The dream of a Luhya leader ascending to the highest seat of the land in this country is almost being realized according to the Central Organization of Trade Union’s – COTU secretary general Francis Atwoli.
Atwoli, a self-proclaimed Luhya elder says that the long awaited unity of Luhya leaders as far as the national leadership is concerned is now ripe and warns those who have been taking the community for granted to watch this space.
“I have a dream and I have seen that dream being realized in next year’s elections because we are going to vote for one presidential candidate of our own from the larger Luhya community and we are going to vote with revenge and bitterness after being scold and laughed at for many years,” said Atwoli as he led a funds drive ceremony at Khwisero Girls secondary school in the backyard to his home.
The outspoken trade Unionist who has relentlessly tried in his own ways to forge for the realization of Luhya unity has refused to call it quits despite the twists and elusiveness of uniting leaders of the populous community that has never exploited its numerical strength during elections, except in 2002 elections when the late Vice President Michael Kijana Wamalwa rallied virtually all the constituencies in the then Western Province to vote for the NARC government under now retired president Mwai Kibaki.
“It is possible that the Luhyas can vote as a united block because we managed to achieve that in 1993 when we all voted for KADU and in 2002 when we voted overwhelmingly for the NARC government under Mwai Kibaki and the late Wamalwa Kijana hence let nobody dismiss this efforts of uniting the community ahead of next year’s elections,” said Atwoli.
Despite the diverse changes in the political circles especially among the Luhya leaders especially after the demise of the charismatic VP Kijana Wamalwa, Atwoli has stuck to his resilience in revisiting the same agenda of putting the community’s votes in one basket to either win the elections or bargain for a more beneficial coalition with any other major coalition or party of similar interests to those of the community.
Atwoli’s efforts to unite the Luhya leaders in the run up to the 2013 polls did not bear fruits after the leaders, including Ford Kenya party leader and Bungoma senator Moses Wetangula, then NFK leader and Saboti MP Eugene Wamalwa, then UDF leader Musalia Mudavadi and former Lugari MP and then Federal Party of Kenya leader Cyrus Jirongo among others did not buy his idea of uniting them in the best interests of the community.
Each of them went his own way, hence leaving the Luhya community best known as Luhya nation, more divided than ever.
The Unionist-cum elder is at it again and this time round is upbeat that his dream shall be realized through his new scheme that has seen experts and researchers from Nairobi University brought on board.
To unveil flag bearer in Muliro Gardens
Atwoli has revealed that in his dream plan he has included researchers from Nairobi University whom he has hired to do thorough research and survey within the community to establish the most popular politician from the region who can be backed overwhelmingly to vie for the presidential seat in next year’s polls.
“I have paid experts from the economic and research department at the University of Nairobi who are moving around to establish who is the most popular candidate from the Luhya community and also establish the economic performance of Western before we unveil the candidate after releasing the statistics of the research through the media,” he said.
He revealed that the candidate shall be unveiled at the Muliro gardens in a colourful ceremony that shall be attended by people from different parts of the country including Rift Valley, Masaai Land, Coast, Nyanza among other regions he said he has connections and networks supporting his move.
To force re-run in 2017 elections
The optimistic Atwoli exuded confidence that the Luhya candidate shall be voted for overwhelmingly and will lead to a re-run of the elections after clinching the first or second position in the final tally of the presidential votes.
“Whoever is underrating this move that we are championing for should be ready for a rude shock because I have a dream that next year’s elections shall have a re-run for the seat of the president and I have that dream and is real inspiring and is going to happen,” he added.
He said that any negotiations by the Luhya candidate shall only be welcomed in the second round of the elections bearing in mind that there shall be no outright winner of the polls for the presidency hence the community is not ready for any pre-election negotiations with any interested political parties or coalitions.
“If it means any negotiations and I would like to tell you Luhya leaders who are here that negotiations shall be welcome after the re-run because we are going to participate in the re-run after coming first or second in the first voting exercise,” Atwoli noted.
Atwoli who had invited several leaders to the funds drive including Musalia Mudavadi, Ababu Namwamba, Ayub Savula Moses Wetangula, Kakamega governor Wycliffe Oparanya, Cyrus Jirongo among others received overwhelming support for his initiative to unite leaders in the community.
Among those invited Mudavadi, Savula, John Waluke and a host of MPs from the region attended and pledged their full support for the unity of the community and fronting of one presidential candidate.
Wetangula and Jirongo did not turn up but send their apologies and donations as those present showed their intended support for ANC party leader Musalia Mudavadi to be fronted to fly the flag of presidential candidate from the community.
What they said;
Musalia Mudavadi
He appreciated the move by Atwoli to unite the community and urged him to maintain the pace and deliver the unity that has been elusive for a long time to ensure that this time round the Luhya community benefits from its numerical strength in elective politics.
“I am happy that Mzee Atwoli you are championing for the unity of the Luhya Nation and I want to assure you of my full support and I urge you not to relent until the dream is realized,” said Mudavadi.
