By Jerry Okungu
Nairobi, Kenya
March 6, 2013
Kenya’s 2013 general
elections will go in history as one the most vicious for the established
political class. It felled more cabinet ministers than one can care to
remember. It would appear as if the Kenyan voter was upset with the greedy 10th
parliament that robbed them blind day in day out for the past five years. And
when an opportunity occurred for them to deal a blow to the outgoing honorable
members of the august house, they grabbed it and inflicted maximum pain.
Let us start with the
former ODM Pentagon members who campaigned with Raila Odinga against Mwai
Kibaki in 2007. These members were William Ruto of Rift Valley, Charity Ngilu
of Kitui Central, James Orengo, Joe Nyagah of Embu, Musalia Mudavadi of Western
Province, and Najib Balala of the Coast. Four of these individuals became part
of the Annan Peace Team that negotiated a shared power arrangement with
Mwai Kibaki’s Party of National Unity.
And for their efforts that year, they were rewarded with ministerial posts as
follows: James Orengo- Ministry of Lands, Charity Ngilu- Ministry of Water, Joe
Nyagah- Ministry of Cooperatives, William Ruto- Ministry of Agriculture,
Musalia Mudavadi- Ministry of Local Government and Najib Balala- Ministry of
Tourism.
However, as the impact of
the 2008 violence began to take effect with the possibility of prosecution of
planners of violence dawned on the political class; cracks started developing
on both sides of the grand coalition. These cracks got wider as it dawned on
the political class that Mwai Kibaki was serving his last term and a successor
was required in late 2012. This latter realization necessitated political
realignments on both sides of the divide.
With time, we had all
sorts of political groupings such as G47 Alliance, G7Alliance and Simama Kenya.
At the end of 2012, these early alliances had mutated into four distinct
political alliances such as CORD Alliance, Jubilee Alliance, Amani Alliance and
Eagle Alliance. With these formations, Raila Odinga lost all his Pentagon
members most of whom joined Jubilee and Amani Alliances headed by Uhuru
Kenyatta and Musalia Mudavadi, his former deputy prime ministers.
Meanwhile another ODM
kingpin, William Ruto who was also the ODM Deputy Party Leader had also
defected to three different parties, finally settling in Jubilee Alliance with
Najib Balala, Charity Ngilu and Joe Nyagah. However, when the election results
were announced, all former ODM Pentagon ministers mysteriously lost their
seats! Was this poetic justice?
The grand coalition right
from February 28 2008 had one of the largest Cabinet in Africa considering the
small population of Kenya with its modest economy. Of the 42 cabinet ministers,
22 on each side, a good number of them will not see the inside of parliament
when it opens later this month.
The among the casualties
of this voter anger are the Ministers for Justice, Foreign Affairs, Transport,
Communications, Finance, Water, Roads, Regional
Development, Trade,
Agriculture, Local Government, Housing, Cooperatives, Heritage, Environment and
Forestry and Wild Life.
Other notable losers
included Martha Karua, former Minister for Justice, former assistant minister
Wakoli BIfwoli, former assistant minister Ayiecho Olweny, lawyer Gitobu
Imanyara, Joshua Kutuny, Bishop Margaret Wanjiru, Danson Mungatana, Kiema
Kilonzo who wanted to become the Kitui County Governor and Ekwe Ethuro from
Turkana.
Incidentally most of the
ministers that lost the elections were either supporters of Jubilee Alliance or
came from Jubilee and Amani zones. For example in Ukambani, only Charity Ngilu
a Jubilee affiliate was the only cabinet casualty there. In Mombasa, Ali
Makwere’s closeness to William Ruto and Uhuru Kenyatta did not save him. In
Kisii, the Jubilee strongman, Prof Sam Ongeri was swept aside by Cord candidate
Chris Obure.
Another lot of
antagonistic MPs whose stock in trade was to insult and embarrass the President
and Prime Minister must have danced their legs lame on the political platform.
They over performed as national clowns to the chagrin of their electorate that
decided that enough was enough even if their object of ridicule was Raila
Odinga. This lot included Joshua Kutuny of Cherangany, Danson Mungatana of Garsen,
Kiema Kilonzo of Kitui and his namesake Charles Kilonzo and Turkana
counterpart Ekwe Ethuro all of who were
shown the door by the electorate.
Having said the above,
what angered the electorate so much that they chose to change the nation’s
leadership in parliament?
One explanation is that
most of the senior MPs that had for decades mismanaged national resources such
as CDF, LATIF, Education funds, Youth
Funds had chosen to move up the political ladder from constituency to Senate or
County governments where the new constitution was allocating more resources.
Having seen how the same MPs had raided the treasury from time to time to pay
themselves lavishly while refusing to pay taxes, Kenyans chose to teach them a
lesson. Whether this lesson will deter future elected leaders from engaging in
economic crimes remains to be seen.
Meanwhile these fallen
leaders must cool themselves under a banana stem for the next five years if
they want to come back to the public arena.
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