By Daniel Saenyi
The campaigns for the next elections are due next year and the western Kenya is still divided. It’s high time the luhya leaders stop playing the “I want to be president” game or else they will lose the presidential elections.
Every luhya MP wants to be president, Wakoli, Eugene, Mudavadi, Wetangula, name them, all want power. Each of them represents the divided luhya communities and the least chances of them making it to the State house.
For western Kenya to benefit from the new constitution unity is the counter. If Eugene’s followers beat up Wetangula’s, Wakoli, or Mudavadi’s or vice versa, and the two leaders may be friends, chatting away in parliament, the ground level citizen will suffer alone. The 2007 post election violence might just happen again at this rate, this time in Western Kenya alone.
In this Bull fight, Wetangula seems to be the Underdog, he hasn’t yet launched his campaign rallies but is quietly spreading the wave of his presidential candidacy, but is going around preaching that Bungoma needs to elect good governors day after day enough to take on Eugene. Trying to play the good boy card as Eugene shoots his chops may be his game to make Eugene look bad. To make it worse, bad mouthing Eugene is only making this rift bigger.
Leading the race to state house at moment seems to be Eugene, with his recent political rally creating a Eugene wave all over Western Kenya has shown he has many followers, but in politics the crowds may be deceiving. His dare devil move to attack his rival Wetangula in his backyard maybe the move that brings out wetangula from his back yard, that, we have to wait and see.
The two leaders represent the top parties for the candidacy but the third player vows to do anything to get the position Bifwoli Wakoli also campaigning for the seat says he is ready to use any vehicle to reach state house, he will shift parties if that’s what it takes, he will step on any toes as long he makes it, that is another quarter of luhya Votes divided.
As for Mudavadi, many Kenyans say he is more likely to make it as Raila’s running mate, but he surely won’t get votes from western. He may have made friends with in Nyanza but running mate is all he will get, should not even contemplate the fact of the alliance.
Wamalwa Kijana paved way for the Luhya’s to make it to the top in parliament, it’s sad that his legacy may just deplete with this level of division.
One politician doesn’t need to be bad for the other one to be good, its time to stop the name calling and maybe they will see that they all have a common goal for western. Not every luhya has to be president but if this continues, no Luhya will make it to parliament.
This is the time for a luhya to be president, Nancy Barasa being the deputy chief justice might just be a sign or some good mojjo.
Even with this division, the final verdict is still the voters; they are the ones to choose who the right person for the job is. Word of advice to luhya’s, don’t share out your votes to the aspirants even with this division, just choose one card for the game.
Not all the luhya leaders have delivered to our expectations, each of them is an MP for a certain constituency, what they have done there so far, if there are no developments, why vote some one for presidency when they can’t deliver as Members for Parliament.
There are many contestants in the country; this has divided the country into many regions based on who is voting for who. But Western has the most partitions each of them representing a fraction of votes from the people.
Would it really hurt to add up the fractions to get one? The Luhya community is the second largest in the country with unity it might make it state house even without other communities voting for them, that’s according to old constitution though.
With the new constitution a candidate needs 25% of votes from each County, which means all other communities, need to vote for the luhya too. How will we get others to follow us if we ourselves are at odds?
Raila is a strong a contender because he has all the Luo’s eating out his palm, but is he really the best thing for Kenya, or Western province distinctively. He had his shot at choosing Permanent secretaries, and no one came from Western.
This is not ethnicity, but its high time Luhyas rise to power, Western needs one of its own, and so we could have some developments done. Its time the road repairs get a move on from Eldoret where they seem to be barred all the way to Malaba.
Counties are coming up the moment this government hands over power to the next one, governorship is the new coveted position in parliament. Bungoma County being the third largest county is going to be receiving an estimated amount of about Ksh. 7 billion yearly all under the management of the governor.
Western residents don’t choose on impulse, you might just get someone on a gold rush and bring down the county to a much worse state.
The Luhya leaders on the race to state house, yes you are all proficient but this is not the means to state house. There is only one path, the only path, UNITY, or other united tribes will surely take the position. we only need to put up one man against Raila not Ten.
Politics could not stay out of this event as the MP for Kanduyi made clear stand on the issue of paying taxes. Mr. Khangati said that he does not support MP’s paying tax because they help out the society with their money.