Why some Kalenjin politicians are now fleeing UDA. Shocking | Kenya news

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

An Election Like No Other

By Derek

Just after many of you will have read this post, Kenyans in their millions will troop to the ballot box for the most-eagerly awaited election in living memory. It will be an election like no other, an election that will be won, not by propaganda or illusions, but by amassing as many tribes as possible.

I have argued once and again on this blog that the best way to look at the 2007 General Elections will be the tribal linkages that will be won at the time the voters troop out to the ballot box.

Said bravely, there are many things that will be used by the Kenyan electorate to decide who wins the presidency and who will not. However, in the past one year, opinion polls have emerged to convince the electorate that certain leaders are up for it while others are not.

While ignoring a fact that it is a tribal vote, ODM supporters have over time dismissed the polls, embraced them, criticised others and at the time rubbished those that portrayed their leader Raila Odinga as losing or close to President Kibaki.

I do not fault the pollsters, but in the last one week, it has emerged that the pollsters, have been serving certain needs. Uhuru Kenyatta tore into the pollsters a day after Gallup International made their own findings. In fact, Gallup poll gave the best picture available at the particular moment – which the polls will be too close to call. The rest will be decided on the day of the election.

Now, to the election and the run-up that has witnessed some of the best electioneering Kenya has seen!

In the run-up to the ODM nominations, trouble that had been simmering over time, allegedly influenced by mistrust among the members who won the Referendum for them in 2005, came to the fore when the London ‘bonding’ trip aborted. To ODM, that was the start of their blurred vision to taking over the reins of the country from the incumbent. They went separate ways, and comically, Uhuru Kenyatta offered to support President Kibaki.

The withdrawal of Kanu president from the ODM fold simply made easy things hard and left William Ruto and Henry Kosgey as the only vocal men from the Kalenjin, (I insist on that) region of the Rift Valley. But within ODM itself, there was trouble and confusion in the way they held ‘endorsement’ campaigns around the country. It was comical and an abuse to common sense that five people vying for the same seat step onto the same podium and only proclaim that they are standing and tactfully organised to have Raila Odinga speak last.

When Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka offered a voice of dissent, what followed him was a ‘sacking’ allegedly by Raila Odinga who was determined to stop anybody critical to his ascension to power. Well, he was not even the party leader at that time. What followed was a threat by janitorial staff at the office of one of the top officials before Imanyara came to the rescue.

Raila, brave, strong with a near fanatical cult following from his Luo tribe is by no means a cheap stock to sell but many things have to be countered about his candidature.

He has on his side, people accused of grand corruption in the country, including the chairman Henry Kosgei. Kosgei and William Ruto talk about corruption, and the only reason they are free people, like Cyrus Jirongo, and Kamlesh Pattni, all gunning for elected posts, is at the mercy of former president Daniel Moi and Mwai Kibaki thereafter. It is a protection that that should value for years to come. Even Raila Odinga himself is not clean with the dodgy acquisition of the Kisumu Molasses plant.

If I am wrong in any way, someone please correct this. Raila Odinga could have used the Troon Report/Ouko Murder and even his words during the ODM break-up that Ruto is not clean, but he never said anything about corruption. Did he ever say anything about Robert Ouko? No. He was surrounded by the same people who were ‘allegedly’ linked to the disappearance and the death. Did he ever say anything about Nicholas Biwott and his ‘alleged’ involvement? No. Not even Moi’s government involvement.

Was Noah Arap Too near him? Yes. Franklin Bett was also in his camp and funny enough Sally Kosgey who was serving the government when it all happened was with his all the time. Then there is Charity Ngilu. Does it mean that she served the government all the five years only to realise at the last minute that she was serving the wrong government? No! It is all a joke.

And finally, the tribal groupings. Kibaki has to his side, Simeon Nyachae leading the Kisii front, Nicholas Biwott, Daniel Moi and his sons leading the Kalenjin front (and you would have heard the noise that comes from Raila and Ruto over that), and Kombo leading the Ford Kenya (a fact that has forced Kirwa to defect there) and obviously, the North Eastern front that is led by a few ministers serving in the current government.

As said before this is all about tribes and their friends! The Luo, Luhya and Ruto and Kosgei (western/Rift valley) vs. Kibaki, Nyachae, Mwaklwere and Kiraitu on the other end.

The choice is yours.

5 comments:

  1. Well said Derek.

    But I have a suggesstion; Let's talk about the Kibaki succession in 2012. Will it be Kalonzo, Kituyi, Saitoti or Uhuru? I am asking that because Kibaki will win and everyone including Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka know it. Some people will reject the results and that is as predictable as the sun setting in the west. According to them, there is no Kenya without them and they will be wondering how Kenyans could have rejected them. They will get their EVER READY supporters to the streets, a few of them will lose their lives like in all other elections, a lot of them will find themselves in jail and wait a minute; When Raphael Tuju talked about Raila Odinga conducting human sacrifices, what did he mean? Maybe that is the form they take. Lunatics shedding blood and even losing their lives for nothing, absolutely nothing.But lets wait and see.

