KAKAMEGA COUNTY. As different politicians and parties realign themselves in wooing voters from different regions ahead of the 2017 general elections, CORD leader Raila Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta of the Jubilee coalition are now engaged in a blame game as each of them moves out to conquer the Western region voting bloc.
The two leaders who have been wrestling over the populous Luhya votes that each of them desperately needs for them to balance their 2017 winning patterns have for a long time been engaged in accusations counter accusations as each of them blames the other for failing to do much to revive or improve the status of the factories in the region that are the main economic pillar.
Last Thursday while speaking in Webuye at the Panpaper Mills, president Kenyatta who had come from a graduation ceremony in Kibabii University lashed at Raila for criticizing his government on literally everything yet according to Kenyatta the latter did nothing during his tenure as the prime minister under the grand coalition government.
“Our brothers whom we are competing with are fond of criticizing everything that we do as a government, but I want to ask you people of Webuye, who was the prime minister during the coalition government, who was the minister for industrialization and what did they do during their time to revive such industries for them to start faulting every step that we do to revive these factories?,” asked Kenyatta.
A day later Raila Odinga refuted the claims by president Kenyatta that he (Raila ) was responsible for the collapse of the factories ranging from Panpaper, Nzoia Sugar, Mumias Sugar among others that have either collapsed or are on their death bed.
The former premier pointed out that it was Uhuru Kenyatta as the finance minister during the coalition government under president Kibaki who refused to release money towards such projects despite being passed by the cabinet.
“I heard the president yesterday saying that I did nothing during my time as prime minister to revive these factories but he is forgetting that he is the very person as the finance minister then who sabotaged the revival process of the same industries even after we passed money in the cabinet towards such projects and even governor Oparanya and Dr. Paul Otwuoma who were in cabinet can bear witness to me. Therefore all that he says are lies,” said Raila.
The CORD leader who was addressing hundreds of ODM delegates from the entire former Western Province and parts of the North Rift including Trans Nzoia, gfaulted the move by the Jubilee government to allocate over Kshs 2 billion towards the revival of Mumias Sugar Company without establishing what amount was needed for its revival.
“They put Kshs 2 billion in Mumias Company without knowing how much money was needed to revive the factory and you can now see the state in which that factory is in despite the money being pumped in,” added Raila.
He further dismissed hopes that the Jubilee government will reopen Panpaper factory saying that the head of state is behind the purchase of the factory through the Rai Family hence told the crowd that the industry will only be opened to benefit the people of Webuye and Western after the buyers have reaped enough profit from it bearing in mind it is now a private property.
“If he says that soon they will be opening Panpaper, ask him who is behind the purchase of that factory because we all know that the Kenyatta family and the Rai family are one and the same,” said Raila.
The ODM leader further pointed out that most of the factories in Western Kenya that are the economic pillar of the people of the region are on the verge of collapse and the Jubilee government has showed no commitment in reviving them.
Raila mentioned factories such as Nzoia Sugar, Mumias Sugar and others from Nyanza region including Muhoroni, Chemilil sugar companies have collapsed due to what he termed bad policies in the sugar industry that rendered the factories useless due to the importation of cheap sugar from neighbouring countries.
He cited the move by President Kenyatta back last year when he signed an agreement with President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda to allow importation of sugar from Uganda to Kenya in exchange with milk and meat supplied to Uganda by Kenyans as one of the causes of the collapse of the sugar industry in the country.
The blame game and mud-slinging that has been going on between Raila and the Jubilee leaders led by Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto over Western Kenya is as a result of the battle to win the Luhya votes in each other’s favour during the next general elections in August next year.
Despite Ruto visiting the region countless times with a couple of visits by president Kenyatta seems not to be yielding much to the ruling coalition as the voters or rather residents seem to still maintain their allegiance to the opposition coalition as they seem not confident to fully cross over to the Jubilee side.
Western region especially Kakamega county is dominated by the ODM party whose leader Raila Odinga and Nairobi governor Dr. Evan Kidero have been adversely mentioned by Jubilee leaders as the people behind the collapse of Mumias Sugar company, claims that Raila has fought tooth and nail to clear himself as Kidero sought for interpretation by the court to clear himself from any wrong doing.
However the Jubilee side has never relented in associating Raila and Kidero to the collapse of the factory especially while in Kakamega county in order to woo the voters from the region to their side and make them feel that it is Raila who is indeed behind their woos hence not vote for him or his party during the elections.
The situation became even nastier when Kakamega governor Wycliffe Oparanya and Mumias East MP Benjamin Washiali nearly fought each other at Shibale market in the presence of Raila who had gone to address the residents who had been brutally injured by police officers and other forces deployed in the area to search for seven guns stolen from Booker police post early last week.
Washiali and former ODM youth leader Rashid Mohammed who has since switched his allegiance to the Jubilee side were got off-guard by Raila and Oparanya as they addressed the residents of Shibale market urging them not to allow any politician to address them over the loss of the guns and politicize the whole matter.
The vocal legislator after realizing that they could not stop Oparanya and Raila to join them to address the crowd that was cheering Oparanya and Raila, they now engaged in war of words in a shouting match between them that saw Washiali push Oparanya hard that he almost fell down as they shouted at each other.
Washiali kept shouting to Oparanya and Raila that they know who stole money from Mumias and demanded that they produce Kidero whom he alleged had siphoned money from the Mumias Sugar factory.
The meeting however ended prematurely as there were cases of physical confrontations between the leaders present hence Raila did not address the crowd due to the animosity that Washiali and Mohammed had directed at him indirectly as they faced Oparanya instead of Raila himself who stood behind Oparanya and watched the drama.
During the delegates meeting at the Kakamega Golf Club, Raila pointed out the rampant corruption that has rocked the Jubilee administration which he said is at its worst in the history of the country.
Battle of David and Goliath in 2017
Raila therefore pointed out that next year’s elections shall be related to the biblical battle between David and Goliath terming the opposition as David and the Jubilee side as Goliath as he quickly clarified that it is not because of the size or number of people but the Goliath and David is determined by the resources either side has amassed from the public coffers.
Voters in Western Kenya are now in a dilemma not knowing which side to trust in casting their votes for when the elections day comes as each side is accusing each other for wrong doings that touch on their lives and their economy as a region but the battle is still on.