Oparanya rides high but is there more to rising profile?

Early this year, a joint team of the Senate and the Council of Governors (CoG) visited Kakamega County for some official business which, among other things, included inspection of facilities to determine whether it had the capacity to host the Annual Devolution Conference (DevCon).

DELEGATES
The county had been picked to host the 5th DevCon during the fourth one held in Nakuru County in 2017. Customarily, before any such meeting is held, a fact-finding team is dispatched to gauge the suitability of the venue owing to the huge number of delegates that range anywhere between 5,000 and 8,000 people.

LINCHPINS
Even though the county’s hospitality industry awfully failed the test, owing to lack of top-notch hotels, the inspection team unanimously returned a resounding affirmation, giving Governor Wycliffe Oparanya the right to play host to a gathering that has emerged as one of the most important linchpins of devolution.

TRANSFORMED
It would later emerge the decision was made largely owing to Oparanya’s charisma and the quiet manner he has transformed the county, making it a model of devolution, according to an insider.
Awed by the governor's performance, a Jubilee Party senator in the team saw an opportunity for a man who could make the ruling party make forays into the county and the region that, only months earlier, had voted overwhelmingly for the Opposition Nasa coalition in the general election.

INFRASTRUCTURE
“I was impressed with the way he has transformed the county,” the senator would later intimate to a group of parliamentary journalists, picking out the Sh6 billion hospital under construction for special praise. Besides, there was the upgrading of Bukhungu Stadium and the general improvement of infrastructure that would make the senator feel proud of the governor.

MODALITIES
With the team having viewed Oparanya as a possible political asset in 2022, the senator decided to seek an appointment with Deputy President William Ruto with a view to explore the best modalities of ensuring that the governor was lured to their side in the hope he will be the DP’s bulwark in the region when the 2022 elections gongs are sounded.

HOSPITAL
In his estimation, the senator, whom we have chosen not to reveal so as not to appear to be antagonising his colleagues, wanted to plead with Ruto to use his influence in government to help Oparanya complete the construction of the hospital and use it as a bait to lure him to his side.

PROPOSAL
“I thought, and still do, that Oparanya is a high-level political asset who will really boost the image of the Jubilee and Ruto should he agree to cross over,” the senator said on Friday.
However, the senator’s plan fell through. Soon after he shared the proposal with some leaders from central Kenya, it was shot down at the insistence of a controversial governor who rejected the idea outright.

UPENDED
“Do you have a similar hospital in your county?” the governor asked the shocked senator. “Why should you intervene to assist other people to have what you don’t have in your county? Just forget it.”
Even though that upended what would have been the senator’s push to reel in Oparanya, it goes without saying that Oparanya’s political star has been on the rise in the recent past.

ELECTED
Apart from the DevCon, Kakamega was also picked to host the 2018 Mashujaa Day celebrations. Oparanya, who served as Planning Minister in the Kibaki regime, was unanimously elected by his peers as the founding chairman of the Lake Region Economic Bloc, which brings together 14 counties in Western Kenya. It is the only regional bloc whose launch the President has presided over.

POPULAR
A 2016 opinion poll commissioned by Cotu Secretary General Francis Atwoli placed Oparanya as the second most popular Luhya leader after Musalia Mudavadi and his popularity may have surged owing to his performance as governor.
Apart from the stadium, he has constructed modern markets in all the 12 sub-counties, at least 14 bridges, including the famous Khaunga Bridge, which is touted as the longest in Western region. He has also launched OparanyaCare, which is meant to address high mortality rates in the county.

COMPROMISE
Over the last couple of months, the governor has been receiving delegations at his homes in both Kakamega and Nairobi, including a high-powered delegation from the Mt Kenya region.
According to sources, power brokers in central Kenya view him as a compromise candidate should there be any political deal with western Kenya.
With the Musalia Mudavadi dilly-dallying and the near-certainty that Moses Wetangula is headed for Ruto’s camp, the governor has emerged as a possible alternative for the ruling elite now that the relationship between the President and his deputy is facing some headwinds.