Succession battle at Siaya Knut branch

Joseph Onyango

Succession battle for the seat of Executive Secretary Siaya Branch currently held by William Ohonde who is set to retire in April 2008 has generated a lot of fireworks with prospective candidates accusing Ohonde of using dirty tricks against them.

Several names are being mentioned as his potential successor but investigations reveal that the Vice-Chairman Mr. Alex Dunga is most preferred candidate for the position to the chagrin of Ohonde, who has been grooming the deputy Executive Secretary Mrs. Winnie Oyugi.

Although Dunga has not come out to declare his candidature, pressure has been pilling up on him from teachers and other KNUT officials to succeed Ohonde. Dunga is said to have been scared of Ohonde’s dirty campaign games of mudslinging and cheap negative publicity against candidates perceived to be opposing his preferred candidate.

Investigations reveal that Ohonde is too over ambitious which has resulted to loss of vital leadership slots reserved for Nyanza teachers. A position of National Trustee of KNUT which had been reserved for Nyanza was snatched by Rift-Valley when Ohonde contested against a fellow Nyanza candidate to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Daniel Owiso.

Last year during KNUT National elections in Mombasa, he contested the seat Secretary general and went ahead to mislead Winnie Oyugi to contest the position of Women representative which she lost miserably and blamed Ohonde with whom she is said to be enjoying very cordial relationship with something that at one time almost broke Winnie’s marriage.

In 2001, he contested against the Bondo Executive Secretary Crispin Adede for the position of Nyanza representative to the NEC and he lost. Last year, he unsuccessfully campaigned for the position of National Secretary general’s position and was beaten hands down by Ng’ang’a. It is imperative to note that apart from Winnie Oyugi and Ohonde, the rest of the Nyanza delegates voted overwhelmingly for Ng’ang’a and thanks to Okuta’s mobilizing skills.

Sources who have been closely monitoring Nyanza KNUT politics divulged that after loosing to Ng’ang’a, courtesy of Okuta’s campaigns, Ohonde vowed to discipline all teachers and KNUT officials perceived to be Okuta’s supporters. He has of late been involved in a witch-hunting mission, transferring teachers believed to be supporters of Okuta to other work stations in order to cut down their influences among the teachers.

During last year’s KNUT elections, Ohonde defied warnings by Siaya teachers not to sponsor Winnie Oyugi to contest the position of Women representative and she lost miserably as even fellow Nyanza teachers did not vote for her apart from Ohonde.

Back to Siaya elections, Ohonde is said to have declared war with any Knut official and teachers perceived to be supporting the Assistant Secretary General David Okuta Osiany. Okuta enjoys the backing of Siaya teachers and KNUT officials something Ohonde does not take kindly. It is against such fears that he does not wish to se any candidate perceived to be supportive of Okuta and Ng’ang’a to succeed him.

Teachers across Ugenya constituency has poured cold water in his candidature for the Ugenya parliamentary seat in this year’s general elections saying he is a political greenhorn who could not win a national seat in KNUT elections and termed it a big joke.

Those supporting Dunga say he is brilliant, hard working and responsible teacher with proven track record who deserves support by all teachers. We have established that although Dunga enjoys the support of an overwhelming majority of Siaya teachers, he has been working under pressure from Ohonde to ensure he does not succeed him. Whether or not he will bow to pressure from the teachers to contest the position of Executive Secretary when Ohonde retires in April 2008, only time will tell and your guess could be as good as mine.