KISUMU
  18/12/06

THE BATTLE FOR RARIEDA CONSTITUENCY

  By Leo Odera Omolo
 
  Rarieda Constituency is one of the rural constituencies in Luo - Nyanza where
fireworks and explosive election campaign is expected, come next year's general election.
 
  This is not likely to be so because the incumbent, Raphael Tuju, Kenya's
Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, has not done a good job.  It is due to the fact that all the front runners are men of substantial means.
 
  On the ground Tuju has done a remarkable job in terms of fostering development activities, which has turned the hitherto sleeping rural area into a bastion of massive development activities and achievement within the shortest period of time. This could as well  be rightly attributed to the Minister's closeness to the corridor of power unlike his other Luo MPs who bolted out of the NARC government following the outcome of the November 2005 voting for the Referendum on the rejected Wako Draft Constitution.
 
  But on the political front Tuju is currently one of the most hated Luo politician in the region, not only by his constituents, but by the entire community because of his independent mindedness. The minister has flatly and categorically refused to pursue the policy of hero worshipping and sycophancy, which is so common in Luo Nyanza.
 
  This entails any Luo politician to speak in praise of Raila Odinga whenever he
or she opens his / her mouth in a public gathering. The hero worshipping ritual
has down graded to a level where even some of those highly acclaimed Luo
intellectuals have since joined the bandwagon of hero worshiper for political
expediency (not necessarily genuine) but merely in search of Agwambo's favour.
 
  The front runners in Rarieda include the Nairobi lawyer Otiende Amolo, the
Nairobi and Mombasa hotelier Moses Owiti (Malo Malo) and Eng. Nicholas Gumbo.  Gumbo is a well known Raila Odinga sycophant who at one time had self - styled himself as the acting MP for Rarieda during the time when Tuju and Raila were involved in sharp exchanges of words.
 
  Raila had contributed towards Tuju's election victory in 2002 during which
time the man who had won the LDP preliminary legitimately was Moses Owiti, but the latter was shot-changed and rigged out. Sources, however, have confided to us that Owiti and Raila have since mended their fences.
 
  In a brief address to all aspirants and the sitting Luo MP who met him during
a terse and tension parked meeting at the Methodist Guest House, Nairobi, Raila Odinga vowed to keep off parliamentary nominations and promised a free and fair race saying he would never impose any candidate on the electorate. Many watchers of Luo politics says is easier said than done. But the observers of Luo Nyanza politics were quick in saying that this time around ''Agwambo'' looked like a mature statesman and would stick to his word.
 
  Tuju, however, has parted the company with Agwambo in matters of principles, and the latter cannot be expected to play a neutral role in such a crucially important constituency which was formerly represented by his father the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga for many years.
 
  The rivalry and hostility between Tuju and Raila has however, created some
kind of artificial leadership vacuum in Rarieda. This is not an imaginary phenomenon because it has caused the Minister to ditch the LDP / ODMK and join the rival Narc Kenya camp claiming that there is no democratic space in the Raila dominated LDP / ODM - K unless one is ready to dance to the tone of ''Agwambo''.
 
  The existing artificial leadership vacuum in Rarieda could impact negatively
on Tuju's bid to defend his seat come the next poll.
 
  Rarieda constituency with registerd 48,000 plus was created after being hived
out of the old and larger Bondo constituency in the middle of the 1980s. It's
first MP was Mr. Bob Jalang'o who was elected during the now infamous (Mlolongo) queuing system of 1988. But he was bundled out of parliament during the 1992 first multiparty elections when the country parted from its old monolithic one party system and reverted to a multiparty system of politics.
 
  A veteran Luo nationalist Ramogi Achieng' Oneko was elected the second MP for the area 1992. Oneko for many years was a confidant of the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. He won Rarieda seat on Ford Kenya ticket then headed by the late Oginga Odinga. Jaramogi, the old man of Kenya politics and the hero of the independence struggle and the second liberation of Kenya died in January 1994. His son Raila was later to engage in a protracted battle with the late Michael Kijana Wamalwa over the Ford - Kenya leadership. Wamalwa was Jaramogi's deputy.
 
