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Bloody But Unbowed
- Details
- Published on Monday, 23 July 2007 00:03
The bruising battle for the seat - left vacant by the death of youthful Ford Kenya politician Enock Magara - was widely perceived as a battle between Mr. Nyachae and President Moi.
Although Mr. Nyachae dismissed this perception, the zeal and energy in which Kanu top brass and Kisii Kanu politicians, among them ministers Sam Ongeri and Chris Obure, put into the campaigns was seen as an attempt to ward off the birth of a precedent in which only politicians sanctioned by the Nyaribari Chache MP got elective posts in Kisii.
Mr. Magara's win was historical in that it made him the first Kisii MP to inherit a parliamentary seat from a kinsman. But it was anti-climax since he could not savour the victory as he was recovering at the Tabaka Mission Hospital after an attack by political rivals at Nyakieo area on voting day.
Mr. Nyachae, the strategist behind Ford Kenya's campaign machine, says his push to have Mr. Magara win the seat was not in any way a fight between him and President Moi. As a leader from the Kisii community, he said, he was obliged to back a candidate who the people wanted.
Mr. Nyachae put in a lot of resources and energy in the campaigns in an effort to fight what he saw as a scheme by Kanu leaders to weaken him at his Kisii home base.
Kanu's loss to Mr. Magara, a political novice who resigned his civil service job at the Kenya Revenue Authority to contest the seat, leaves many questions unanswered - such as, what happened to the Kanu camp despite President Moi leading a high-powered Kanu team of 17 cabinet ministers to woo votes for the party?
The voting patterns indicate that apart from Mr. Nyachae's influence, clannism and the community's weariness of unfulfilled development projects by the government were factors at play.
The direct nomination of Mr. Kombo by Kanu headquarters also contributed to the party's loss, with disillusioned supporters opting to vote for a candidate from another party.
This saw a leading contender for the Kanu nomination, Mr. Joel Makanga, decamp to Ford People. Mr. Makanga had been cleared to contest the nomination even before President Moi announced Mr. Kombo's direct nomination during a tour of Mr. Ongeri's Nyaribari Masaba constituency. However, Mr. Makanga fared badly on a Ford People ticket.
So did Mr. Kombo, an experienced politician who garnered 7,396 votes to Mr. Magara's 12, 738. Of the registered 35,000 voters, 59.8 per cent turned out.
Mr. Magara also has Mr. Nyachae to thank for prevailing upon Social Democratic Party's Reuben Oyondi, a former area MP who was likely to give the Ford-K candidate a formidable challenge, and two other candidates, to step down in his favour.
But that notwithstanding, the younger Magara's articulate approach to issues won him tremendous grassroots appeal in the two-week campaign. Observers have also not lost sight of the fact that it is a civic candidate from the little- known Shirikisho Party who won the civic by-election in Metembe ward, in Prof Ongeri's Nyaribari Masaba constituency.
Although Prof Ongeri tirelessly campaigned for the Kanu candidate, Mr. Simeon Kirage - a Nyamira-based businessman - carried the day. There has been speculation in the past that Mr. Nyachae intended to contest the 2002 presidential bid on a Shirikisho ticket.
However, it is evident that Mr. Kombo remains a formidable force within his Getenga clan, which voted overwhelmingly for him. At the Mariwa polling station, for instance, 95 per cent of registered voters turned up (881 of the 929 voters backed him while Mr. Magara got 34 votes).
This raised eyebrows amongst the rivals, with some protesting to returning officer Stephen Miriti. The area has 975 registered voters.
Mr. Kombo also won at most stations within his Getenga clans, among them Engeti where he got 712 votes to Ford Kenya's 61. At his Riosiri home place, where polling was done under much tension, he got 438 to Magara's 68, while at Gotchak he had 470 against Magara's 63.
And at the controversial Kenyoro polling centre where the Opposition accused presiding officer George Ogaro, a former DO, of bias and intimidation, Mr. Kombo had an overwhelming 547 votes to Magara's 46.
The battery of ministers started streaming into the constituency from December 31 and held a series of rallies, making numerous promises. Installation of electricity was top among them.
The group made Mr. Nyachae its subject of criticism and implored the electorate not to "make another blunder of voting for the Opposition."
It is this over-concentration on Nyachae bashing that might have proved counter-productive.
"By voting for an Opposition party, you will be voting for isolation from President Moi's government instead of accommodation through Kanu's victory", said Minister Noah Katana Ngala, the chief guest at a rally in Omogwa Primary School.
The electorate were promised that all-stalled development projects, among them a tea factory at Omogenda, establishment of a soap-stone processing plant at Tabaka and improvement of infrastructure, would be completed if Kanu won.
This was squarely countered by the pro-Ford Kenya campaigners at a huge rally addressed jointly by Mr. Nyachae and Opposition chiefs Mwai Kibaki and Michael Wamalwa, who described the promises as Kanu's well-known campaign gimmick. They challenged the government to show any meaningful development project initiated in other areas represented by Kanu MPs.
Said Nyachae: "In Bobasi constituency of agriculture minister Chris Obure, the roads are impassable, leading to rotting of tea leaves at buying centres. The government has also failed to extend any assistance to the Maasai community, who recently lost more than 100,000 heads of cattle due to lack of water even though they were in Kanu fully.
The Opposition campaign strategist complained that by directing 20 ministers and Kanu operatives to campaign in South Mugirango, paying little attention to the Kapenguria seat, President Moi wanted to humiliate Mr. Nyachae and impair his presidential bid.
Come the polls and a repeat of the 1997 elections scenario was evident, where the major clans - the Abatabori and Abasinange and the minority Abaige - joined hands to rally behind Mr. Magara.
Ford Kenya campaigns were led by Kanu MPs Nyachae, Jimmy Angwenyi and Zebedeo Opore, and Henry Obwocha (Ford Kenya). Others were Alfred Nderitu (DP) and Dr Mukhisa Kituyi of Ford-K.
The other candidates in the race were Mr. Makanga, who got 168 votes, Mrs Rose Okemwa of the Kenya Social Congress (76), Ford Asili's Gilbert Ombasa (48), Mr. Charles Orenge of the Kenya Social Congress (4) and Samson Mauti of the National Labour Party (4).
Mr. Oyondi, human rights lawyer Hezekial Obuya (Reform Party of Kenya) and Mr. Migiro Orioki of the Labour Party withdrew in support of Mr. Magara.
