Why ANC-Ford K merger was stillborn – Weekly Citizen

The emerging Wycliffe Oparanya factor in Luhya politics has caused shivers among ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi and his Ford-Kenya counterpart Moses Wetang’ula forcing the duo to put to an indefinite halt plans to merge their political parties into a one formidable force from Western region. Fear is that Cotu boss Francis Atwoli is planning Bukhungu 11 where Oparanya will be installed the Luhya community spokesman. Many had expected Atwoli to fund the conference to ANC-Ford K merger but declined but instead funded, Kakamega BBI rally which Mudavadi and Wetang’ula were initially opposed to but ended up attending after Uhuru Kenyatta intervened. Mudavadi and Wetang’ula have kept their supporters waiting for the much touted ANC-Ford-K merger, two years since they formed a political marriage and declared that the only way to unite the Mulembe Nation was by ensuring that members of the community subscribe to one strong political outfit that will champion their political interests in their national arena.

COTU SG Francis Atwoli

But their plans to have the two parties that enjoy support in the Luhyaland dissolved and come up with one formidable one has since hit a snag, with the emerging of the Oparanya factor in ODM after he declared he will go for presidency being of the main concern. Oparanya is allied to ODM leader Raila Odinga where he is the deputy party leader. Political pundits argue that Oparanya’s political move has changed the dimensions for the two leaders and they fear that dissolving their political parties might be writing their political obituary. Mudavadi and Wetang’ula have realised that it will be a big challenge for them to market the new party in the region and be able to deal with Oparanya who will take advantage of the situation to market ODM which already boasts of huge support in the region. It is because of this reason that Mudavadi and Wetang’ula no longer discuss plans to merge their parties in their meetings but instead only assures their supporters that they will back one of them for the top seat. Mudavadi seems to have moved on after realising that it was not a wise move to dissolve his ANC party and has embarked on campaigns to brand himself as the best leader to succeed President Uhuru.

Kakamega governor Wycliffe Ambetsa Oparanya

But the shadow of Oparanya still haunts him as he has been unable to fully penetrate Western province because of ODM influence that has seen politicians elected in parliament and senate on ANC start angling towards ODM. Senator Cleophas Malala and nominated MP Godfrey Osotsi are leading the bandwagon. Mudavadi and Wetang’ula fear that Oparanya might be the preferred candidate by ODM in the event Raila Odinga decides that he will not run for presidency in the next general elections then they need to go back to the drawing board. Political analysts believe that Oparanya factor is emerging as residents in the region are building a lot of confidence in him following his success stories in different leadership capacities that he is currently holding. Oparanya has risen to the position of chairman council of governors. He is doing his second term at the CoG helm.

Kakamega senator Cleophas Malala

This position puts him in a strategic position to marshal support across the country for his bid for the presidency. Sources revealed to Weekly Citizen that Oparanya has embarked on a vigorous campaign to use his position at the CoG to marshal support from the entire governors as he strategises himself to be on the ballot box for presidency in the next polls. Majority of the governors except those allied to deputy president William Ruto seem to be falling prey to Oparanya’s political strategy as they have promised to back his bid. Our sources told us that governors led by Kivutha Kibwana, Charity Ngilu, Lee Kinyanjui and all their counterparts from Western province were key campaigners of Oparanya on the CoG plum post and were luring other colleagues to see the need to having one of their own to vie for the country’s presidency as he will understand devolution issues better and be ready to put in place mechanisms to solve them. Oparanya is also the deputy party leader of ODM, the second most popular and vibrant party in the country.

Nakuru Governor Lee Kinyanjui

He chairs the Lake Region Economic Bloc, co-chaired the committee set up by Uhuru to work out on the revival of the collapsed sugar sector in the country and was recently appointed by Uhuru as the government’s representative on the newly formed Covid-19 Emergency Fund Board. He is one of the most successful governors as during his tenure he has been able to make residents of Kakamega feel the real fruits of devolution. Among the key projects that Oparanya has undertaken include setting up of Bukhungu stadium, tarmacking close to 200 kilometres of roads in rural areas and Kakamega town, construction of the magnificent Kakamega Teaching and Referral Hospital and his ambitious plans to upgrade Kakamega town into city status among others.

