Simama Kenya loses yet another opportunity to galvanise support

Police on Thursday cancelled a permit for Eugene Wamalwa and his supporters to hold a public rally in Bungoma, leaving Prime Minister Raila Odinga to hog the limelight this weekend. But, as TIM WANYONYI and LUCAS BARASA report, the move only serves to raise the political temperatures

Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who would have shared a political limelight with some of his rivals in Western Province this weekend, will now have a free reign after police cancelled a rival rally in Bungoma. The much-publicised Simama Kenya meeting, scheduled for this Sunday, was called off after the government withdrew its licence, citing security concerns.

President Kibaki’s son Jimmy and Saboti MP Eugene Wamalwa announced the last-minute cancellation in Nairobi on Thursday. Jimmy is the lobby’s patron. Mr Wamalwa said the Western provincial police boss King’ori Mwangi had personally informed them of the cancellation on phone.

“Preparations for the rally were in top gear,” he said. “However, we have received reports of security concerns. As you know, the rally had generated a lot of heat, both within the government and in Western Kenya.” But, even before the rally was called off, there were reports that some of Mr Wamalwa’s opponents had planned to disrupt it.

But, on Thursday, Mr Wamalwa and the young Kibaki said threats will not stop their push for a ‘generational change’ in Kenyan politics. “We reiterate that we are committed to support Eugene Wamalwa, and affirm that we will support him (for the Presidency) for a generational change,” Jimmy said.

The two, who were accompanied by former Cabinet minister Moses Akaranga and former MP Raphael Wanjala, said they were planning for another rally in Bungoma soon, and that they would embark on a nationwide campaign to popularise their party and their presidential candidate.

The cancellation means Prime Minister Raila Odinga will have the region to himself this weekend as he addresses meetings in Kakamega on Friday and Saturday — when he is scheduled to meet Orange Democratic Movement delegates at the Golf Hotel.

The Simama Kenya rally had been viewed as a platform for Mr Wamalwa and members of his camp to dive head-first into the Kibaki succession pool, even though there were jitters within the ODM that Mr Wamalwa’s escapades in the region would eat into Mr Odinga’s popularity.

The ODM garnered 18 out of the 24 parliamentary seats in the province during the last General Election. In Bungoma, which, before the elections, had been seen as a Ford-K back yard, Mr Odinga bagged two seats — Kanduyi and Webuye — and narrowly lost the Sirisia vote.

This time around, ODM strategists are upbeat they can sweep the whole of the district, a prospect Mr Wamalwa and his supporters seem keen to defy. That may seem a long shot for the novice that is Mr Wamalwa, but politics, as the late veteran politician Masinde Muliro used to say, is about ambition. And those without dreams have no business being in politics.

From the look of things, Mr Wamalwa has started his grand march to the House on the Hill, and is prepared to bruise a few egos along the way. The cancelled rally, analysts say, would have been Mr Wamalwa’s greatest opportunity to take over the leadership of Ford Kenya, a prospect that would have seen him retrace the footsteps of his elder brother, Mr Michael Kijana Wamalwa, the former Vice-President who took the region by storm in the run-up to the 2002 elections.

‘‘This is the beginning of a ‘Eugene Wave’ in Western,” Mr Boniface Otsula, a Bungoma lawyer who was also chairman of the rally’s steering committee, told the Nation. “It should put on notice all politicians .... If you do not join it, you will be swept away.’’

Mr Wamalwa himself alluded to this ‘wave’ when he announced the rally’s cancellation on Thursday. For him, it was just a step back to the drawing board. ‘‘A Tsunami retreats to gather stronger force before it hits,” he said, and reiterated that he was still in the race for both the Ford Kenya chairmanship and the country’s Presidency in 2012.

However, there are those who see the young Wamalwa’s moves as wishful thinking. ‘‘It’s a pipe dream,’’ said Mr Lucas Watta, a member of the Western Province Elders Advisory Council and a strong supporter of Mr Odinga. “Western Kenya residents are still fully behind Mr Odinga and Mr (Musalia) Mudavadi. We are united and will not fall prey to any attempts to split us.’’

He poured cold water on Simama Kenya and Mr Wamalwa’s claim that President Kibaki would honour an MoU with his late brother and hand over power to him in 2012. Said Mr Watta: ‘‘Mr Wamalwa should be careful not to be used by our Central Kenya brothers the way former ministers Mukhisa Kituyi and Musikari Kombo were used and dumped.”

He added: “Mr Kombo failed in his efforts to take Luhyas the wrong route in 2007.” Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo, who initially appeared at rallies with Mr Wamalwa, also advised caution. Speaking in Bumula, Bungoma at the weekend, Mr Jirongo said those promising to support Mr Wamalwa had failed to honour their promises in the past.

In an apparent reference to the famous MoU between President Kibaki and Mr Odinga before the 2002 election, Mr Jirongo said: ‘‘If they have failed to honour it in the past, how sure are we that they’ll do it this time?’’

Mr Odinga’s supporters see the hand of the KKK Alliance in Mr Wamalwa’s moves, and term it as another front in the war within ODM between Agriculture minister William Ruto and Mr Odinga. Before the Bungoma rally was cancelled, supporters of Ruto, led by Cherengani MP Joshua Kutuny, had indicated they will attend.

Counter onslaught

Mr Odinga met delegates from the 21 constituencies in Coast Province in December to counter an onslaught launched by Mr Ruto and Najib Balala (Tourism) over his leadership. Mr Odinga also led 15 Cabinet ministers and more than 50 MPs to a rally at the Tononoka Grounds in Mombasa, where he announced the ODM was still the party to beat in 2012, and that they would not be derailed from their march to State House.

Launching a countrywide drive to galvanise support for the party in Homa Bay earlier this month, Mr Odinga said the strength of the ODM lay with the masses. “The basis of a party is the grassroots and the masses. As a party, we have realised that we must reinforce the foundation. Today, we have begun a countrywide programme to meet grassroots leaders and iron out differences,” he said.

The PM maintained that the party was stronger even in territories that were formerly not friendly. A recent opinion poll showed that Mr Odinga’s popularity in Central Kenya had risen significantly, overtaking deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, who had been seen as the region’s formidable contender for the Presidency in 2012.

Additional reporting by Peter Leftie