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Post by Juma Aluoch on Sept 20, 2005 21:59:23 GMT 3
Tuju: Is this heroic political move or suicidal plunge?
By Juma Aluoch
THAT Information and Communication’s Minister Raphael Tuju on Monday lived up to his billing to chart out an independent political course whatever the outcome. There has never been any need decoding his message--- the democratic space in Luoland has been stifled for far too long and time had come to open it up. His target is of course obvious. Since independence, the Odinga family has for better or worse maintained a vice-like political grip on the community. It has been Tujus contention that the arrangement is untenable. And so early this week, Tuju literally dared the heir to Odinga political legacy, Roads Minister Raila Odinga and held a parallel meeting in Kisumu where he launched a new political party the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP). The launch of PPP by the youthful Information and Communication minister in Kisumu was a clear manifestation that the Rarieda MP considered he had come of age to lock horns with Raila. In a brave --some say reckless move, Tuju flanked by a group of Luo politicians opposed to Raila, the leaders held a meeting at Ukweli Pastoral centre, just 8 kilometers away from Tom Mboya Labour college where the Roads Minister was himself holding his own meeting. Judging from Mr. Tuju’s remarks during his meeting at Ukweli Pastoral Centre, it has emerged that the die is cast and that henceforth, it is going to be an eyeball to eyeball political confrontation. While some relish the mouth watering political battles that are bound to ensue, pundits are dismissive that it all amounts to a mismatch. But listen to Tuju: “Our people are not sheep to be herded left right and centre. We need dignity .We must bring to an end to oppressive politics by some families who have arrogated themselves illicit powers in this region.” Can he pull it off is the one million dollar question in every lip. There are many who over the years have thought along same lines as Tuju. History provides their measure of success, suffice to say that it has never been easy and nobody should try to pull wool over Tujus eyes that his quest will be any different. But Tuju has admirable resolve and something of a proud record to buttress his daredevil quest. There tens of thousand of Luo leaders who think likewise but who have never mustered the courage to make a move. The initial hope was that under the aegis of the Luo Council of Elders, Raila and Tuju would be reconciled so that their obvious strengths are utilised from the same basket. Such efforts have unfortunately foundered. Those in the Odinga camp were predictably dismissive. In fact Raila claimed that the timing of Tuju’s political party was merely tailored to distract him and others from their current resolve to return a ‘No’ verdict on the Wako Draft. Tuju’s sworn political enemy back in Rarieda Eng. Nicholas Gumbo was also quick to dare his MP to launch his political party back in the constituency. While it is clear that the political duel between Odinga and Tuju appear to have gone a notch higher, what majority are asking is whether the Rarieda MP can undo the Gordian knot. A quick glance at the composition of Luo leaders that flanked Mr. Tuju during the launch of his political party reveal that among them were Former Minister Onyango Midika, Lake Basin Development Authority Chairman Owigo Olang, former MPs Oselu Nyalik, Tom Obondo, Clarkson Otieno Karan and Oluoch Kanindo. Others were Ken Opande, Joel Nyaseme and former a former Personal Assistant to Mr.Odinga, Herbert Ojwang. Political analysts argue that though Mr. Tuju may have scored where many have failed in the past by holding a successful parallel meeting in Kisumu, his choice of the group that would help him propagate the ideals of his new party is wanting. It is being argued that some of these politicians who include former Ministers, mostly having been ousted in elections. What is clear is that Mr. Tuju’s group are composed of sworn enemies of Mr. Odinga some of whom he had closely worked with but opted to abandon because of their own shortcomings. Though Midika, Olang and Kanindo are celebrated orators, their past political records Most of these politicians have even been branded as political tourists who will always join any new political party. Mr. Olang owe his current position as the Chairman of LBDA to former Kenya Pipeline Company (KPLC) Chief Executive Dr. Shem Ochuodho who was said to have lobbied for his appointment after he helped Social Party for the Advancement of Democracy in Kenya (SPARK) to win a civic seat in Nyatike. It is therefore right to state that Mr. Tuju faces a gigantic task when he eventually go down to real business of ‘marketing’ his party in Nyanza which is his home turf. Back at Tom Mboya labour college where Odinga had a seven hour closed door meeting, it was clear that those present had resolved to throw the spanner into the works for Tuju’s party. The nearly all MPs, councillors and LDP leaders present were tasked to ensure that all those who have been identified with Tuju’s political party are caged in politically. Among the MPs in Tom Mboya included Minister Ochilo Ayacko, Assistant Ministers Orwa Ojode, Peter Odoyo, MPs Philip Okundi, Dr. Adhu Awiti, Peter Owidi, Otieno Kajwang and Ken Nyagudi. Others were Prof. Ayiecho Olweny, Erick Nyamunga, Owino Likowa, Odhiambo Omamba, Sammy Weya, Oburu Odinga and Archbishop Ondiek. Also in attendance were Chairman, Luo Council of Elders Riaga Ogalo and his team and Church leaders led by Archbishop Washington Ogonyo Ngede. Though it would be premature to dismiss Mr. Tuju’s bid to offer an alternative political leadership in Luo Nyanza, the task is definitely daunting. But Tuju is one of a kind. Rarieda can attest to his unique propensity to make as different to members of the community. It is this quality that many see as his single strength.
