Kisumu, 11/12/2007
 
KENYA HAS THE MOST INTRIGUING POLITICAL HISTORY SINCE INDEPENDENCE

By Leo Odera Omolo

Kenya is going to the poll on December 27th 2007. This is arguably going to be the most fiercely contested general elections ever held in this country since her attainment of political independence from Great Britain in 1963.

It would be the tenth (10th) general election to be held in Kenya since independence. The first such polls was held in 1963.This was the general election that ushered in the independence the same year.

At the independence two major political parties hotly contested the elections. These were Kenya African National Union (KANU) and Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) but as the country was preparing itself for the polls a third party emerged all of a sudden. This was the African Peoples Party (APP).

KANU was then headed by Kenya’s founding father the late President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta who became the Prime Minister in a Responsible Government and the first President of the Republic of Independent Kenya in December 1964 six months thereafter the first general elections.

KADU which lost the elections and was beaten hands down by KANU at the polls was under leadership of the late Ronald Gideon Ngala with the late Masinde Muliro as the deputy party leader while the retired former President Daniel Arap Moi served as the party’s national chairman with Joseph Martin Shikuku as the party’s secretary general.

Jomo Kenyatta had just resumed KANU leadership soon after his release from prison and restriction camp in Maralal in the remotest part of Northern Kenya’s Turkana district . The late Jaramogi Ajuma Oginga Odinga was Kenyatta’s Vice President with the late Tom Mboya as the party’s secretary general.

The late James Samuel Gichuru became the first KANU President at its inception at the Kirigit Stadium, Kiambu town in June 1960.But he voluntarily surrendered the party’s leadership to Kenyatta upon his release in 1961.

The APP was headed by the late Paul Joseph Ngei an erratic Kamba politician who was among the early African nationalists jailed by the British colonial administration and five others with Kenyatta on trumped up charged of managing the Mau Mau uprising, which had led to the declaration of the state of emergency on October 20th 1952.

Other nationalist jailed with Kenyatta were Richard Achieng Oneko ,Kungu Karumba,Fred Kubai, Bildad Kaggia and Dedan Mugo.

KANU won the first general elections with an overwhelming majority of seats in the tri-cameral legislative system, which was negotiated at the final round table constitutional Conference at the Lancaster House, London in 1962. This constitution had majimbo (Regionalism) system with Senate as the Upper House, a National Assembly as the Lower House with Regional Assemblies under regional Presidents in all the then seven provinces.

The APP which was formed by Ngei only a few months to the general elections following disagreements between him and Kenyatta but the party only won seven parliamentary seats in the National Assembly and two in the senate seats one for Machakos and another for Kitui districts.

Elijah Omolo Agar a politician from South Nyanza who had teamed up with Ngei as the only non-Kamba party official quickly made an abrupt a bout turn and rejoined KANU. He contested and won elections as an independent KANU candidate MP in Karachuonyo Constituency.

Jomo Kenyatta first appointed the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga the then KANU Vice President as the first Vice President of the Republic of Kenya and Minister without portfolio after having made him the Minister for Home Affairs and Internal Security briefly between June 1963 and December 1964.

But immediately soon after independence Ngei and his Kamba MPs, and two Senators were the first to dissolve their APP and rejoined KANU. Ngei however, would not secure a cabinet post immediately but Kenyatta appointed him to the then lucrative post of Chairman of the Maize and Produce Board, a government parastatal.

Soon after this Ronald Ngala and his KADU team voluntarily dissolved their party KADU the only credible opposition party inside and outside parliament at the material time. They too rejoined KANU after being out maneuvered and hard bargain led by the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga through intensive but behind the scene negotiations making Kenya to become unofficially a one party state.

KADU’s leading luminaries like Ngala ,Muliro and Moi were soon absorbed in the cabinet and appointed Ministers by Kenyatta who enlarged the cabinet from the original 14 to 18 cabinet slots.

Forty-one more parliamentary seats were created for the Senators after the constitution was amended. The majimbo constitution was given a technical knock out and scrapped the original Lancaster House constitution was virtually raped.

