{UAH} Pojim/WBK: UNDERSTANDING THE LUHYA POLITICAL ELITE | The Star

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UNDERSTANDING THE LUHYA POLITICAL ELITE

NEW Ford Kenya leader Eugene Wamalwa was the first politician to declare his interest in the 2013 presidential race, but he didn't live up to the promise when the starter's gun was fired.

Styling himself as the face of the new generation of Kenyan politics, Eugene's declaration, made in January 2010, eight months before the promulgation of the new constitution, and a whole three years before the elections were conducted in 2013, was to prove a hot air, even though he claimed he had the blessings of the then President, Mwai Kibaki.

When making the announcement, Eugene sensationally claimed that his bid was anchored on a hitherto unknown political pact between Kibaki and his once upon a time deputy, Kijana Wamalwa, who passed on in 2003.

According Eugene, the duo had signed a post-2002 election pact in which he claimed the former had committed himself to support the latter in the Presidential race of 2007.

Memorably, the former Saboti MP made the declaration during the launch of the infamous Simama Kenya in January 2010, an outfit that symbolised the face of a new Kenya, and which among other actors, had Kibaki's first-born son, Jimmy, as one of its leading protagonists.

"The Kikuyu and Luhya elders are in consultation, and are expected to bless my candidature," Eugene bragged on the eve of the launch of the outfit in Bungoma county.

"Jimmy and I will officially launch the Grand March to State House 2012," he said, while pouring unstinting kind words to the then President's son.

"I am very pleased to be endorsed by the President's son. I wish Kenyans would recognise the fact that Jimmy is a genuine Kenyan who is passionate about this country."

As it is now all too clear, Simama did not live long enough to celebrate its first birthday, having imploded at the altar of gigantic personal egos that characterise Kenyan politics.

On came the notorious G7, and Eugene was the first on the bandwagon, going a step further to pride himself as its most vociferous defender.

He would later oscillate between the outfit, Jubilee and Amani coalitions, and even got time in between to lead the tumult that greeted Uhuru Kenyatta's big day as he launched TNA in 2012.

"Perhaps the clearest indication yet of their working relationship, the responsibility of inviting Uhuru to speak rested on Wamalwa, a member of the G7 alliance," wrote the Standard in its report of the coverage of the event. The paper went as far as to speculate that Eugene could be Uhuru's running mate.

Needless to say, Eugene's name was not on the Presidential ballot. He would not be Uhuru's running mate, and neither contested a parliamentary or gubernatorial seat, having opted to throw his weight behind Uhuru Kenyatta and his Jubilee Alliance team.

The former Justice Minister has to date failed to land a state job within the Jubilee administration, even though he loudly sacrificed his comfort for Jubilee in the 2013 general election.

The failure by Eugene to make good his declarations illustrates to a large extent the plight of the Luhya nation, and the failure by its elite to make an impact in pushing for, and imposing the interests of the community at the national high table.

The Luhya is the second most populous ethnic group in the national demographic log, and a lot is expected from its elite in defining the course of national politics.

Some accounts have even suggested the Luhya may have leapfrogged the Kikuyu to the first position, but the community remains a pitiable object; despised, overlooked and ignored with the tag of disunited written all over it.

Eugene failure to contest the Presidency in 2013 in spite of the hard declaration was not the first incident in this panorama. Cyrus Jirongo stands out as the master of this act of indecisiveness that has so much afflicted the Luhya elite.

The former Lugari MP first made known his interest to lead Kenya in 1998, when he, and some disgruntled Kanu politicians, who included Deputy President William Ruto, rebelled and formed UDM.

Jirongo has declared interest in the Presidency in virtually all the elections since, but he remains the only one whose name has never found itself on the ballot.

When he served as a minister in the Kibaki regime, Mukhisa Kituyi was known to have constantly insulted the Luhya people who went to his office seeking job opportunity.

In fact, the ever hyper politician who posted a message in his office that reminded visitors that his office was not an employment bureau.

Musalia Mudavadi's famous decision to ditch the Rainbow Alliance in 2002 to support Uhuru even as everything showed that Kanu was a sinking ship, falls squarely into these clear patterns where the Luhya elite have failed to stamp their authority when it matters most.

The move punctured the collective psyche of the Luhya people, who felt betrayed, and responded by rejecting Mudavadi in the elections in the most ruthless display of political anger by a community.

As if that was not a lesson hard enough, Mudavadi would 10 years later, in 2012, play the same act, when and against the wishes of the majority of the Luhya people, latched onto a UDF party that had been launched within Kibaki State House as part of the strategy to spoil the party for the ODM while at the same time strengthening the TNA's hand in the elections.

Mudavadi's walk up the garden path was further lengthened when he was duped into signing a pre-election agreement with Jubilee in which Uhuru promised to step down for him to make him the sole Presidential candidate.

Even as Mudavadi was duped, Uhuru was quietly reaching out to both Charity Ngilu, who had joined Cord at its launch, and Najib Balala with whom he signed a more binding agreement.

Mudavadi would be abandoned shortly thereafter, when Uhuru cast aside the agreement and declared publicly that Mudavadi's entry into Jubilee Alliance was demonic.

Again, it was the same Mudavadi, and his UDF party, who was among the first to sign a post -election agreement with the Jubilee alliance, committing their MPs to support the government agenda in Parliament.

It is this unpredictable behaviour of the Luhya elite that has angered masses who feel betrayed by the elite's lack of spine and inability to stand up to defend themselves.

It goes without saying, that the voice of the quintessential Luhya politician is always missing out whenever a crucial issue is debated in the court of public opinion.

Even when the interests are threatened, such as the problems bedeviling the sugar sub sector, the voice of the Luhya elite is feeble and sporadic, even as the Mumias Sugar Company breathes its last.

In other words, the Luhya people feel their leaders have not effectively represented their interests well enough.

This has created a major gap creating an impression of a disconnect between the masses and the political elite.

Whereas the masses are steadfast, always standing by the elite, they are, however, frustrated and feel let down by the elite's half-hearted approach towards national political discourse, which, in many respects, has tended to portray the community as divided.

There is a feeling within the majority of the Luhya people that the elite has failed to take advantage of the community's numerical advantage and impose its will and the interests of the community at the national political high table.

This anger is further heightened by the fact that despite its political weight, the Luhya region has become the theatre of all political players and a source of what is known as swing vote.

These elite seem only too happy to operate behind the scenes while at the same too eager to cheer the Kikuyus, Luos, and of late the Kalenjins elite to rule the political roost.

Both Mudavadi's UDF and Eugene's New Ford Kenya have a combined strength of about 15 MPs in the National Assembly who are died-in-wool Jubilee supporters, but the Luhya community has looked in dismay as these two leaders symbolise hopelessness the community faces as a consequence of their voting in the last elections.

While both Mudavadi and Eugene remain jobless, ignored by Jubilee in the share of state appointments, Uhuru opted to reward Kambi Kazungu, Najib Balala and Chirau Mwakwere from the Coast, even though their support for Jubilee is not as pronounced as that of Mudavadi and Eugene duo.

Even Uhuru had the guts to appoint Abduba Dida to chair a state corporation, while Eugene still waits for his big day two years on.

It has been claimed the Luhya elite wants to play 'Mr Nice' kind of politics in which they have argued against 'controversial' politics, which is always associated with the Luo community.

Those who advance this theory, the likes of Mudavadi and Eugene, hope to project an image of non-confrontational politicians in the hope that someone in the dominant class would find them 'friendly' and surrender instruments of state power to them.

UNDERSTANDING THE LUHYA POLITICAL ELITE | The Star
http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/understanding-luhya-political-elite‎

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