PLANS BY KIPSIGIS LEADERS TO CHART FOR THE WAY FORWARD COULD HURT ODM-K THE HARDEST

By Kipsiele Arap Sugurut
Luocome, Kericho

The much touted euphoria and popularity of the ODM-K in Western Kenya now risks being put to a serious jeopardy and the new party's popularity could evaporate and fizzle out ahead of the forthcoming general elections scheduled for later this year if the plans to pull out by members of the Kipsigis community is implemented.

Discontent is high among other communities whose leaders recently hastily joined the ODM - K bandwagon, hoping to capitalize on its euphoria and perhaps use it as a popular vehicle for easy entry into parliamentary politics.

Already there are signals of despair and discontent among the leaders of the populous Kipsigis community, a sub-tribe of the larger Kalenjin ethnic groups. This particular community has always been playing the role of a second fiddle in the previous successive KANU regimes while their cousins from the North Rift were in the forefront. The community now wants its own leaders to be in the forefront in either the ODM-K or in Narc-K.

How to achieve this up-hill task is the most burning issue. And the community leaders, according to a source in Kericho, have been brainstorming over the issue in the recent past. Members of the community are pressing their leaders to ponder about their tribe's future role in the next government.

It's leaders are worried about their exclusion in the line up in both ODM-K and the Narc-K. In the arrangement in both parties, the Kipsigis have been sidelined and overshadowed by their cousins from the North Rift, namely the Nandis, Keiyos and the Tugen.

Henry Kosgei, the KANU MP for Tinderet is the interim national chairman of the ODM-K and the Eldoret North KANU MP William Ruto is the KANU Secretary General. Ruto is busy campaigning for an ODM-K presidential nomination. Both are Nandis.

In the Narc-K, the Minister for Agriculture Kipruto Arap Kirwa, another Nandi tribesman is playing a pivotal role in the Narc-K. The Kipsigis community leaders are blaming Kirwa for having ignored their community. In most appointments in the parastatals that fall under the Ministry of Agriculture, Kirwa has always given preference to his fellow Nandis for appointment. In the public service as well as in the police and other armed forces the Kipsigis people have been sacked en mass by the Narc government. And even those who were holding key positions in important parastatals like Kenya Telecoms, Kenya Postal Services and other key quasi-government organizations have been shown the exit doors.

And yet during the year 2002 general election, the Kipsigis community voted for President Mwai Kibaki as a bloc. In all the eight constituencies, President Kibaki had received the highest votes, more than what his opponent Uhuru Kenyatta had garnered.

Kipruto Arap Kirwa is a Nandi who hails from Trans-Nzoia, also in the North Rift. According to a prominent Kipsigis Politician, Mr. William Kipkemoi Arap Kettienya (Chemosit), the community had regretted that both Kenyatta and Moi KANU regimes had used Kipsigis leaders and dumped them. They made it a point that the community was always leaderless with nobody to rally behind as its overall and unifying leader. This trend must now change, says Mr. Kettienya.

Kettienya, a former Deputy Superintendent with the James Finlays Tea Company based in both Kericho and Bureti district took an active part in the 2002 campaign for Narc. He was the party's regional organizer in the Kipsigis region. But after the elections, he says the Kipsigis were once again forgotten, sidelined and abandoned.

Symptoms of the discontent by this community was recently displayed during the extensive tour made in the region by the ODM-K de facto leader Raila Amolo Odinga. Despite having been enthusiastically welcomed by huge crowds everywhere he went, the top brass of Kipsigis political personalities, elite, professionals and the incumbent MPs stayed away from "Agwambo's" public rallies. They did so despite the fact that KANU and the LDP are the leading partners in the new political dispensation and realignment under the auspices of the ODM-K.

At the material times, as Raila Odinga was transversing the entire length and width of the Kipsigis territory, rumours making the round had it that the Kipsigis MPs and the community leaders were meeting in a secret hideout behind closed doors in both Kericho and Nairobi.

Raila Odinga toured Bomet, Bureti and Kericho districts to drum up support for his ODM-K ticket for presidential nominations. But it was all strange that not even one single MP turned up at his highly publicized meetings. Two nominated MPs were the only ones visible at the "Agwambo's" meetings. They were Kipkalia Kones (Ford People) and Franklin Bett (LDP).

KANU Kipsigis region has eight (8) elected MPs. These are John Kipsang Koech (Chepalungu), Nick Salat (KANU - Bomet), Antony Kimeto (KANU - Sotik), Paul K.M. Sang (KANU-Buret), Sammy Koech (KANU - Konoin), Charles Keter (KANU-Belgut), Noah Arap Too (KANU- Ainamoi) and Dr. Sammy Ruto (KANU - Kipkellion).

The lack of an overall, but dynamic political leadership and the seemingly endless internal political wrangling within KANU is said to have torn up this particular community. The eight elected MPs are themselves divided into splitter groups or camps. Nick Salat (Bomet) and Paul K. Sang (Buret) are firm in the Moi - Biwott KANU camp, while the colourless Antony Kimeto (Sotik) is wavering into both camps. John K. Koech who is the Minister for East African Affairs is firmly in Narc - Kenya. He joined president Mwai Kibaki's Narc cabinet under the government of national unity, but took an active part in the campaign for the Banana group during the Referendum voting for the rejected Wako Draft Constitution in November 2005.

The other four Noah Arap too (Ainamoi), Charles Keter (Belgut), Sammy Koech (Konoin) and Dr. Sammy Ruto (Kipkellion) are said to be in the camp of William Ruto, the Eldoret North KANU MP who is one of the ODM-K presidential hopefuls. Koech won the year 2002 general election in Chapalungu after beating Isaack Ruto during the KANU preliminaries. But soon after clinching the seat he changed sides. He is known to be a temperamental politician with no love lost for Moi - Biwott axis.

But at home, he is being treated with a lot of contempt as a political sell out and being dismissed as an opportunist. His chances of winning back his Chepalungu seat is said to be rather deemed.

The two nominated MPs Kipkalia Kones (Ford People) and Franklin Bett who accompanied Raila Odinga during his tour of the Kipsigis region lack the political clout and can no longer marshall the community support for any party or any individual's presidential ambition. It is no longer secret that the new generation of Kipsigis politicians are now plotting to get the community out of this political quagmire and dilemma, which has made its previous leaders to be used and dumped for the interests and mutual benefits of their cousins from the North Rift.

Kipsigis has produced the largest number of academicians, professionals and even among the top brass members of the public service. Members of the community are relatively much wealthier than their cousins from the North because they inhabited fertile highland, which produces a lot of good tealeaves and other cash crops.

The Kipsigis, according to sources are now shopping for one single, but unifying figure. And four names are being floated around. They included the name of the former powerful PS in the office of the President Zakato K. Cheruiyot, the Executive Director of KEMRI Dr. Davy Koech, the retired former Vice Chairman and the Combined Armed Forces and at one time Deputy CGS Lt. Gen. John Koech and the former Nairobi PPC. Francis Sigei.

Lt. Gen Koech is an aspiring candidate for the Ainamoi parliamentary seat, while former P.C Sigei is also an aspiring parliamentary candidate for the Sotik seat. Zakayo Cheruiyot is said to be weighing his options either to contest the Buret seat or aspire for the Kuresoi seat in the newly created Molo District where he has established an ultra modern dairy farm.

Dr. Davy Koech is said to be a non-committed professional. If this populous community pulls out of the ODM-K, that would be a big blow. There are signals, however that this proud community, wants to be heard at the national politics. The community opinion leaders are also said not to be comfortable with the ODM-K present set up.