr Hezron Manduku and one Ratemo Ouko during the Ford-People parliamentary nominations. Will Ongeri go the way of former ministers Elijah Mwangale and Dalmas Otieno who floundered under a resurgent opposition in 1992?
For a long time, George Moseti Anyona has made a career out of standing up against the Government. Thanks to this enduring quality as a man more wronged against than wronging, the Kitutu Masaba seat has been almost his preserve for the last decade. Then it did not matter that his Kenya Social Congress (KSC) was a one-man show. His shift of stance into co-operating with Kanu has significantly altered his former fire-spitting trait, a development observers say might be his undoing. Anyona will be battling it out with a local Ford-People official, Samson Okioma Nyang'au. Perhaps in a bid to consolidate efforts ahead of the General Election, he recently said that efforts for a formal pact between KSC and Kanu fashioned along the Kanu-NDP merger were on. One line of attack that Anyona's enemies are raring to hem in is that he has not accounted for some Sh2 million belonging to a local women group. Will one of the former nine bearded sisters go the way of his former comrades Mwashengu wa Mwachofi and Martin Shikuku?
Bobasi constituency is home to the man whose fortunes in Kanu have literally shot up as Nyachae's have plummeted in the party. The man is Chris Obure. He will be up against the man whom he floored in 1997, Stephen Manoti, who has since signed up with Ford-People. It will be remembered that in 1988, when Kanu bigwigs blocked Nyachae from contesting a parliamentary seat, Obure had teamed up with the late Zachary Onyonka to make that move possible. However, the Kanu machinery will be wont to repeatedly showcase Obure as the testimony of its having the community's interests at heart.
When Onyonka passed away in the late 90s, it was thought that his son Momoima Onyonka would step into his father's shoes in Kitutu Chache. Then came the Kanu nominations for the bi-election and with the support of Nyachae, Jimmy Ang'wenyi, a former University of Nairobi Economics don won. Since then, Ang'wenyi has not only remained loyal to Nyachae but has served him as economic adviser. When Nyachae resigned from the cabinet in 1999, Ang'wenyi stuck with him and was soon relieved of his ministerial portfolio. When Nyachae was suspended from the party in early 2000, Ang'wenyi suffered the same fate. All things remaining equal, Momoima will be carrying the Kanu flag against Ang'wenyi in Ford-People.
The political gymnastics Zephaniah Nyang'wara the Kanu Bomachoge MP has been playing perhaps best exemplify Nyachae's influence on Gusii politics. Prior to the South Mugirango by-election, Nyangw'ara let lose his tongue, bashing Nyachae for all manner of ills. Even as he was stoned at the funeral of the late James Magara, the former MP for South Mugirango, Nyangw'ara remained stoically anti-Nyachae at one point warning Nyachae to step in Gucha District at his own peril. Apparently reading the Gusii mood and fearing for his political future, Nyangw'ara did an about turn, claiming in public that he had been misled into fighting Nyachae. The MP has since gone silent with those in the know saying the man is torn between allegiance to Kanu and the sweeping Ford-People mood in Kisii.
Another new-comer to Bomachoge is Engineer Chris Ayaga, said to have lately been traversing the constituency constructing bridges, no doubt using his professional knowledge. Ayaga is a former civil servant who recently retired from the Office of the President.
Should Nyangw'ara finally decide to contest on a Ford-People ticket, he will face former supervisor of elections Zachary Nyarango. It is in this constituency where clanism plays a pivotal role during elections. Nyangw'ara comes from the second largest clan, the Abamachoge while Nyarango is son to the most populous Abakione. Again, should Nyangw'ara make a come up in parliament, he would have made history since no other MP has won the seat twice. Not even Zephaniah Anyieni, who as KPU's contact man in the area in the 1960s became the father of opposition politics in Kisii and who eyes the seat on a Ford-People ticket, has not taken Bomachoge twice.
Joseph Kiangoi has earned himself the derisive tag of 'Kisii hitman' by Ford-People supporters in reference to the incident when he beat electioneering officials during the North Mugirango bi-election. The Local Government Assistant Minister will be challenged by Atebe Marita, a former Assistant Minister, who Nyachae fished when he started searching for a party he would launch his presidential campaign bid on. Alongside Obure and Ongeri, Kiangoi, barring an unlikely defection to Ford-People, will be the leading lights and stop gap measures for Kanu.
A few years ago, the mention of West Mugirango would instantly call to mind its Ford-Kenya MP Henry Obwocha. In fact, as Ford-Kenya Organising Secretary, he was one of the only high-ranking party officials from the community. It could be that one reason for his uncharacteristic silence is that he now operates in the shadow of Nyachae being in Ford Kenya only technically. So far, no important challenger has emerged to challenge Obwocha on a Ford-People ticket. Over in Kanu, Dr Ainea Nyakiba and former Nominated MP Josephine Nyamato have already made known their intentions to contest on a Kanu ticket.
South Mugirango constituency acquired national prominence in 2000 first because of the intrepid nature of its former MP Enoch Magara then to the events that followed his sudden death in a road accident. Though the Abagusii frown upon inheritance of political turf, as was witnessed in Kitutu Chache after the death of Onyonka, the election of James Magara, Enoch's brother became the exception to the rule. This was largely because, Nyachae, having parted company with Kanu, threw his weight behind the eventual winner in a show of prowess against Kanu. There is no gainsaying the fact that should Nyachae have, in the manner of saying, taken over Ford-People, Magara would have contested on that party's seat as he intents to do come the General Election. As it is, Magara, like Obwocha, is merely marking time in Ford-Kenya.
Not that Magara will have it sailing smooth as the seasoned Reuben Oyondi, a former assistant minister might prove no walk over during the Ford-People nominations. Oyondi cuts the image of a politician who knows which side of his bread is buttered. Even after loosing the nominations during the bi-election, he loyally stuck with Nyachae. The Kanu point-man in the area is David Kombo who lost the bi-election.
Incidentally, it was during the bi-election that initial opposition unity initiatives were broached. Media images of leading opposition politicians pitching tent in the constituency to campaign for Magara became a daily menu.
Kanu rebel MP Zebedee Opere is a Nyachae ally in Bonchari constituency. Like Ang'wenyi, he was sacked from a ministerial position due to his association with Nyachae and will go the Ford-People way come the election period. Though the Kanu line-up in this constituency has not emerged yet, one Mark Bosire is being mentioned as possible candidate.
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