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Controversy rages over new districts created in Kisiiland
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- Published on Thursday, 26 July 2007 03:19
The row is centred on the names and locations of the new districts with the protagonists claiming that if their administrative divisions are not elevated as the headquarters of the new districts then the government was at liberty to degazette them since they were created without the consultation and consent of the local people.
While Bogirango Maate is locked in a bitter controversy with Bonchari over where the headquarters should be, Nyaribari Masaba, Kitutu Masaba and Bogirango Rogoro are fighting over the name and actual central location of their district.
In Bonchari local leaders have vowed to push for Suneka town to be gazetted as the headquarters of the new district to be named South Kisii. their take is Suneka which is on the major international trank road and has all the necessary facilities to have the new district headquarters as compared to Nyamarambe village which the Bogirango people are fronting.
Last week, leaders in Bonchari convened in Suneka town where they told Kisii District Commissioner Mr. Adullahi Leloon that they will not move to Nyamarambe which they claimed was interior and remote. They told the DC that Nyamarambe was too far away from any part of Bonchari and that if the government’s policy of creating new districts was to bring services closer to the local residents, then forcing Abanchari to treck all the way to Nyamarambe was punitive and negated on the very fundamental basis of creation of administrative centres.
A group committee was formed to deliver the message to the Bogirango people that Abanchari were not ready to abandon their resolve to either remain in Kisii as they are or have Suneka town elavated into the headquarters of the new district. The committee whose chairman is Kisii branch KNUT chairman, Geoffrey Mogire was mandated to meet with representatives of Bogirango Maate to agree or disagree over the resolution arrived at by the leaders from Bonchari.
Another angle that has been introduced into the new district saga by Bonchari leaders is the growing fears that certain political forces are conspiring to phase out Bonchari as a constituency and have its boundaries amalgamated with Nyaribari Chache taking the large electoral areas of Kisii Municipality under the political jurisdiction of Bonchari at the moment.
These startling revelations that were made by one time Cabinet Minister Protus Kebati Momanyi has generated considerable heat on the area MP, Zebedeo Opore who is being accused of playing second fiddle politics to some external enemies of Bonchari.
Dr. Momanyi’s revelations have also put Opore on the spot as to his independence to defend the interests of Bonchari. Political pundits argue that Bonchari has been a target of amalgamation to Nyaribari claiming that in 1986, influential individuals from Nyaribari had proposed to the then Electoral Commission chairman the late Jamaes Nyamweya to extend the borders of Nyaribari to Bokeire, the heartland of Bonchari. This move according to Bonchari leaders was to have the only airstrip in Kisii under Nyaribari.
This move was vehemently opposed by the then powerful Minister Dr. Zachary Onyonka teaming up with the former MP for Bonchari Mark Bosire.
Controversy over creation of new districts in Kisii has not been new. In 1988, President Moi created Nyamira District from Kisii. However, soon after the President made the announcement of the creation of the new district, controversy emerged between two Cabinet Ministers at the time, the late Dr. Zachary Onyonka and Professor Sam Ongeri. The two Ministers openly disagreed over which constituencies should go to Nyamira.
While Dr. Onyonka put a strong case for consideration claiming that Kitutu Chache was predominantly home to Kisii town and therefore forcing its residents to Nyamira was tantamount to subjugating the large electorate around Kisii Municipality electoral areas of Kitutu Chache. Ongeri on the other hand claimed his constituents would be much more comfortable in Kisii District than Nyamira whose infrastructure from Nyaribari Masaba is very poor.
The controversy that caught the attention of State House forced President Moi to order for the two constituencies left in Kisii and had Kitutu Masaba.
In 1996, President Moi once again created a new district out of Kisii. The district was to include Bogirango Maate, Bomachoge and Bobasi constituencies. Aware of the thorny issue that is the Kisii clans, Moi carefully set the ball into the court of Kisii leaders and told them to agree on the name and location of the new district.