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Post by Guest on Sept 20, 2005 22:23:00 GMT 3
Tuju is very popular ...you have no idea of what you are talking about. This man will be Kenyas 4th President...watch this pace
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Post by NYAKINDA on Sept 21, 2005 1:23:07 GMT 3
It is time that luos started an alternative political voice.This herd of sheep mentality does not suits the luo community who are supposed to be intellectuals.It is a big tusk but Tuju needs voices from the luo community who do not necessarily disagree with Raila but see the value of having an alternative view.Show your support of democracy by speaking up in support of of luos enjoying the fruits of multi party system.Note that it is not multi tribe.Luos need to belong to more than LDP and Raila needs to show true leadership by showing support for this initiative
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Post by KDP opinion on Sept 21, 2005 4:06:49 GMT 3
A Preliminary Assessment of Tuju's New Chama
Onyango Oloo Takes A Glance at RT's Brand New Political Katoi....
First, I would like to extend a mkono wa heko to Raphael Tuju with the following words:
"Kudos for your new PPP"!
I think it is wonderful that he has formed a new political party.
Like my friend Oduor Ongwen in Nairobi, I was hoping that it would be a NATIONAL party rather than a narrowly focused, ethnic party geared towards corralling LUOS in a certain political direction.
For that, the newly fangled People's Progressive Party of Kenya immediately suffers in comparison to FORD-Kenya, FORD-People, LDP, KANU, NAK and Safina which seek members and have a mandate that covers the whole of Kenya.
In scope, objectives and reach therefore, the PPP closest equivalent is the other regional party- the Shirikisho Party at the Coast.
Let me also take umbrage at Tuju’s assertions that Luos have hitherto been herded like sheep right, left and centre.
Is that, actually a fact?
A closer examination of the actual history of Nyanza province as a region and the Luo community as a whole punctures holes in these rather sweeping remarks.
From the 1950s, there was always a lot of political diversity in Luo politics, whether at its Nyanza base or elsewhere in Nakuru, Nairobi, Mombasa and elsewhere.
To give a few examples.
Let me kick off with examples from my own immediate family.
My late uncle (in fact strictly speaking I do not know whether it is accurate in Luo terms, to call him uncle- he was married to one of my father’s older sisters) Apollo Ohanga, as we all know, was a colonial ministerial appointee who was turfed from the helm of Nyanza politics in 1957 by the more radical Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. From different political schools, they were nevertheless very civil to each other. When I met Raila in Toronto in August 2000 he told me that his family and the Ohangas grew up side by side in Kisumu and he was an age-mate of my late cousin Veronica Nyamodi whose late husband, Dr. Nyamodi was a perennial rival of the pro-Odinga Oloo Aringo.
Another of my dad’s cousins was the late Agwingu Wuod Odhek better known as
Not THIS GEM Argwings-Kodhek, a Senior Research Fellow at the Nairobi based Tegemeo Institute.
Argwings K’Odhek for some arcane anglophilic assimilationist reason- even though the CMG appellation at the end of his name did not refer to some British royal honorary title, but rather his nickname- Chiedo More Gem. Agwingu came back from the UK as a lawyer and made his mark defending members of the Mau Mau in Nairobi. It was there he launched his national political career in the late 1950s with his own party, the Nairobi Congress Party. His rival in the same city turned out to be another young Luo, albeit of a more conservative pro-imperialist mien,
Tom Mboya who led the Nairobi Peoples Convention Party. These parties were regional only because when the British colonialists relented a bit in terms of the stringent conditions of the Emergency in 1956, they could only allow district based parties. And you will notice that at time, because of the genocidal and Gikuyuphobic policies of the same wakoloni, people from the Mount Kenya region were completely disenfranchised- in fact either living in home-guarded pro government villages if they were not languishing in the giant concentration camps and detention centres. Both men distinguished themselves as KENYAN politicians who were popular in cosmopolitan Nairobi despite their Luo ethnic origins. There was also a South Nyanza Congress Party. Again, the fact that they had different political stances did not preclude their participation in Kenyan politics.
