Makueni win and Kisii protest reveal discontent with Jubilee

The landslide victory of Cord candidate Mutula Kilonzo Jnr in the Makueni by-election and the hostile reception for Jubilee leaders in Kisii on Tuesday have exposed the lingering resentment that some regions have towards the government of President Uhuru Kenyatta.

It was apparent that the Makueni by-election result was a protest vote against Jubilee, mainly fuelled by unsuccessful court action to block Cord candidates.

The backyard of former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka is a Cord stronghold. In Makueni, Cord’s candidate Mutula Kilonzo Junior garnered 163,232 votes against Jubilee coalition candidate Prof Philip Kaloki, who got 9,762 votes.

The jeering of Information Secretary Fred Matiang’i and Jubilee pointman in Gusii Prof Sam Ongeri on Tuesday also brought to the fore the antipathy towards the new leadership.

Experts reckon that President Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto will have to reach out to Nyanza, Ukambani, Western and Coast regions which largely voted for former Prime Minister Raila Odinga in the March 4 elections to promote national healing and reconciliation.

The two enjoy unquestioning support in Central Kenya and the Kalenjin Rift Valley. A number of reasons have been advanced to explain the growing resentment towards the young administration.

“Uhuru and Ruto seem comfortable with having one half of the country. Their actions and appointments have further alienated the other half,” said Prof Egara Kabaji of Masinde Muliro University.

“The Kisii incident falls within that framework. They have not gone out of their way to woo the rest of the country.”

A majority of the residents of the Gusii counties of Nyamira and Kisii voted for Mr Odinga in March. The main reason for the resentment has to do with a feeling of exclusion in public appointments, the conduct of the March election, lack of a deliberate effort by President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto to reach out to regions unfriendly to Jubilee, acts supporters perceive as aimed at humiliating Mr Odinga and the empowerment of communities due to devolution.

Critics have raised concern that Mr Kenyatta’s Kikuyu and Mr Ruto’s Kalenjin communities got the lion’s share of Cabinet appointments.

“If you go to some parts of this country such as Western, Luo Nyanza, Ukambani, Coast, Kisii, they say the Jubilee Government is operating as if they don’t exist,” says Prof Kabaji. “In Bungoma, Busia, Kakamega they tell you Uhuru and Ruto do not seem to recognise that they are the second-largest community in Kenya. Exclusivity is not helping. The gap continues to grow.”

Moreover, communities do not identify with some of the Cabinet secretaries from their regions, most of whom are city-based professionals with no connection to the grassroots.

And in places such as Ukambani and Coast, the denizens appointed to the Cabinet such as Mrs Charity Ngilu, Najib Balala and Kambi Kazungu had been rejected by voters in their home areas.

They are, therefore, seen as imposed on the people.

The Sunday Nation has established that the government has come up with a strategy to reach out to sections of the Kenyan population which have not embraced the new administration.

A State House source revealed that a team including the new political adviser to the President and former Cherangany MP Joshua Kutuny has been tasked to move across the country to elicit the co-operation of elected Cord leaders to work together on areas described as of “mutual interest”.

Saturday, Mr Kutuny indicated that the President was “committed to unifying the country by leaders regardless of their political persuasion for the sake of cohesion and to enable Jubilee to meet its growth agenda”.

“The Jubilee leadership is determined to close the divisions that arose from the election. The President leads the whole country; that is why he is keen to reach out to every Kenyan.”

Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto, who has come under attack for visiting Homa Bay county––a Cord stronghold––has cautioned President Uhuru and Mr Ruto against appearing to alienate regions that did not vote for them.

“I was involved in the crafting of the Jubilee Alliance to end violence between Kalenjins and Kikuyus which affected the rest of the country,” says Mr Ruto.

“The two groups were to be the core, but the rest of the country has to be brought in. You can’t rubbish Ukambani, Luo Nyanza, Western and Coast,” he said.

Mr Alois Muthini, a devolution expert, says the Makueni election was a protest vote against Jubilee, a reaction to a feeling of alienation and defence of community pride and integrity.

“It was a protest against the conduct of Jubilee in the days to the election. Voters were saying, ‘we may not know exactly what we want but we certainly know what we don’t want’. They hardly know Kilonzo Jnr,” he said.

Mr Muthini also reckons county governments have given communities opportunities to participate in governance and shape their destiny without depending on tokens from the national government.

During the Kisii incident, Mr Odinga was given a rousing welcome. But he has come under heavy criticism with accusations that he turned the funeral into a political rally.

Saturday, Dr Matiang’i accused Gusii Cord leaders who he said were hell-bent on causing a confrontation between their supporters and Jubilee government leaders.

He told Sunday Nation that he had been assured there would be no politics at the gathering and was surprised at the turn of events. “I couldn’t understand what was going on. It seems they wanted a confrontation between Cord supporters and the President’s delegation. Church leaders gave the funeral mass a miss because of the organisation.”

Government spokesman Muthui Kariuki accused the Kisii County government of paying the hecklers at the meeting.

Some of the crowed said they were unhappy that the President failed to attend the funeral after they had moved it from Monday to fit his schedule.

Bomachoge Borabu MP Joel Onyancha, Stephen Manoti (Bobasi) and Richard Onyonka (Kitutu Chache South) condemned the heckling.

“A mourning period is not an opportunity to settle political scores,” said Mr Onyancha who avoided the mass after Kitutu Chache North MP Jimmy Angwenyi reported the organising committee had refused to hold it in Marani.

“We feel the mass should have been held in Marani because all five schools that lost students and teachers are located there,” he said. On Friday, the Kisii County government dismissed the claim that it had paid hecklers.

“The county government cannot stoop so low as to hire hecklers to disrupt a meeting it had organised, moreover a funeral mass for its own citizens,” said Deputy Governor Joash Maangi, adding that Mr Angwenyi had said he would encourage Jubilee-leaning MPs to skip the event if it was not held at Marani in his constituency where most of the accident victims came from.

It is understood the President skipped the mass on Mr Angwenyi’s advice.