The move was followed by numerous amendments that were rapidly introduced to parliament by the late Tom Mboya who at independence had been appointed the Minister for Justice and constitutional affairs .Mboya a worked closely with Charles Njonjo then the Attorney General working under his docket,

Soon after KADU had dissolved itself sharp ideological differences emerged between Kenyatta and Odinga.

But strangely enough Kenyatta had inadvertently retained one Whiteman in his post-independence Cabinet by the name Bruce Mackenzie who was a South African settler farmer in Subukao area of Nakuru district in the Rift Valley. Bruce Mackenzie was covertly serving the interests of South African Security Intelligence Unit (Boss), the British M5 and Israel’s (Mosard). But this did not immediately come to the light and know/edged of the Kenyatta and his colleagues in the government.

Many Kenyans still believes that Mackenzie infiltration into the young Kenyan Government was the cause and source of the scientific ideological conflicts that pitied Kenyatta, Mboya on one hand and Jaramogi on the other side seriously dividing the government into two different camps within the cabinet.

In early 1965 a nominated MP Poi Gama Pinto was gunned down by unknown assassins who pumped several bullets into his body as he sat in his car waiting for the gate of his home at Parklands to be opened.

Pinto was an Asian of Goan extracts who had served a long period in detention by colonialists due to his connection with African politicians operating under KAU before the state of emergency. He was also active in the trade union movement at the time.

He was close to Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. The Kenyatta government had become uneasy with Pinto’s organizational ability, his foreign connections and adherence to socialistic policy and radicalism.

Perhaps this was the beginning of turning point and the Jaramogi’s predicament and humiliation which eventually led to his frustration and eventual walk out of Kenyatta’s government in huff with close to 33 MPs in 1966 .It was believed the killing was politically motivated and ostenably meant to clip off Jaramogi of his political wings.

The signs of discontent in the Kenyatta regime had emerged following the abolition and an attempt to take over the Lumumba Institute. The Institute was established with the funds, which was provided by the USSR (Soviet government) under Jaramogi’s initiatives. The Institute was established mainly to provide training to the lower cadre of KANU leadership in the grassroots.

But Kenyatta and his handlers had read this the wrong way as part of grand scheme of communists’ infiltration into Kenya’s internal affairs. All the Russians instructors working at the institute were kicked out of the country. Chinese journalist Mr.Wang Te Ming was also deported and shown the exit door at the Embakasi Airport.

Odinga resigned from the government in 1966 and stage managed a constitutional amendment hurriedly was introduced to Parliament by Mboya that required those who had crossed the floor of parliament to the opposition benches go back to the electorate and seek fresh mandate from the voters.

Many MPs who had planned to join Odinga in the opposition party, the now defunct Kenya Peoples Union (KPU) developed cold feet and retracted their move fearing loosing their seats.

Parliament was obviously misused by the introduction of so many amendments to the constitution. The document was eventually watered down to serve the interest of Kenyatta and his hencemen.

Odinga retained his seat in Bondo following the mini general election, which was dabbed as the “Little General Election” He won all the seats in Central Nyanza, his own home turf win with two more seats in Ukambani. But the KPU Secretary General Zephania Mugunde Anyien lost is Majoge-Basi seat in Kisii district, George Fred Oduya also lost his Teso seat and so was Willy Rotich who lost his Baringo North seat .He was originally a Senator for Baringo district but became an MP following the abolition of the Senate a year earlier.

After taming Jaramogi by abolishing the KANU Vice presidency slot, Kenyatta and his handlers turned the heat on Mboya who had played a pivotal role in helping him in shaping up the party and off-loading Jaramogi at the Limuru KANU conference in which 8 vice presidents positions were created for every Province which led to Jaramogi’s resignation from the vice presidency of the Republic.

The first symptom of Mboya’s tribulation came in 1968 when an allegedly drunken policeman posted to his residence at the Convent Drive near Hurlingham in Nairobi to work night as a sentry opened fire with his riffle on Mboya as he was about to drive out in the evening. Mboya deliberately for some reasons played down this particular incident. But it had a lot of significance in his future in the Kenyatta regime.

