Packed field in Tana River as 11 eye woman rep seat

From left: Women Representatives Shukra Hussein Gure (Garissa), Halima Ware (Tana River) and Zainab Chidzuga (Kwale) have a chat at Parliament Buildings on June 11, 2015 after reading of the budget. Ms Ware has been accused of being unavailable to the county residents. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Tribal and clan politics are key variables that influence outcomes of elections in the arid-and-semi-arid county.
  • Cracks have since emerged in the negotiated democracy featuring Governor Dado and his deputy Jire Siyat.

Eleven aspirants are seeking to unseat Tana River Woman Representative Halima Ware in a titanic race in the August 8 General Election.

The high number of hopefuls eyeing support from their communities have dimmed the incumbent’s bid of retaining her seat.

Tribal and clan politics are key variables that influence outcomes of elections in the arid-and-semi-arid county more than re-alignments centered on party politics.

No political party can claim to be dominant in the county where the Orma, Wardei and Pokomo elders determine who will contest all the five elective seats.

NEGOTIATED DEMOCRACY
And the just-concluded party primaries were just mere window-dressing, as elders had already settled on preferred candidates to be voted for by their respective communities regardless of the political party tickets.

Mrs Ware is from the Orma community, which in 2013 entered into negotiated democracy with their Wardei neighbours, and formed the current county administration headed by Governor Hussein Dado.

Mrs Ware, a former provincial administrator was then the preferred candidate endorsed by elders in that political set-up.

She won the seat with 28,843 votes, defeating a second candidate from that political grouping, Ms Maka Maimuna Mohamed who defied elders’ writ to step down but ultimately emerged third with 10,041 votes.

DADO'S POLITICAL FUTURE
In 2017, a lot has changed and different realignments have emerged within the two communities and this, according to political observers, is not going to favour Mrs Ware.

Cracks have since emerged in the negotiated democracy dubbed ‘Irdida Baretum’ featuring Governor Dado and his deputy Jire Siyat, after a section of Wardei elders endorsed the county assembly Speaker Nuh Abdi for the top seat.

Dr Nuh’s endorsement opened floodgates for four woman representative candidates from his community to show their interest in the seat, further throwing into a disarray re-election hope for the Jubilee candidate.

The four include Kureisha Mohamed (Independent), Saadiya Hussein (Wiper), Maka Maimuna Mohamed (Party for Development and Reforms) and Luli Rashid who sought the elders’ blessings.

LAUNCHING PROJECTS
The elders settled for Ms Hussein, leaving Ms Rashid to abstain, sparking protests from Ms Maka Mohamed and Ms Kureisha Mohammed who declared to never “kill” their political ambitions.

That revolt would not in any way be helpful to Mrs Ware since the four would just share their community’s estimated 30,000 votes.

The probability that a faction of Wardei allied to Deputy Governor Siyat and Senator Abdi Bule, who opposed Dr Nuh’s endorsement and remained in the original Orma-Wardei coalition, would vote for Ware, is also a mirage.  

In her own Orma community, Mrs Saddiya Halima Koro of Narc–K is giving her a run for her money and Ms Amina Dinka (Kanu) from the Borana community, closer to the Orma in dialect, is also vigorously campaigning, drilling boreholes, offering bursaries to needy students and supplying water to drought stricken villages.

POLITICAL ALLIANCE
The two young women have attracted a huge following among rebellious Orma youth and women voters, especially in Galole and Garsen constituencies, who have vowed to go against elders’ decision to endorse Mrs Ware for a second term.

In an interview, Mrs Koro, 40, alleged that Mrs Ware, 60, has neglected women and belittled her candidature, vowing to never shelve her ambition even if prevailed upon by elders to step down.

“I am more appealing to the despaired voters because she is unavailable and has disconnected herself from ordinary voters,” she claimed.

It is impractical that Pokomos would leave two of their candidates, Melisa Hadida (ANC) and Alfeit Mumbo (ODM), and back her re-election bid.

This is because the farming community suffered a political setback in 2013 elections after failing to send their own to the National Assembly and Senate and only secured five of the 15 elected MCAs posts due to the combined force of the Orma and Wardei political alliance.