All these factors have made Atwoli, who commands respect and support among the Luhyas to support Oparanya as the Luhya spokesman. This has not gone down well with Mudavadi and his supporters who in turn term Atwoli as a political broker using the Luhya community to serve interests of Raila Odinga. But Atwoli has dismissed the claims and questioned why Mudavadi and his supporters did not talk ill of him when he installed the former vice president as the Luhya spokesman. Atwoli is said to be holding secret meetings with Oparanya to strategise on how to consolidate Western and devour into Mudavadi and Wetang’ula popularity in the region. Already Oparanya got a political boost after five MPs from Kakamega, two from Jubilee and three from Mudavadi’s ANC promised to back his bid for presidency.

Former Kakamega senator Bonny Khalwale

Speaking at a funeral ceremony at Mabole village in Butere sub county recently, Jubilee MPs Beranard Shinali (Ikolomani) and Waluke Wangwe (Navokholo) declared that they had ditched Ruto for Oparanya because Ruto betrayed them by picking on former Kakamega senator Bonnie Khalwale as his point man at the expense of elected leaders from the region. Shinali who is the chairman of Kakamega parliamentarian group said that they had organised a meeting with Oparanya in Nairobi to discuss development and political matters. Other MPs from the area supporting Oparanya include Malala, women representative Elsie Muhanda and Osotsi whose origin is Vihiga county but has settled in Lugari. Mudavadis’s problems in his Western political base stated when he lost Osotsi who was the founder member of ANC and party’s secretary general and replaced him with a more academician Barrack Muluka.

ANC suffered another blow when Malala ditched the party for Raila and was appointed as deputy minority leader in the senate. Lugari MP and ANC deputy party leader Ayub Savula is also another Mudavadi friendly MP but playing neutral. Savula on several occasions has brushed shoulders with Mudavadi close allies by sharply criticising the former deputy prime minister in the public. The latest incident was during the memorial service for Kakamega primary school pupils who perished in a stampede at the school at Bukhungu stadium where Savula dressed down Mudavadi, accusing him of being misled by malicious individuals surrounding him that Savula was not popular in Kakamega. “Mudavadi wacha kudanganywa na watu wako kuwa Savula hana watu Kakamega…mimi niko na wafuasi hapa Kakamega hata kukushinda wewe,” Savula told Mudavadi on his face during the function that was televised live on all TV stations. The drama did not end there as Savula disrupted Mudavadi’s speech when he started dishing out money to mourners as the former VP began his address forcing him to halt it.

He then blocked his convoy outside Bukhungu stadium, dished out money and addressed his supporters before police intervened and cleared the way for Mudavadi. The move annoyed Mudavadi’s supporters who vented their anger on Savula on all proMudavadi social media platforms. Mudavadi has decided to be a lone ranger in the country’s politics; a move that pundits say he should change and create his own formidable empire, reach to Ngala family at the Coast to cultivate the former Kadu bastion and visit neibouring Uganda and push the opposition agenda. He has declared himself the leader of opposition after Raila’s handshake with Uhuru made him to be in bed with the president. But Mudavadi has been struggling to fill the gap that has been left behind by Raila. He has lost his political grip in Western especially Kakamega after MPs and MCAs elected on ANC ticket ditched the for Oparanya and Ruto.

Mudavadi should sustain the elected leaders and have them rally behind him and hold meetings with them to lay political strategies to help him tower in the region. In his Vihiga home turf, Mudavadi must be the political kingpin and ought to have an automatic control of the tinny county as he enjoys total support of the Maragoli sub tribe in the county. The worst political scenario is that since the inception of county governments, Mudavadi mus strive to produce a governor on his political party. In the first devolution elections, his UDF party lost the governorship to Moses Akaranga of the little known Progressive Party of Kenya. In the last general elections, Wilber Ottichilo was elected as governor on ODM ticket edging out ANC’s Yusuf Chanzu. Mudavadi critics accuse him of failing to use key positions he held in both the late president Moi and Kibaki’s government to shape western region and specifically Vihiga economically nor helping people from the region get key government’s appointments.

Nominated MP Godfrey Osotsi

Wetangula does not have the total support of the region that can profile him as a credible leader to fly the community’s flag for the top seat but he is a go-getter of great managerial acumen. It is argued that he was using attempts for presidency to win the senatorial seat and put himself in a strategic position in the country’s political realignments. His critics believe that he has been unable to fit in the shoe of the former Ford-K leader and late vice president Wamalwa Kijana.