TIME TO PUT UP OR SHUT UP: NYANZA POLITICIANS AND VOTERS:

As this article is being written, it is very difficult to distinguish candidates that lost fairly from the sore losers in Nov. 16^th ’s ODM primary elections in Nyanza. For those readers who have read my opinions on this website, I have argued that political parties in Kenya are not parties at all, but simply "slogans". Was it wise for Nyanza politicians and their supporters to put all their eggs in the ODM basket or plan on riding the coattails of Mr. Odinga in this election? Nyanza, politicians may now learn from the central province other regions how to diversify political fortunes throughout the country. If you don't have the time or interest to look into PNU elections practices, I recommend you see a movie titled/White Men Can't Jump/. Pay attention to this line: "sometimes when you win, you lose and sometimes when lose, you win. Yes, you have the money to rent this two-hour movie. Just use a part of you severance pay to rent this movie. Believe me, it is a good investment for your political future.

In ODM and PNU districts: winners were losers and losers were winners. See contests between Mp Nderitu and Mr. Ephraim Maina, or Dr. Chris Murungaru and Mr. Chris Nemesyus, both PNU political families. In Nyanza see the disputed contests between Gwazi, Alego Usonga, Nyakach, Rangwe and many others (see The Standard News and Daily Newspaper reports).

For the poor Nyanza incumbents and their challengers it was ODM party and nothing else... as means to get to the parliament. It has been said that in poker you don't want to show your hand.

In this case, Nyanza MPs now winning these losing elections were too hasty to declare support for ODM. What went wrong after Nov. 16th with ODM party was that they had hoped to ride this wave of support to the parliament. But we saw that when Mr. Oginga failed to come to Nyanza to rally support for them, they could not make it on their own. The primary election exposed the weakness of these politicians: without Mr. Oginga around, these politicians could not even win the position of dog or monkey catcher in their districts.

It is time for Nyanza MPs and voters to put up or shut up. If these two groups truly support ODM and his party flag bearer, they should not hop from party to party anymore. Problems for election irregularities are not only found in ODM DNA party or only in the Nyanza province, but also in developed countries (see Bush v. Gore, US election 2000). Nyanza voters deserve principled politicians who stand for something. Why should these politicians now ask voters to follow them to these newfound parties after losing? What slogans will these politicians and their supporters use? ODM is bad and the Banana, DP, Kaddu Agano, parties are good, so vote for me? For Nyanza politicians and voters, please, let it go. In multi-party politics, there are always losers and winners. Losers often live to win in the future elections. Losing MPs and challengers should let their supporters go back to work at the farms, market sand fishing boats. The 24/7 politics needs to take a break. Nyanza voters need to take time out to tend to personal and business affairs that will make difference in their lives regardless of the out come of these elections.

If Nyanza’s primary election winners, losers and voters are true leaders of their communities they should support one another and the ODM party they have been backing prior to the election. It is a shame to hear some incumbent candidates blaming their losses on bad roads that could not transport ballot papers/boxes to polling stations on time. I thought these incumbents were elected in previous elections to fix these roads? If the bad roads in Nyanza are a conspiracy by ODM NOT to elect incumbent MP candidates, then those conspiracy theorists must believe Nyanza voters to be the dumbest people in the entire world. The candidates who lost this election because of the impassible roads in their regions or district should blame themselves instead of the ODM party. When did these candidates discover that these roads were impassible to or from their districts? Did they use these roads back to these districts for visits during their previous five-year term? Why didn't they use a part of their severance pay of Ksh. 1.5 million to help the ODM party ferry in the ballot papers into their district on time?

I know multi-party politics is something new in Kenya and it will take a while in Nyanza and other parts of the country to get use to it. The past40+ years of elections in this country were too easy because of the unitary party systems. All the office candidates belonged to KANU. The voters had to vote for individual personalities. Under the multi-party system, the voters now must deal with supporting individual candidates and the party at the same time, which has forced "political prostitution" to be the rule, not exception. The challenge to Nyanza politicians and voters is deciding how to support ODM Presidential candidates and at the same time vote for losing candidates who have suddenly moved away from ODM? Specifically, how does voting for non-ODM party candidates affect Presidential candidates in the Nyanza region? Nyanza politicians and the voters before Dec. 27th general election must answer these questions. Nyanza politicians and voters must consider the consequences and impact that ODM, PNU AND ODM-Kenya winning general election will have on both economic and political welfare of this region.

It should not be the responsibility of the voters to follow these politicians to new parties any time they lose an election. Again, election irregularities are not something new to ODM or Kenya politics. Those who follow team sports would not like to follow individual players they cheer for from team to team! How long can Nyanza politicians innocently "screw up” these elections for the people they lead? How long can these voters follow these politicians to their "political deathbed" in this country?

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Dan Orao
CEO
Great Lakes Card Service
& Financial Management
(P) 616-456-5701
(F) 616-456-5704