By JULIUS SIGEI jsigei@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Saturday, September 24 2011 at 22:00
Posted Saturday, September 24 2011 at 22:00
In Summary
- Analysts say closing of ranks will allay the Kalenjin hostility against the Prime Minister
Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s visit to Eldama Ravine
last Sunday and his apparent rapprochement with former President Moi is
raising speculation about his new effort to recapture the Rift Valley
vote.
The perceived closing of ranks between the two
started two weeks ago when Mr Moi and his aide, Mr Joshua Kulei,
attended the wedding of the PM’s son, Raila Odinga Jnr.
The
speculation intensified when Mr Odinga picked Mr Moi’s son, Gideon, to
head a Mau resettlement committee whose members include East African
Community minister Musa Sirma, assistant ministers Magerer Lang’at and
Beatrice Kones, as well as Sotik’s Joyce Laboso — all the PM’s allies.
The
younger Moi’s appointment is intriguing, given that his father is
associated with the Kiptagich Tea Factory, earmarked for demolition in
the next phase of the forest’s restoration.
Analysts
say while it might be a little late in the day to win back the support
of a region, it is important to tone down the community’s antipathy
towards Mr Odinga after he severed links with the region’s de facto
leader Eldoret North MP William Ruto.
Were he and Mr
Moi to work together, it would be a dramatic reunion after they differed
in 2002 when Mr Odinga led an exodus of top Kanu leaders from the party
to protest Mr Moi’s choice of Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta as
his preferred successor, a move that effectively quashed the latter’s
bid for State House.
Kanu-NDP merger
Mr Odinga had, despite having been detained for nine
years by the Moi administration, joined the party in its sunset years
under the Kanu-NDP merger.
Energy assistant minister Magerer Lang’at told the Sunday Nation
on Friday: “It would have been pretentious for us to claim we have the
people when key leaders like Mr Moi were not with us. We don’t want to
repeat the mistake made by the other group,” he said, referring to the
Ruto camp.
“We acknowledge that everybody cannot be in
ODM, but we can work together with the other leaders in a structured
manner so long as there is no question about who the presidential
candidate is.”
He said the PM had adopted a new approach of meeting target groups together with holding rallies.
“We
shall be visiting county after county because the needs of every region
are unique. We shall also be talking to professionals, business people,
church leaders, youth and women’s groups.”
The
Kipkelion MP said ODM leaders in the Rift Valley had decided to debunk
the myth created by the rebel MPs that Mr Odinga had wronged the
community.
“Wherever we go we shall be asking what Mr
Odinga’s charge sheet is. Because you cannot accuse somebody without a
charge sheet containing his alleged transgressions,” he said.
He
said the PM had in the past week met the Kalenjin Council of Elders
chairman Maj (rtd) John Seei, and more meetings had been lined up for
other leaders from all Kalenjin sub-groups.
The PM was also in Kapenguria last Saturday at the invitation of
Pokot leaders to celebrate local MP Julius Murgor’s appointment as
assistant minister in the recent Cabinet reshuffle that was seen as Mr
Odinga’s last chance to clean the ODM house.
The PM is
believed to have hosted meetings with various leaders from the Rift
Valley in the weeks following the reshuffle and confirmation of charges
hearings at the International Criminal Court.
New Higher Education minister Prof Margaret Kamar said they had invested so much in ODM it would not be prudent to leave.
“I
don’t know how to lie. I was elected on an ODM ticket, and I don’t
think it is right to talk about UDM now when we are busy serving Kenyans
who voted for us. Elections are still far off,” she said.
Confirmation hearings
The
Ravine celebrations were reportedly supposed to have been held earlier,
but Mr Odinga, together with ODM leaders from the region led by Mr
Lang’at, Agriculture minister Dr Sally Kosgei and Prof Kamar, agreed
there could be no celebrations while Mr Ruto and ODM chairman Henry
Kosgey were facing the hearings at the ICC.
Besides the
Moi rapprochement and the warm reception the PM has received in the
recent past, he is also said to be buoyed by ODM’s victory in the
elections in Nakuru municipality and Baringo County Council.
“The appointment of Mr Sirma has re-energised our
resolve to galvanise ground support; he had maintained a firm stand and
unswerving loyalty to the ODM,” said Baringo Central ODM chairman James
Rotich, who recently led professionals and political leaders from
Baringo County to a meeting with the PM at his Nairobi office.
But
Kanu secretary-general Nick Salat downplayed the significance of Mr
Gideon Moi’s appointment and the former President’s attendance at the
wedding.
“Why sensationalise a simple appointment?
There has not been any discussion by Mzee (Moi), Mr Odinga, Kanu nor
ODM. We care for the conservation of Mau and the resettlement of our
people, and wherever the appointment of Gideon came from we welcome it,”
said Mr Salat, adding that Kanu always wanted to be part of the
solution to the Mau conservation effort.
Konoin MP
Julius Kones and his Cherangany counterpart Joshua Kutuny scoffed at the
union, saying it was inconsequential because “a lot of water has gone
under the bridge”.
“Raila is playing politics with the
resettlement issue. But it is too late for him to now pass as the
saviour when people know he was the cause of their suffering,” said Mr
Kones, adding that Mr Moi did not have a grip on the Rift Valley for the
PM to bank on.
“Raila is lying to himself to even
imagine he could regain an iota of support in the Rift Valley, more so
now when the community’s leaders are before the ICC,” Mr Kutuny said.
Former
Subukia MP Koigi wa Wamwere said the coming together of the two was
motivated by their mutual intent to bring down Mr Ruto.
“Mr
Odinga is trying to convince the Kalenjin community that by differing
with Mr Ruto he had not differed with the whole community. Whether he
gets a significant number of votes for doing that is neither here nor
there, but it certainly does mellow the community’s hostility against
him,” he said.
Prof Egara Kabaji of Masinde Muliro University said: “Even if Moi does not necessarily say Raila ‘tosha’, he would still have campaigned for him by not attacking him like he did in 2007.”
Prof Egara Kabaji of Masinde Muliro University said: “Even if Moi does not necessarily say Raila ‘tosha’, he would still have campaigned for him by not attacking him like he did in 2007.”
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