By WALTER MENYA, wmenya@ke.nationmedia.com and CASPER WAITHAKA, cwaithaka@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Sunday, April 24 2011 at 20:42
Posted Sunday, April 24 2011 at 20:42
An intense “native-outsider” debate has emerged ahead of the Kamukunji by-election on May 23.
Narc-Kenya candidate Brian Weke kicked off the storm by saying that the by-election will be a race between the residents and “outsiders”, the latter referring to members of the Somali community.
In an interview Mr Weke said: “It will be a clear race between the people who were born in Kamukunji and others who have come later.”
But the candidate has been criticised by both ODM and PNU.
But the candidate has been criticised by both ODM and PNU.
ODM deputy party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi said that anybody still bent on using the ethnic card to gain an advantage was “devoid of ideas”.
The Somali community, mostly residing in Eastleigh estate, dominates Kamukunji Constituency both in numbers and economically. They have vast business interests in the area.
At the moment, ODM candidate Ibrahim “Johnnie” Ahmed and PNU Alliance’s Yusuf Hassan are seen as the frontrunners to replace Simon Mbugua as the next MP. They are both of Somali origin.
Mr Mbugua lost to Mr Hassan at the PNU Alliance nominations held at the Bomas of Kenya last week.
The former MP, whose election the court nullified for irregularities observed in the December 2007 poll, has however promised to make an announcement of his next course of action today (Monday).
Also in the race is Agano Party’s David Waihiga.
Speaking to the Nation yesterday, Mr Mudavadi said: “If he (Weke) wants to classify members of the Somali community as outsiders then it is very discriminative and should be condemned.”
“These people have always been part of the Kenyan society and in this day and age, you cannot start classifying people as natives and outsiders.”
PNU Alliance’s Hassan also disputed Weke’s statement saying he was born and bred in Eastleigh. “The boundaries of Kamukunji and the name have constantly changed but Eastleigh is part of it therefore nobody can call me an outsider.”
He said the new Constitution guarantees every Kenyan the right to vie for any post in any part of the country.
“Let the voters look at the values that the candidates have and not where they have come from,” he added.
Mr Waihiga warned that such classification of people could carry massive negative consequences should it be allowed to go on.
“Kamukunji is a cosmopolitan constituency that includes all tribes of Kenya. I don’t subscribe to a situation where anybody is labelled as resident or foreigner as long as they have relevant documents to live in Kenya,” said Mr Waihiga, who withdrew from the joint PNU Alliance nominations to run on Agano Party ticket.
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