The policeman after shooting at Mboya mysteriously disappeared from his place of work that of guarding Mboya’s house. He was traced after three days search disarmed and arrested then charged with the offence of willfully causing malicious damage to property that damaged Mboya’s Mercedes Benz Limousine .He was still serving his prison term when Mboya was gunned. On 5th July 1969 CMG Argwengs Kodhek then Foreign Minister died in mysterious circumstances in suspicious road accident in Nairobi Street the same year . .

This particular incident was followed soon with another incident in which a mentally ill patient who was discharged from Mathare Mental Hospital and went home in Siaya after being cured partially. The man a Luo by tribe was later caught by KANU youth wingers while armed with a newly sharpen machete (panga) and was standing only a few metres next Mboya’s table in Siaya . He was arrested and jailed for six months for carrying an offensive weapon in a public place But Mboya later died in a hail of bullets fired by an assassin in a Nairobi street on July 5 1969 while his would be assailant in Siaya was still serving his six months prison term. Ronald Ngala also died in a suspicious road accident.

Massive oath taking followed Mboya’s death and visits to Gatundu Kenyatta’s rural home in Kiambu by track loads of Kikuyus from all over the Country to pledge their loyalty to the President.

Such moves caused suspicion that the government had a hand in the Mboya’s elimination.

Three months later in October 1969 Odinga and his entire KPU MPs were placed under house arrest and eventually found their ways to detention camps in various parts of the country. The action followed the disturbances which occurred in Kisumu town in which police opened fire indiscriminately at a group of Luos protesting against Mboya’s killing. This happened during Kenyatta’s visit to Nyanza. The President had come to Kisumu to perform the official opening ceremony of the ultra modern New Nyanza General Hospital, which was built with funds from Soviet Union.

Odinga had negotiated the funds for this particular project when he headed the Kenya government delegation to the USSR while he was still the vice President. Police opened fire killing close to 20 innocent people under the pretext that Kenyatta’s Presidential motorcade had been stoned by KPU youths.

After Odinga’s resignation the late Joseph Murumbi who was serving as Kenya’s foreign Minister was hurriedly appointed to the Vice Presidency slot. Murumbi too did not stay longer on the job. He resigned citing poor health and then came Daniel Moi.

The second general election was held in late 1969 while Jaramogi and his colleagues were still rotting in detention camps. A new crop of his leaders had emerged in Luo Nyanza. In the new team were the likes of William Odongo Omamo, Isaac Omolo Okero, and D.O Amayo.

Immediately after the 1974 general elections another promising politician J.M Kariuki KANU MP for Nyandarua North was brutally murdered in the Ngong forest in March 1975.His death shocked the nation like a thunderbolt and sparked series of violent protests.

An accusing finger was pointed out at Kenyatta’s close political associates. Kariuki had emerged as the fiercest critics of the Kenyatta’s dictatorial government. A parliamentary select committee of inquiry was appointed by Parliament to investigate the circumstances of J.M’s death.

Working under the chairmanship of the late Elijah Mwangale the committee came out with incriminating report pointing an accusing finger to certain personalities within the government. But Kenyatta adamantly refused to implement its recommendations instead cabinet member Muliro who had rebelled in favour of the committee was fired from the cabinet.

Kenyatta died in August 1978 and Daniel Moi was sworn in as the acting President. Moi was a protégé of Charles Njonjo the Attoney General who hurriedly amended the constitution that paved the way for the smooth transition of power from Kenyatta to Moi.

But Njonjo fell out of Moi’s favour soon after resigning from his ex-officio office and contested the Kabete seat and won. Moi appointed him the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs. The two after while disagreed in 1983 following allegation and claims that Njonjo was involved in covert clandestine activities meant to undermine the President.

These disagreements came in the backdrop of the bloody attempted military coup of January 1982.

Moi had appointed Mwai Kibaki the KANU MP for Othaya his Vice President from 1978 to 1988 general election in which Mwai Kibaki won his Parliamentary seat but this time around he was relegated to a junior ministerial post just Health Portfolio. He later resumed and formed Democratic Party (DP) and contested in 1992 the first multiparty elections.

Mwai Kibaki came third while Ken Matiba was second to Moi of KANU with Jaramogi Oginga Odinga emerging in the fourth position after Kibaki.