  Attempts by Raila to grab the party leadership failed, and Agwambo later moved to the now defunct NDP.  Oneko was one amongst the few Luo MPs who stayed behind with Wamalwa Kijana in Ford-Kenya, insisting that he was not ready to ditch Jaramogi's party soon after his death. Others were J.D. Akumu (Nyakach ), Otieno Karan (Nyando), John Linus Aluoch (Rongo), Aloo Ogeka (Muhoroni), Ooki Ombaka (Gem), and James Aggrey Orengo (Ugenya). But in the euphoria of the LDP in 1997 all were shown the exit door and never regained their parliamentary seats ever since.
 
  In the 1997 the bulky and recless Odeny Ngure was elected the new LDP MP for the area replacing Oneko. Ngure performed dismally and his lackluster
performance led to him being dethroned by Tuju in 2002.    

  The other leading contender is the wealthy Eng. Nicholas Gumbo, who is being faulted for having arrogantly self-styled himself as the acting MP for Rarieda. He is also being faulted for pursuing politics of violence culture. This man never uttered any word without invoking Raila Odinga's name as his mentor. 
 
  He is being accused of depending heavily on political goons to intimidate his
opponents. That is what happened during the LDP grassroots elections in Rarieda in May this year when panga wielding youths chased women voters away from various voting centres.
 
  Otiende Amolo could surprise the rest of the aspirants due to the fact that he
hails from one of the largest sub clans in Uyoma. This is the Joka Atweng'a sub
clans, but Amolo too is being stabbed at the back by a Nairobi hotelier Mr.
Osewe Omwanda who also hails from the same Katweng'a sub-clan.  Otiende Amolo is also said to have done allot of ground works   through harambee self- help fund raising for the needy projects. But he too could be threatened by candidature of Dr. Jorry Odede, the Eldoret based eye specialist who is the son of the late Mzee Walter Fanuel Odede.
 
  Dr. odede who is the brother of Ambassador Mrs. Pamela Mboya, like Raila
Odinga, who was born in a political family. His father, the late Odede took over the KAU leadership as its acting president following the mass arrests of its
leaders during the October 1952 declaration of the state of emergency in Kenya by the former Colonial Governor Sir. Evelyn Baring. This was followed by arrests of former KAU luminaries including the late Jomo Kenyatta and six others who were later prosecuted before a makeshift court at the remote town of Kapenguria in the northern Kenya remotest Turkana district and were later jailed for being managers of Mau Mau uprising. Odede was later to be taken into custody and detention camps in northern Kenya for close to ten years and only released soon before independence in 1963.
 
  The real elections battle however, is expected to centre between Otiende
Amollo, Moses Owiti and Eng. Nicholas Gumbo.
 
  But Tuju cannot be dismissed for simple reasons. The most level minded
constituents believes he had done much to them in a brief space of time and
needed to be returned to parliament to accomplish his mission and finish all his
projects.
 
  The Nairobi meeting, according to insiders was also a fund raising exercises,
which was allegedly initiated by the Chairman of the moribund Luo Council of
Elders "Ker" Meshack Riaga Ogallo. Only wealthy and monied aspirants were
invited to attend so that they could chip in something to Raila's campaign kitty.
 
  Ogalo is alleged to be meddling in the affairs of the prospective aspirants in
various constituencies, and it is being alleged that he is fond of making an
overture to those whose pockets are heavily loaded with millions of shillings
for possible cut for himself on the wrong assumption that he is the only person
close to Raila's ears and would recommend candidates for nomination. The role of the Luo Council of Elders, has however remained unclear in these issues.
 

 
  ENDS.
  leooderaomolo@yahoo.com
 
The writer is LUOCOME REPORTER based in Kisumu. We urge all LUOCOME members with pressing issues pertaining to media and press releases to kindly contact him from any where in world. He will assist you to get true picture of your Village Developement.
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