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  2. In another post that is yet to appear, I wonder how international news orgnaisation are portraying the elections as Raila leading the rest of the tribes against the Kikuyu. The Kikuyu around Kibaki have had it all nice, so they say.

    Kibaki has been in power for 5 years. Prior to that Moi was in power for 24 years. The same men and women who killed the economy are in the Raila camp. The same men who were supposed to protect and secure Robert Ouko, Kipsang Muge and other mysterious deaths of the Moi era are with Raila. Now, it has all changed to Kikuyus. Did they not suffer under Moi? Yes. Big Time. Molo, Coffee industry, Dairy Industry and even appointments.

    I hate to say this that any time Raila Odinga falls out with a peer politician, he drags his Luo tribe into it. When he had a probelm with James Orengo, he played victim and caused alot of problems for Orengo after the former beat him in Ford-Kenya elections. Later, he was to have another tiff with Wamalwa Kijana, later Daniel Moi, and now Mwai kibaki, Kalonzo Musyoka and many others.

    He once wondered what a woman christened Charity Kaluki Ngilu was doing with five men in a hotel. Now he is not wondering what she does singing for another man.

    But then, during that time, the Luo community have been turned against Ochuodho, Nyongo, Akinyi Oile, Dalmas Otieno, Phelgona Okundi (with unprintable words) and the cycle goes. Vikii, that is why Gor Sungu lost and never put up a fight. It could have been worse than he thought.

    Now, Vikii and any other reader of this post, what do you make of the election violence. Apart from Kerusoi, any other place that has witnessed violence and death are in the Nyanza stronghold and Raila base in Nairobi.

    All this is instigated and fueled by Raila's own comments and a simple fact that the newspapers give him the chance to do so. Who wants to rig elections. Why send people there if they can use the government's might to do it from Nairobi. Innocent blood and worse of all, a police officer. What a shame! Crying wolf.

    Vikii, as we look forward to 2012, still put a re-organised Kanu in the frame, with Uhuru Kenyatta at the top. Definitely, Uhuru Kenyatta and Paul Muite are going for the Kikuyu mantle and a total confusion awaits Western Kenya. If Musalia is not elected MP and thereafter vice-president, it will be typical market day in Lubao (soko ya mbwa).

    I strongly believe that Kombo will not be as strong as he is when the national mosaic is shuffled and I also believe that Gideon Moi will not be as powerful as he is now.

    Lets think of Mukhisa Kituyi, Kalonzo Musyoka depending on the show he will put up in this elections, Danson Mungatana, Abdi Kuti, George Thuo and Peter Kenneth. Always when thinking about all that, think of Uhuru Kenyttta, Paul Muite and George Saitoti.

    -Derek-

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  3. just a point of clarification. It was a Gallup poll not a Gallup International poll. Gallup is unrelated to that rag-tag network of pollsters.

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  4. The day Kenyan people will wake up one morning and think they are Kenyans, will be the day they will start thinking what neo-colonialsm is doing in Kenya at the moment.
    As my friend from the Caribbean told me, black people suffers from the effects of slavery, colonialism and its the high time "21st century" that we address this issue and stop thinking Jaluo, Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Kamba, Kisii the list goes on to Ibo`s and Zulus etc.
    Election only took a day, and the stupidness of uneducated in Kenya sorry to say and Intelectuals abroad have been compromised by two people, Kibaki and Raila "millionaires". They are now spilling poor people’s blood for their own selfishness, greed and power hunger. What do you think they want to accomplish? Protect their ill gotten wealth some of which have been stashed in foreign banks (safe deposits) while poor Kibera voters slaughter one another and others in Eldoret and Nyanza burn their loved neighbours houses, because they are from different tribes. And as we speak, Kibaki and Raila are tossing champagne and shouting loud "cheers". Probably with UK, US and Canadian Ambassadors. They all go to bed together. These guys are crooks, I quote John Kerry when Bush was declared the USA President the second time. After rigging Florida votes where his brother was Governor.

    KENYANS, I PLEAD WITH YOU. LET US WORK, STUDY AND GO BACK TO KENYA AND DEVELOP OUR NATION. KIBAKI IS 76 YRS come on, RAILA 62 YEARS hihi getting there, PLEASE GIVE ME A BREAK. These people have never experienced poverty and the people dying are hardly 30 years old. ARE WE BUILDING OR DESTROYING OUR FUTURE?
    These guys are senile, and the reason i`m saying that is because of the lifestyle they have. Ordinary Kenyans should come together as brothers and sisters and oust these guys out of office and out of our way and take charge of our country.

    They have so much money; they can live wherever they want in this world without working until they die.

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