Mudavadi insisted that he is in the race for the presidency on an ANC ticket and reiterated that his party is not part of the parties that have wound up to form the Jubilee party but instead he is fighting to remove the Jubilee government from office if Kenyans give him the mandate.
“I want to make it clear here that I am in the race for the seat of president and my party is ANC which is not part of the ruling Jubilee coalition because I am the one who is fighting to ensure that the ruling government is out of power hence I am not part of it,” he noted.
However he hinted that he was ready to work with any other party or coalition especially the most touted possible move to join CORD saying that he is ready and willing to play ball in that direction.
Mudavadi further pointed out that he has no issues with other leaders from the community including Moses Wetangula, Jirongo and others whom he said he is ready to work with for the benefit of the larger community.
Wycliffe Oparanya
The Kakamega governor who is also deputy party leader of ODM acknowledged and appreciated Atwoli’s move to achieve unity in the community noting that he has no problem participating in such initiatives but insisted that he will participate in the talks and negotiations for unity but from his ODM party which he equated to a church or team of football where people come together to achieve a common dream or goal but later retire to their respective churches or parties at the end of the day.
“I am ready for the talks to unite the leaders in the community even if you call on me at midnight I will wake up and come for the talks but you know very well that my church is ODM and that is where I will talk from,” he said.
He however wondered why calls for unity always come up when the country is nearing elections hence wondering if at all such talks are genuine and geared towards any meaningful unity.
“I wonder why we always come together to call for unity when we are left with less than one year to elections yet in the last four years we never recognised each other and we engaged in insulting each other and now we pretend that everybody has forgotten about the insults against each other,” he added.
Oparanya also endorsed a Mudavadi candidature as he dismissed other probale presidential candidates from the community terming them jokers who have nothing to offer and have no experience.
Ababu Namwamba
The Budalangi MP who is also the immediate former secretary general of the Orange Democratic Movement Party – ODM said that he shall support justified course of any leader from the community who aspires to ascent to any position in the land without question or explanation.
“I would like to assure everybody here that our journey starts today here at Khwisero whereby I Ababu Namwamba shall from today going forward be in support of any fellow Luhya leader who is fighting or gunning for any leadership position in this country without apology or explation to anybody because that is what others do without apologizing or explaining to us,” said Namwamba.
He said that the leaders from the Luhya Nation should never be used by outsiders to wage war or resistance against their own brothers and sisters in their quest to achieve certain dreams to deliver the community in all levels of leadership.
John Waluke
The Sirisia MP who is a close ally of Namwamba after they all quit positions in ODM over two months ago also revealed their support for Musalia Mudavadi as the Luhya Nation’s presidential flag bearer.
He said that their newly formed Mulembe Consciousness that they term the third political force shall be in full support of Musalia Mudavadi if at all the on going talk that Raila Odinga can endorse him is later realized.
“We as the third force we are going to fully support our brother Musalia Mudavadi for the seat of president if it is true Raila Odinga is going to endorse and support him as it is being said ,” said Waluke.
However he challenged governor Oparanya to talk to Raila to announce his support for Mudavadi as soon as possible other than beating about the bush as he keeps the community and Kenyans guessing on what will eventually take place.
“What we expect to hear from governor Oparanya as the deputy party leader of raila Odinga is to tell us that now his party leader has officially announced to support Mudavadi for the seat of president but not to tell us stories here, No we don’t accept that,” added Waluke.
Ayub Savula
On his part the Lugari MP told the Luhya community to back Mudavadi for the seat of president bearing in mind that he is the most experienced politician from the region as compared to others such as Wetangula, Jirongo and others with presidential political ambitions.
“Among these other leaders whom do yo think can match the experience of Musalia Mudavadi who has held the seat of Vice President, the deputy prime minister, deputy party leader, a senior minister of Local Government and many other positions that gives him an edge against others such as Wetangula and Jirongo who have only been ministers in previous governments,” said Savula to the crowd that attended the ceremony to raise funds for the purchase of the school bus for the school.
The legislator further lauded Atwoli’s initiative to unite the community and urged leaders and the entire community to support the move saying that they should pick up the pieces from where they left during the collapsed initial talks that Atwoli started at the Maasai Mara Lodge in the run to the 2013 polls pledging his full support of the move.
Other MPs and leaders who supported the initiative included Khwisero MP Benjamin Andola and John Bunyasi of Nambale among others from the Luhya Nation who were present at the ceremony.
During the ceremony over Kshs 4.7 million was raised towards the purchase of the bus which is said to be costing the school over Kshs 7.5 million.
Atwoli gave his donation of Kshs 1 million, Mudavadi 100,000, Sabatia MP Alfred Agoi send Kshs 100,000, Ababu Namwamba 50,000 and John Waluke a similar amount of Kshs 50,000 among others who generously gave their donations towards the goal of the school.