Of course in the 1960s the biggest political rivalry involving Luo politicians had to do with
Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and Tom Mboya, both brilliant mobilizers and opinion leaders in their own right but veering towards opposite ends of the ideological spectrum.
Ironically it was NOT Jaramogi, but Mboya who sought to vanquish his political rival and remove Oginga Odinga from the national stage.
Sadly it was to be Mboya who would be felled by an assassin hired not by Jaramogi, but by Mboya’s mentor and godfather, Jomo Kenyatta. Another irony is that Mboya was preceded to the grave by his 1950s rival from Gem, Agwingu wuod Odhek Ja Malanga who died in a tragic road accident in early 1969 in a death that many Kenyans still hold suspicious.
At the time of his death Agwingu was the Gem MP, a constituency he served from 1963 to 1969. In fact if you look at Gem politicians you will notice considerable political diversity. Here is an excerpt of an article that was first published in the Kenya Times last year:
Gem is a constituency which in the past has been represented by such luminaries as the late CMG Argwings Kodhek (1963-1969), the late Wasonga Sijeyo (1969) Omollo Okero, Owitti Ongili, Otieno Ambala, Grace Ogot and Joe Donde.
Sijeyo, a former Kanu Senator for Nakuru District at independence won the Gem seat in a by election following the death of Argwings - Kodhek in a road accident in April 1969. But Sijeyo did not last for long. He was in the same year arrested along with other KPU MPs and detained for several years following the disturbances in Kisumu during which the late President Jomo Kenyatta’s motorcade was stoned by the radical KPU youths.
The by-election which followed was won by the current chairman of the Kenya Airways Mr. Isaac Omolo Okero, who retained his seat in the 1974 and 1979 general elections respectively. Okero lost the seat to the late Aggrey Otieno-Ambala in 1983. Ambala served only one term before he was trounced by the late Owiti Ongili who won the seat in 1988. After Owiti’s grisly murder in Siaya town, Mrs Grace Ogot who by then was a nominated Kanu MP resigned her parliamentary seat and successfully contested the by-election that followed.
Mrs Ogot who served in the Moi government as an assistant minister had her term disrupted and cut short following the clamour for multiparty democracy which saw politicians allied to the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and his Ford – Kenya Party sweep the board (the late Oki Ooko Ombaka won the seat).
Even though sidelined by voters, Mrs Ogot left behind an enviable track record of development in Gem. She lost the seat to Ooko Ombaka in the first multiparty election of 1992.
Joe Donde’s performance in Parliament ( 1997-2002) was another remarkable achievement particularly his popular but contentious Donde Bill. In the year 1997 Donde retained the seat on a Ford Kenya ticket, but this time not under Jaramogi, but under the late Wamalwa Kijana. NDP failed to produce a credible candidate to challenge Donde. The topsy turvy fortunes of politicians in Gem alone rubbish the notion that Luo people are like sheep. Okero and Mrs. Ogot were staunch pro KANU figures throughout their terms-and they also happen to be my relatives. Okero like Ombaka and Agwingu and
Prof. Ogot to whom the
former Gem MP is married are all members of the dominant Kagola clan to which I also belong- which demonstrates that the same clan can produce right wing neo-colonial apparatchiks (Okero, Ogot); social democratic lawyers (Ombaka) and unrepentant communists (Onyango Oloo).
There is remarkable political sophistication, internal dissent and diversity within the Kenyan Luo community whose members are to be found in each and every province in the country and therefore can not be seen as an unvariegated monolith with a monochromic political vision.
The careers of two other Luo politicians- lawyer James Orengo and Prof. Anyang’ Nyongo (especially in the 1997-2002 parliament) also serve as a rebuff to Tuju’s contention that Luos are herded right, left and centre like sheep.
Many people have told me that Raphael Tuju owes his political existence NOT to his popularity at the Rarieda grass roots where he apparently lost hands down to a more popular opponent during the NARC nominations, but to his pocket book and the same Raila connections that he is today deriding. To put it bluntly, he was rigged in following a nod from the LDP top brass.
So perhaps he could be referring to his own recent and continuing history of being a beneficiary of this or that political god father.
Far from being an "independent" move, the launch by Raphael Tuju of his PPP is a nod to the reality that he has merely changed political masters. He now calls
Mwai Kibaki his "father". To me, any politician who still needs a "father" or a "mother" still has some growing up to do.
