Why ODM party polls for March are ill-timed in NEP

By Ibrahim Rashid
ODM claims to be the most popular party since its inception and has remained the king of opinion pollsters since the 2005 referendum on the constitution, but its popularity remains a mirage with no much fruit for the inhabitants of North Eastern Province now comprising the "Three Counties" of Garissa, Wajir and Mandera.
The people of North Eastern Province are currently facing hunger and their livestock are dying in thousands due to the biting drought. It now seems the Ministry of Development of Northern Kenya, originally thought to have been tailor-made to tackle the region’s woes, is a political whitewash that has neither mechanism, mandate, nor resources to mitigate against the La Nina drought effects that were predicted by the environmental experts since last September.
The ODM campaign manifesto of 2007 spoke to the region under the title ‘Development of Marginalised areas’, but was purely academic and harped more of theory and rhetoric, sold to the attentive ears of a hapless population that was pregnant with hope.
ODM promised to tarmac the road between Garissa County and Mandera, establish a livestock insurance scheme, among many other basic human rights needs that had been denied the area since Independence.
Three years down the line the scorecard reads ‘Zero’ and has equalled the record of the Kenyatta, Moi and now, Kibaki-Raila regimes.
The new Constitution, however, shows how dim the prospects and relevance of the Northern Kenya Ministry are. In light of the expansive Bill of Rights, devolved government and resources plus the milestone Equalisation fund and the requirement of Article 152 (1) (d) that plans to shrink the number of ministries to a maximum of 22, it is clear that the ministry is lying on its death bed.
If Press briefings by top ODM party mouthpieces responding to pressing national issues in 2010/2011, including announcement of its grassroots elections between March 5th and 9th are anything to go by, the NEP drought disaster is a non-issue compared to the "itching and weighty matters" of Mau Forest, Ocampo Six suspects, the Henry Kosgey port saga and honing of anti-Charity Ngilu knives on corruption claims.
Total disregardODM has clearly clustered its priority issues in line with untouchable regions bursting with votes and miserably erred in its national politics and policies.
The party is talking of elections while its electors are dying from hunger and thirst. Which of these starving voters will still be around to cast their ballots and occupy the ODM offices in the region?
For North Eastern, the priority cannot, and must not be party elections. Their undying prayer is finding persons, or political party, ready to implement and operationalise Article 43(1) where every person has the right (c) — to be free from hunger, and to have adequate food of acceptable quality; 43 (d) — to clean, safe water in adequate quantities.
Even then, ODM cannot claim to conduct grassroots elections countrywide while its Secretariat and/or Election Board is not reflective of Kenya’s regional representation as required by both political norm and the new Constitution.
The party has also short memory of how it has failed to equitably share the half loaf of bread (nusu mkate) of the Grand Coalition Government and quickly shortchanged those who bore the greatest responsibility in the reform crusade since Jaramogi’s Not yet Uhuru of 1966 to Raila’s Free at Last, last year.
A painful and long journey is about to dock in 2012, but it might also prove to be a point of departure.
The party decorated, honoured and rewarded its campaigners, financiers and parliamentary losers from other regions and the Diaspora team, but neglected its diehard followers from the North.
The likes of Mohamed Khalif, Billow Kerrow and Elias Barre Shill and others of equal stature, who were the leading lights of the ODM campaign team in 2007, are clear cases where the party has totally disregarded their massive and critical contribution to make the region to vote overwhelmingly ODM.
Sample this: In the 2005 Referendum, Khalif led the Orange campaign in Wajir and was subsequently sacked as an Assistant Minister and lost his Wajir West parliamentary seat but delivered the ODM presidential vote basket big-time.
Kerrow defected from Kanu where he was shadow Finance Minister and his sharp oratory and national political credence was the cornerstone of ODM prominence in the region. He lost his seat to Hon Abdikadir Mohamed of Safina.
Shill’s campaign for ODM was, perhaps, the most painful of all as he lost his seat to PNU for only three votes.
Now that the party is once again rolling the election drum, will these three ODM gatekeepers still deliver the region? Are they still in ODM? If their party forgot them, are they aware their people have also been forgotten and are bearing the brunt of perennial drought?
Have they been consulted about the forthcoming election? Is the William Ruto-led camp going to woo them to replace their party’s "O" with "U"?
And finally, which way is this vast region hoping to face after Kibaki? Are drought-related deaths goin to remain the sole newsmaker from here?
—The writer is an analyst of political and development matters. ibrahimrashidahmed@hotmail.com