In 1990 John Robert Ouko the Kenya’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation was brutally murdered in mysterious circumstances. Ouko’s death remained unresolved because unlike in the Mboya’s case, in which Njega Njorogr was tried, convicted and hanged and the issue to arrest.

Ouko,s killing had severely damaged Moi ‘s administration credibility and painted the government with black colour . A number of top Moi’s lieutenants like the power man Nicholas K Biwott and former Internal security Chief PS Hezekiah Oyugi were briefly arrested and locked in police custody but were later released without being tried before court. Aformer Nakuru DC Mr. Anguka, however, was not lucky. He was arraigned in court, tried and eventually acquitted by the court due to lack of evidence.

Ouko’s killing, which sparked off violent demonstrations by University students, created permanent suspicion and permanent scar between the Luo community and Moi’s administration. Biwott was suspended from the government, but was later reinstated while Oyugi lost his lucrative and powerful PS job

In the 1997 general election the opposition groups had failed to unite and they were for the second time trounced by Moi with Kibaki coming second and Raila Odinga third.

In the year 2002 Moi who had picked the youthful Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta as his successor was not lucky enough this time around. He was beaten hand down at the polls.

Moi made two radical blunders. He had hurriedly kicked out of Parliament a nominated MP Mark Keptorbia Too and nominated Mr. Kenyatta as his replacement. He quickly promoted Kenyatta and made him a cabinet minister for Local Government from where he started grooming him as his successor. But before accomplishing this task He had made arapport with Raila Odinga and his NDP party, which was merged with KANU.

Odinga too was appointed to the cabinet with one other LDP MPs getting cabinet post. He was Dr.Paul Adhu Awit (Karachuonyo) who got the planning slot.

In the merger KANU-LDP cabinet post were several MPs with Presidential ambitions like Vice President Prof George Saitoti, Raila Odinga, and Kalonzo Musyoka. When Moi named Kenyatta as his successor the hell broke loose. Others like William Olentimama, Kalonzo Musyoka, Prof George Saitoti, and others formed a rebel group called Rainbow coalition which later joined Mwai Kibaki and Charity Ngilu’s NAK and formed under one umbrella National Rainbow Coalition (Narc)

The group settled on Mwai Kibaki to contest the Presidency against Uhuru Kenyatta who had been dubbed as Moi’s project.

And before the December 2002 poling day the NARC presidential nominee Mwai Kibaki was involved in a serious road accident which kept him out of presidential campaign for the rest of the month when he was hospitalized.

Raila Odinga and the late Michael Kijana Wamalwa of Ford Kenya who was later appointed the Vice President of the Republic after Kibaki’s victory in the 2002 elections under the umbrella of Narc coalition.

Kibaki took the office after fully recovering from injuries he sustained in the fatal road accident but immediately abandoned the MOU he and others had signed before the election. He short-changed the group and refused to fulfill the election pledges he had made to the electorate such as the delivery of the new set of constitution with 100 days, creation of 500,000 jobs annually for the youths and zero tolerant to corruption.

Kibaki administration which came to the office on a serious note to eradicate all manners of social ills such as corruption and declared his government would pursue the policy of zero tolerance to corruption became dogged by the Anglo-leasing scams which included billion of shillings coming in the trail of another multibillions scandal of the Goldenberg fame that had dogged Moi’s last administration and which led to the crashing defeat of the self confessed professor of Kenya’s politics in December 2002.

And unlike in the previous elections this year’s general election has attracted close to 102 women aspirants, the largest number ever since independence in 1963.

Kenya has had women parliamentarians in all past 9th parliaments ever since the former Mayor of Kisumu Mrs Grace Aketch Onyango contested and won Kisumu Township seat in the 1969 general elections.

Previously even the days of colonial Legislative Council Kenyan women had pioneer and taken up their seats in the Legislation making body. One such woman was the late Mrs. Jemima Gichaga and the late Mrs Priscila Abwao. The two were nominated by the colonial governors at different times.

Despite the women coming of kitchen and joining competitive politics in large numbers Kenyan women are still yet to clear many hurdles and obstacles meted by men chauvinists is still a common phenomenon.