I am a bit disappointed and surprised actually that Raphael Tuju did not aim higher. He is someone who had a national appeal as one of the most recognized and photogenic broadcasters in decades past and a successful tycoon today. Why did he not attempt to cut a national swathe- rather than troop to Kisumu and surround himself with a bunch of Luo political has beens for a photo-op?
His move is a paradoxical one for someone so high profile in the NAK brains trust. One of the things the Kiraitus, Mugos, Kirwas, Mwakweres, Dzoros and Kibwanas have been berating Raila and the LDP with is their breakaway retention of party independence at a time when some forces in the ruling formation want NARC to morph from a 14 party coalition into a single entity registered as a political party. Why is Tuju splintering the NARC family further?
What is even more interesting is to see Tuju’s party being registered at a time when the registrar is threatening to strike off the Official Opposition- KANU itself from its own records. It comes a year after the same registrar refused to register the Mwananchi Party leading me to make charges of political favouritism.
My own preliminary analysis of the PPP is that it is actually not a party, but a Nyanza platform that the NAK government has launched to fight Raila Odinga in his so called home turf- even though the LDP linchpin is actually a Nairobi MP.
The PPP will fizzle and die, not because of any concerted hostility from the LDP, but more because it will be seen, rightly so as a conduit to divide and conquer the Luo community, an outfit that will be linked to tribal cabals in Central Kenya rather than with a genuine grass roots mobilization in Nyanza.
The timing of the PPP launch was simply ghastly- smack in the middle of the Referendum Campaign which leads me to question the sincerity of the move. Surely at a time when Kenyan politics is so charged, so polarized, this was hardly the time to spike passions even further by unleashing what is seen as a financially well-oiled conduit for the Yes campaign.
Raphael Tuju should go and visit the political graves of some living politicians like Odongo Omamo and some expired ones like Matthews Ogutu and contemplate why none of the millions of Kaliech were able to stave off ignominious defeat at the polls when the political tide started to turn.
Had I been in Tuju’s inner circle, I would have taken a different route. Since I am not in his inner circle I am not going to outline, leave alone detail that route.
You know what:
I have been wrong many times when it comes to this business of political forecasting, but I never steer away from the challenge of making bold pronouncements. It is quite likely that the PPP will be the next Big Thing in Kenya. I think not.
Tuju’s cardinal mistake, like Orengo’s in 2002 lies not so much in his political choices which he has a constitutional right to, but rather his total misreading of the popular mood. Sooner or later it will dawn on the Rarieda MP that it does not matter how many mobile clinics you have brought to how many villages- if you do not have your finger on the pulse of the national mood, you will be swept away by the people’s forward march.
Right now the mood in the country is one of anger, a bitter sense of betrayal; people are pissed off at Kibaki and those around him because Kibaki betrayed that tumultuous Unbwogable Spirit that swept him to power.
The NAK team, in their arrogance has plainly told the Kenyan people to their faces that they think the wananchi are stupid and will vote for anything the government asks them to vote for. Such arrogance and contempt for the intelligence of the people will be severely punished, first at the upcoming referendum and later during the 2007 elections.
Politicians from the Ford-Kenya and Ford-People fold can already feel this palpable seething resentment against the incumbent government and that is why you see them dithering between Yes and NO, hoping there is a Maybe slot on the same referendum ballot paper.
Kibaki, Michuki, Mwiraria, Kiraitu, Karume may try to play the Mount Kenya Tribal Card, but I would suggest that this is a very serious and expensive gamble with the lives of millions of Kenyans who live in the Central and Eastern province, the Rift Valley, Nairobi and indeed every major Kenyan urban centre. Why are the andu aitu tribalists setting up entire ethnic communities from the slopes of Mt Kenya to widespread national hatred?
After releasing the Mkabila Djinni from the bottle, will these NAK schemers put it back?
For Raphael Tuju, Morris Dzoro, Kivutha Kibwana, Kipruto Kirwa, Simeon Nyachae, Musikari Kombo, Moody Awori, Maalim Mohamed and Mukhisa Kituyi to then latch on to this parochial ethnic agenda of myopic domination is a testimony to their selfish callousness- to save their own ministerial backsides, they are prepared to help provoke open ethnic conflagration that may consume millions of Kenyans in an inferno worse than Rwanda.
Raphael Tuju like I said a long time ago, cut his own political throat a long time ago when he decided that in order for him to rise on the national political stage, he had to pull down the colossus from Langata and Bondo.
That was a rather daft political decision.
