KAKAMEGA COUNTY. With barely nine months to go to the next general elections slated for August 2017, each political party, coalition or politician is moving in earnest to consolidate his or her support for whichever elective seat they aspire to win in the polls. Most notable battle is for those aspiring to access the top seat in the land to become the next president after next year’s polls led by the ruling Jubilee and its bitter rivals the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy – CORD under the stewardship of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga respectively.
Each of the warring coalitions is trying as much as possible to have its traditional support base remain intact as it were in 2013 elections but manage to gain more from their opponents backyard or the so-called swing-vote regions.
The former Western province that is dominated by the populous Luhya community was in 2013 in support of Raila Odinga as compared to President Uhuru Kenyatta by virtue of the elective seats the two leaders garnered in the region.
In the run to the 2017 polls the two coalitions are battling for the Western voting bloc with each of the two coalitions of Jubilee and CORD trying to outwit each other through all manner of political tricks and theatrics to woo the voters on their side.
The Jubilee side that launched the new Jubilee party over one month ago has fronted deputy president William Ruto to be the team leader in dangling the carrot to the people of the Luhya Nation basing on the agenda of launching the development projects by the Jubilee government in the region and other political tricks that can work for the team that is working round the clock to secure a second and last term for president Uhuru Kenyatta.
However despite the numerous trips that Ruto has made in the region traversing from one county to another presiding over harambees ( fundraisers) for churches, women groups, youth groups, boda boda groups among others, there seems to be minimal impact as far as the people of Mulembe Nation are concerned pertaining changing their support from the opposition led groups to the government side.
The DP has been on record generously giving donations amounting to millions to harambees in all his trips especially in weekends whereby he can spend over ten million in one weekend on harambees, a move that many have questioned wanting to know the source of all that money.
Despite local elected leaders welcoming such moves by Ruto and other government representatives in donating money in harambees and launching of projects, they seem to have bought the idea from the talks by opposition leaders who always tell them that they should not refuse to embrace development projects or monetary donations from the government of the day and its representatives noting that such money is their tax that they pay and implementation of projects is their right.
The famous talk that used to be heard by people from the same region during the retired president Daniel Arap Moi’s regime in the early 1990s during the fight for multiparty democracy that ‘we eat in KANU but we sleep in FORD’ seems to be working well in the region as residents receive development projects and donations with both hands but maintain their allegiance elsewhere.
In many events attended by the DP and other politicians from the Jubilee side, the residents have been seen to cheer and welcome the leaders to give out their donations but after they leave you can hear different opinion pertaining their support to the Jubilee party that is identified as the political vehicle to be used by the UhuRuto team to secure a second term.
While Jubilee is using development projects to gain political mileage that seems not to be coming forth in the region, CORD and other opposition coalitions and parties such as Musalia Mudavadi’s Amani National Congress – ANC seem to be standing on the platform of the people’s constitutional right to get development from the government of the day as a right and not a favour to get political support.
The opposition is also gaining mileage against the ruling coalition on the platform of corruption where the ruling coalition is seen to have failed to curb or rather end the runaway corruption that has seem Kenyans lose billions of shillings in endless scandals that are unveiled one after the other.
Among those that have been popular with the opposition is the Euro Bond scandal where Kenyans were meant by the opposition to believe that over Kshs 200 billion was lost in the scandal, the famous NYS scandal that saw then devolution cabinet secretary Anne Waiguru lose her prestigious position and now the Kshs 5 billion believed to have been lost through the health sector if the audit report leaked out is anything to go by.
Opposition leaders led by Odinga have made good their claims and allegations against the ruling Jubilee coalition as far as corruption in the government is concerned and Kenyans have with time come to believe what Raila and his supporters say hence earning some sense of trust in whatever they say.
Jubilee and CORD sticking to their traditional support bases
As much as there is a pull and push between the two coalitions in the scramble for the 2017 votes, the two coalitions seem to be using all manner of tricks to have their 2013 voting blocs remain intact.
Jubilee coalition whose support base was virtually in the larger Rift Valley and Central regions and parts of eastern seem to have tried hard to keep it intact despite some revolts in parts of Rift Valley and Eastern where governors Isaac Ruto of Bomet and his Meru counterpart Peter Munya have been bitter critics of the UhuRuto administration despite coming from regions that overwhelmingly supported the election of the two leaders the president and his deputy.
Raila and his CORD coalition on their part have fought tooth and nail to retain the Western and Coast voting blocs and part of the Eastern province through former vice president Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper democratic movement.
CORD despite suffering a major setback through what was seen as a fallout of some leaders from their traditional support base in Western, Coast and Kambaland who declared to have defected to the Jubilee party during its launch, the coalition seems to be resilient enough to contain what would have been their major undoing.
The CORD coalition parties including ODM of Raila Odinga, Wiper of Kalonzo Musyoka and Wetangula’s Ford Kenya have engaged the defectors with threats of subjecting them to by-elections hence putting them on defence in their respective political parties disciplinary committees and therefore the defectors have not had time to add any value to their new political party as they are keenly watching back at their former parties so that they do not deregister them other than drumming support for their new political outfit.
Jubilee ambassadors heckled and opposed in Western
From the turn of events unfolding prior to the formation of the Jubilee party and the events taking place as the leaders and supporters of Jubilee go out to sell the policies and manifesto of the party in Western and its environs seem to give negative signals and hard times ahead for the party to penetrate the region ahead of the 2017 polls.
Deputy president Willim Ruto on Saturday gave out over Kshs 4 million to Lwandeti DEB secondary school and primary with promises of giving support in the purchase of two school buses for Lwandeti secondary and Maturu secondary schools as he sought for support from the residents but what came out was that he needs to do more to convince the residents of Lugari and Kakamega counties to change their allegiance from the opposition to the ruling coalition.
Lugari MP Ayub Savula told the DP that the people of Lugari are smart enough not to be lured and convinced easily to change their political affiliations.
“I have been with these people of Lugari for a long time and I know they are clever enough not to be easily wined over by someone who comes to court them and they are like a beautiful lady who does not just fall for you on the first date, you must give her at least two or three dates before she considers your proposals,” Savula told Ruto.
He said that the people of Lugari should be given time to ponder over their political future but not to be rushed into joining the ruling coalition or any other political outfit as much as they appreciate and would like to work with the government.
Ruto had challenged the people of the region to join him and support the Jubilee party in forming the government again after next year’s polls lest they live to regret as to why they did not make a quick decision when they are out in the cold again.
“Is there any problem when you people of Lugari and Kakamega county at large join me as your neighbour here to support us in forming the next government’? or you still want to follow those people of vitendawili who are not even sure of who their candidate is or which party they will vie on?” Ruto said at Lwandeti.
Similar resistance has been witnessed at other forums where elected leaders championing for the Jubilee party in the region have been heckled and booed at funerals and other public forums.
Bungoma governor Ken Lusaka, former minister Dr. Noah Wekesa who was also the co-chair of the committee that worked on the formation of the Jubilee party with Meru senator Kiraitu Murungi and Trans Nzoia woman representative among other leaders have been victims of heckling as they try to sell the manifesto of Jubilee party in the region especially in Bungoma county.
The resistance that is being witnessed at the moment against Jubilee ambassadors according to critics and local analysts may go far all along to the real campaign for the next polls hence it might be a tall order for Jubilee to penetrate the Luhya dominated Western region and therefore might be forced to spend more or go an extra mile to convince the electorate to support the party to win next year’s elections.
However the power and decision on who becomes the next president remains in the hands of the registered voters.