This year alone more than 15 women aspirants were subjected to physical attacks and humiliation masterminded by their male rivals. Attacks took place in Meru Nairobi where the controversial Mrs. Mary Selessie Orie Rogo Manduli had to be hospitalized for a couple of days nursing bodily injuries inflicted on her by people suspected to have been hired by her male rivals.

Backed by the gender organizations and civil society, Kenya women are ,however, weathering the storm .If the polls take place on December 27 as scheduled it is being projected that over 40 women would win seats in the 10th Kenyan Parliament.

And this time around the female contestants have emerged even from previously considered to be backward communities where women have never won elections in the past.

Buret constituency in Bureti district in the Rift Valley province has the largest number of women parliamentary aspirants in the name s of Mrs Rachel Yegon,Mrs Rachel Ng’eno and Mrs Edna Bare. Mrs Ng’eno is the wife of former cabinet Minister in the Moi’s era Prof Jonathan Ng’eno had previously who served in Education, Housing, and Works Ministries in KANU regimes.

Also contesting the election is the outspoken former Maendeleo Ya Wanawake boss Mrs Ziphora Kittony. She is standing against the Minister for Agriculture Kipruto Arap Kirwa in Cheranganyi constituency in Trans-Nzoia district. Other hot contestants include Mrs. Nyiva Mwandwa ( Kitui west), Mrs Beth Mugo (Dagoreti)

Unfortunately women in Nyanza Province who had pioneered for what hitherto was considered as the exclusive preserve of the males in the region where Mrs Grace Onyango became the first woman elected to parliament did not produce a substantial woman candidate a part from Mrs Monica Amolo and Mrs Rosa Buyu. Buyu had lost in the ODM nominations and jumped onto the bandwagon of Charity Ngilu’s Narc party.

Prominent women who are season politicians include Mrs Beth Mugo (Dagorretti) Prof Christine Mango and Prof Norah Olembo (Emuhaya)

Major issues which are featuring prominently in this year’s three horse race presidential elections involving the incumbent Mwai Kibaki his two leading rivals Raila Odinga nad Kalonzo Musyoka indeed Majimbo ,the recent extradition of dozens of Muslims to Ethiopia and eventually to Guetamala Bay in Cuba under the pretext that these people were connected to international Muslim terrorists organizations is likely to elicit a lot of controversies which would exert influence on an ever swelling voting block that rebate deeply with these issues.

President Kibaki is being put under serious focus on his rule in the sporadic outbreaks of bloody tribal clashes in Kuresoi,Mt Elgon and at the coast.

Lack of proper supervision of the devolving CDF development funds which is being alleged the outgoing MPs and their cronies and relatives have vandalized to the chagrin of the electorate.

Raila Odinga who the opinion polls have all agreed that he is on clear lead ahead of his close rivals Mwai Kibaki and Kalonzo Musyoka enjoys massive support in the Rift Valley ,coast ,Nairobi,North Eastern, Western and Nyanza has a head start due to the fact that the ODM is the most popular political party in the country today.

It has in its rank and file leading luminaries from all the Kenyan Communities apart from that near man to man backing of Raila Odinga from his Luo home turf in Nyanza.

The battle of giants is expected to be fought in the expansive Rift valley Province where close to 3 million voters are registered. There is substantial number of Kikuyu immigrant settlers in the region. Former president Moi has lost his impartiality and neutrality and joins the campaign for Kibaki’s reelection. But Moi seemed to have lost former hold clout among his Kalenjin community.

The primary production is that Raila Odinga is likely to clinch the presidency with the majority of a half a million votes due to biased attitude of the Kibaki’s government and misuse of the public resources.

Kibaki enjoys support of the Kikuyu and the entire Gema region which Include Meru, Embu, parts of the Rift valley, the Coast and parts of Eastern Province which are under the influence of Ford Kenya party leader Muskari Kombo. He is likely to get 400,000 plus votes in Kisii region and 1.3 million votes in the coast while Kalonzo Musyoka would be voted in his own home turf in Ukambani region with small percentage of support in Rift Valley. Gema region or Mt Kenya but he would not be a mater to Raila Odinga waves and euphoria in Kalenjin,Maasai,Nandi and Kipsigis land.

Ends
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