Onyango Oloo Toronto
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Post by Erick Otieno on Sept 25, 2005 0:03:27 GMT 3
Tuju: What’s his political future? By Erick Otieno INFORMATION and Communications Minister Raphael Tuju’s decision to launch a new political party could be the beginning of the end for his controversial political career. With the launch of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), many political analysts have predicted political doom for Tuju, who made a debut in politics at the 2002 General Elections. Leaders from Tuju’s Nyanza backyard have declared that the minister’s new party is his divorce writ from mainstream Luo politics. But the minister has declared that he will not compromise his values for the sake of a political future. In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Times, Tuju, who is also the MP for Rarieda, asserted that he would rather be thrown into political oblivion than engage in “hero worshiping” which he said has defined the politics of Luo Nyanza since independence. The Rarieda MP also dismissed accusations that he was being used by external forces to shake the unity of the Luo community which is presently rallying behind the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). “My independence of thought and action in the political scene is for all to see. There have been incidences when I have acted in a manner that some people have felt amounts to political suicide,” he said. Tuju was categorical that he will not be part of unity that could plunge the community into darkness and offered no apologies for breaking ranks with other Luo MPs. But matters are not made better for Tuju by apparent feelers that the National Alliance Party of Kenya (NAK) is also not happy with the minister’s move, which many in the faction consider to be his lack of confidence in them. Some NAK stalwarts say that Tuju could simply join one of their parties than form a completely new outfit. “There are many parties in Narc, even those led by nonentities that Tuju would take over. His new party complicates matters. It means he is not with us fully,” said a source close to the Democratic Party, the biggest constituent of NAK. The source said that NAK members who have entered new alliances have done so within the NAK. “Even members of the Third Progressive Force did not start a new party. We do not know what Tuju is up to,” he said. Tuju, however, said the PPP will be registered under the NARC. The minister broke ranks with his colleagues in the LDP immediately he was appointed to the Cabinet in January 2003. He has since sided with LDP’s rival in Narc, the NAK on the contentious issues of coalition politics, the MoU and the constitution review. He averred that he doesn’t believe it was right for the community to unite in a single party that revolves around an individual and called on Luo leaders to “spread political risks” by belonging to different parties. Tuju lamented that whereas other ethnic communities in the country were well represented in all major political parties, MPs from the region had decided to stick with LDP. The minister has been sidelined by LDP, the dominant political party in Nyanza, for undermining Roads Minister Raila Odinga who commands the community’s following. His fellow MPs from the region have variously accused him of being used by a clique in the NAK to defeat LDP interests in the review process and leadership in the coalition. The launch of the PPP, at Ukweli Pastoral Centre in the outskirts of Kisumu last week, was widely read as a strategy to challenge the domination of Luo politics by the family of the late doyen of opposition politics, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. But other LDP leaders from the region say Tuju has damaged his career beyond repair. Kisumu East MP Eric Gor Sungu says Tuju “has written his obituary.” The legislator, in whose constituency the party was launched, says the Luo community cannot afford to be divided now than ever before. Sports minister Ochilo Ayako, another Raila diehard, termed the move as dangerous, saying “the party will add no value to the politics of Kenya.” But Tuju maintains that Luos are ready for a change thus the need for a party to widen the democratic space and bring an “end to oppressive politics by some families who have arrogated themselves illicit powers in the region.” “There are alot of people who have chose to remain silent out of fear that someone would unleash violence on them but this can only happen to a certain time and people will says no to all kinds of oppression,” he said. Past attempts by some politicians in the region to oppose the elder Odinga’s brand of politics and that of his son, Raila, have invited the wrath of the electorate in the region, who have responded by voting them out. Notable casualties in the duel for political supremacy in Luo politics have been former cabinet ministers Achieng’ Oneko, Onyango Midika, Dalmas Otieno and MPs James Orengo, Shem Ochuodho and Joe Donde. The latter three were trounced by Raila-leaning lightweights at the 2002 polls. They had also challenged the LDP’s (and Raila’s) power when they ran for parliamentary seats on the Social Democratic Party, which also sponsored Orengo’s dismal presidential bid. It is instructive that the launch of the party in Kisumu last Monday was attended by a horde of former MPs from the region who lost parliamentary seats due to their opposition to Odinga’s handling of political issues affecting the region and the national. Tuju, however, believes that attaining his core value of making a difference in the lives of his constituents is larger than meeting the community’s definition of political correctness, which is hinged on shared political ideologies of the Odinga family. The minister said the party to be launched in February next year would champion social and economic interests of the people as opposed to political rhetoric, which he said is the major undoing of Luo leaders.
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Post by ufaubop on Jul 6, 2019 1:42:53 GMT 3
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Post by ajeobezanori on Jul 6, 2019 3:54:33 GMT 3
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