Once again bitter controversy dogged the new district leading to more than 30 elected councillors from Bomachoge, Bobasi and Bogirango Maate resigning in protest when then Nyanza PC, Joseph Kaguthi inaugurated Kenyenya as the headquarters of the new district with Irianyi as the name.
The civic leaders and all MPs from the region had agreed that Gucha be the name and Ogembo the headquarters of the new district. They chose Gucha because of the significance of River Gucha that passes through the three constituencies. However, an accusing finger was directed at Simeon Nyachae, the influential Nyaribari Chache MP whom locals viewed as pushing the district to Kenyenya to appease his relatives who live in the interior of Bomachoge.
The impact of the councillors resignation forced President Moi to order for immediate suspension of the new district “until sanity prevailed” as he put it then. A committee headed by former Cabinet Minister Andrew Omanga had been formed and received views from the public in the affected area.
Omanga teaming up with George Anyona were told by the electorates in the areas affected that they favoured Ogembo as the headquarters of the new district and Gucha its name.
They also accused external political interference as the cause of confusion over the name and location of the new district. President Moi convened a public gathering at Sameta where Nyachae then Minister for Land Reclamation, Regional and Water Development was heckled and booed by an enraged public who viewed him as the stumbling block over the resolutions arrived at by the Omanga-Anyona Committee.
In the case of the new districts, North Mugirango is being joined with Nyaribari Masaba and Kitutu Masaba to create Masaba District. Bonchari will merge with Bogirango Maate while Kisii remains with Kitutu Chache and Nyaribari Chache.
In the Masaba region controversy centres on two administrative divisions and a commercial centre. Nyaribari Masaba favours Keroka town as the most suitable headquarters while North Bogirango front for Kijauri, the divisional headquarters of Borabu. Kitutu Masaba have stood firm for Manga divisional headquarters to be elavated to be the headquarters of the new district.
Kitutu Masaba leaders feel Manga one of the oldest towns in Gusii should be considered for its being the oldest town in Gusii. But the Keroka proponents see it differently. They say the town is at a vantage position with all the necessary infrastracture for a new district. But those from North Bogirango say Kijauri has equally what it takes to accommodate the headquarters of a district. In Bogirango Maate and Bonchari, the two sides say they never asked for the new district and that the government was playing politics in the creation of the district specifically to divide the local people for political gain.
In this regard, each of the two constituencies claim legitimacy to have one of its divisions elevated to the district status insisting that they have all the necessary facilities to accommodate the headquarters of a district. Each say that the government ought to have consulted with the local people to know their priority concerns before administratively dismembering them.
“We have had no problem with the services we get from Kisii town. We never sent anybody to ask for us a new district. But since it has come and we nothing to lose, we want our people to get the services conveniently as is government policy. Going to Nyamarambe or Tabaka is out of question and should be forgotten,” declared former Councillor in Suneka town council, Thomas Gwaro.
Former Gusii County Council chairman, David Nyakoi sees political mischief in the new district creation. He says from any point of Bonchari Constituency to Kisii town, it takes residents a maximum of Sh 60 to receive services and back to their homes. “But asking our people to move to Nyamarambe where they will pay over Sh 300 for the services that they get at Sh 60 is not only punitive but also unrealistic.”
Local Members of Parliament have become the worst casualties of the raging controversy. In Bonchari, Opore is under tremendous pressure from the electorate who feel that he is being coy to side with their demands for fear of annoying a political godfather. The MP who was in the hurriedly convened delegation to State House, Nairobi where the creation of new districts was mooted has been at pains to explain to his electorate why he thought removing them from Bonchari to Bogirango Maate was the best gift he was to give them.
But even in other constituencies where the MPs had accompanied Ford People leader, Simeon Nyachae to solicit for the new districts are under siege to convince their electorates why they should move from the present administrative arrangements to new ones. There a growing feeling in Kisii that the idea of creating new districts was a one man affair hence the endless controversy.
