Leaders warned against playing divisive politics

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UDF presidential hopeful Musalia Mudavadi addresses the public after opening the party’s office at Likuyani in Lugari, Kakamega County, October 27, 2012. Photo/JARED NYATAYA 

By BERNARD NAMUNANE bnamunane@ke.nationmedia.com AND OLIVER MATHENGE omathenge@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Monday, October 29  2012 at  00:30

IN SUMMARY

• In the past fortnight all the aspirants for State House have held flurries of meetings is search of winning combinations

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The frenzy with which top presidential aspirants are moving to craft pre-election alliances is leading the country into more divisions, say political analysts.

Kenyans have witnessed a flurry of supposed pacts in the past two weeks between presidential aspirants Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka, Uhuru Kenyatta, Musalia Mudavadi, William Ruto, and Eugene Wamalwa. (READ: Top seat aspirants fly to Mara for unity talks)

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) has set December 4 as the deadline for political parties which intend to enter coalitions to register them with the Registrar of Political Parties.

On Sunday, University of Nairobi’s Prof Karuti Kanyinga, Orange Democratic Movement’s Prof Larry Gumbe and G7 Alliance’s Prof Peter Kagwanja raised questions about the direction of the alliance making, saying they will result in a more divided country.

“Our leaders have managed to divide the country into five political zones and they are playing divisive politics. They are going into negotiations for purposes of winning power and not moving the country forward,” said Prof Kanyinga.

Prof Gumbe argued that the ongoing pursuit of alliances, unlike 2002 and 2007, is largely grounded on ethnicity, and the looming International Criminal Court (ICC) cases.

“There are very many factors such as the ICC, ideologies of parties and ethnic dimensions. For instance, if you want votes in Luoland, there is only one leader you can talk to. The same applies to central Kenya and Rift Valley,” he said.

He explained further: “The ICC is an important issue in this election because there are two key politicians involved. You cannot wish it away.”

He claimed that some aspirants were leading their rivals in a wild goose chase since they had already decided on their coalition partners.

“There are politicians who know where they want to go, but they want to show that they talked to everybody and say we failed to agree,” he said.

Prof Kagwanja said it was sad that the presidential aspirants were not involving the voters in their negotiations which he said were driven by the realisation that none of them can win on his or her own.

“Voters are not being consulted by their leaders over coalitions, making it an elitist thing. But they have to be patient and allow them take shape,” he said.

With higher benchmarks to clinch the presidency, the presidential hopefuls are awake to the reality that they cannot win the election alone especially in the first round vote. One needs to get more than 50 per cent of the votes cast and 25 per cent in half of the 47 counties to win the presidency in the first round.

Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta of The National Alliance (TNA) and his co-accused in the ICC cases, Eldoret North MP William Ruto (United Republican Party) are set to formalise their union in the coming weeks.

The Alliance Party of Kenya, National Rainbow Coalition, Ford People and New Ford Kenya are also in talks with TNA.

Last Tuesday, officials of TNA and Justice minister Eugene Wamalwa’s New Ford-Kenya met to tie up their agreement.

Towards the end of last week there were strong signs that Prime Minister Raila Odinga of ODM and Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka of Wiper Democratic Movement were reaching out to each other.

Last week. Mr Odinga was hosted for lunch by Kangundo MP Johnstone Muthama, a close ally of the VP, in Tala.

On Sunday, the two watched a football match involving Gor Mahia and Tusker FC.

Mr Musyoka has in the past said he is in the G7 fronted by Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto, but is now not ruling out reaching out to other leaders.

“There are proper channels and party organs that must be utilised for the purposes of any coalition discussions. These discussions must be fully participatory and not random pronouncements,” the VP said on Saturday in apparent disowning of Mr Muthama’s moves.

Mr Odinga and his former ODM ally, Mr Ruto, have also explored the possibility of re-uniting, a development that may have spurred Mr Kenyatta to move faster in locking on to the Eldoret North MP.

Mr Mudavadi has also met Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto for unity talks, but the two seem not too keen on him and the deputy PM has in the past week focused more on cementing his place in the Luhya leadership.

The UDF presidential aspirant two weeks ago met with Federal Party of Kenya’s Cyrus Jirongo and Ford Kenya’s Moses Wetangula for unity talks.

On Sunday, Prof Kanyinga accused the presidential aspirants of building ethnic enclaves.“Each of them has individually isolated his community from the rest of Kenyans for selfish interests.

None of them can hold an assembly where at least 70 per cent of attendants are Kenyans from other communities,” he said. And he blamed an electoral system which emphasises the winner takes all approach.