Fresh reflections required in Mulembe Nation’s failed attempts and squandered opportunities for Presidency

Twelve years after Kenya gained independence, three bold Luhyia Members of Parliament stepped to the national stage in a most dramatic way through a single historic event.

The trio remain our most celebrated political icons to date, long after they went to rest with their Maker.

The 1975 assassination of highly popular Member of Parliament of the them Nyandarua North constituency, Josiah Mwangi Kariuki, commonly referred to as JM Kariuki, shook the Kenyan political Establishment to the marrow, coming as it did after the political liquidation of leftist Pio Gama Pinto in 1965 and rightist Tom Joseph Mboya in 1969.

In an atmosphere filled with fear, intimidation, despondency, blackmail and suspicion, three brave Luhyia politicians stepped up to the plate to register their integrity and nationalism, defend their country’s sovereignty, constitutionalism and, democracy and, most importantly, earned their community respect and placed it on the political map, forever.

Joseph Martin Shikuku, then MP for Butere, Elijah Wasike Mwangale the MP for Kimilili and Pius Masinde Muliro the then MP Kitale East and Minister for Public Works emerged to be Kenya’s heroes in the wake of JM’s murder.

Following the national outcry elicited by the elimination of the populist Nyandarua North lawmaker, Parliament formed a Select Committee to probe the circumstances under which JM had died.

That Committe was to be chaired by Mwangale, the Kimilili legislator. Also on that Committe were Shikuku and two other Luhyias in the persons of Burudi Nabwera (MP for Lurambi North) and Peter Kibisu, the MP for Vihiga.

In it’s findings, the Mwangale-led panel stated thatJM Kariuki had been executed on the orders of senior people within the Government of then President Jomo Kenyatta and even recommended further investigations to establish the actual killers.

That did not go well with the influence-peddlers in the Kenyatta regime who had wanted the Committee to white-wash it’s findings and give the Kenyatta administration a clean bill of health.

When it came to voting on the report, Muliro went against the so called collective-responsibility among Cabinet members to stand on the right side of history and vote in favour of the report’s recommendations.

Muliro took the unprecedented move as a show of solidarity with his Luhyia kindred on the Committee, especially Mwangale, who were being threatened for daring to stand up against the Kenyatta maladministration.

That move had both positive and negative ramifications for both Kenya and the Luhyia community.

Masinde Muliro was immediately sacked from the Cabinet and became a mere backbencher.
He lost his seat in the 1979 General-Election and never returned to Parliament up to the time of his death in August 1992 when he was on the verge of becoming Kenya’s third President.

In just a matter of weeks, Martin Shikuku was arrested in the precints of Parliament and hauled into detention, without trial, for claiming on the floor of the House that the then ruling party, Kanu, was dead.

Mwangale continued to serve as an MP but under a lot of intimidation.

Jomo Kenyatta died in August 1978 and Daniel arap Moi became independent Kenya’s second President. Moi released Shikiku and his co-detainees, immediate former Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Jean-Marie Seroney who was on the chair the day the Butere MP made the Kanu is dead remarks, and celebrated author Prof Ngugi wa Thiong’o who was then a Literature lecturer at the University of Nairobi, from detention.

In 1979, the country held a General -Election in which Shikuku recaptured his Butere parliamentary seat.
Though Muliro lost his Cherengany seat to diplomat Wafula Wabuge, the 1979 election ushered in new faces of independent minds who gave Shikuku relevant support on the backbenches of Parliament.

They newcomers were Lawrence Sifuna of Kanduyi, Wasike Ndombi of Lurambi South, Joshua Angatia of Lurambi North and Jeremiah Murila of Ikolomani.

Whereas the elections of 1974 and 1979 provided the country with the most vocal and integrity-minded leadership, something untoward was being plotted within the inner sanctums of the political Establishment .

For their being vocal and unbending on matters relating integrity, the Luhyia had been found as political gramophones, if not trumpets, of the interests of other communities and their leadership’s.

That scheme was successfully executed during the 1988 Mlolongo (Queue-voting) elections. Perfectly so. The true representatives of the people were rigged out of Parliament and sycophants handed tickets to national political leadership in the National Assembly. To date, Luhyia politicians only act as gleeful pawns of leaders from other communities and their interests and not their own.

It is against that background that I stated elsewhere in one of the Mulembe Nation-dominated forum last week that if we are looking for Presidency any time in the near future, the first thing we need to do is to respect ourselves and our leaders. That is all our leaders regardless of status.

That notwithstanding, we also need to be frank with our leaders. We have to be respectfully forthright with them regarding the issues affecting our region and our people without any form of sugar coating. But without insults.

We also must learn to nurture and protect our leaders. National leadership cannot be realised through rancour, spite, insolence, malice and ridicule. Yet these are our characteristics. Insults and disrespect define us on the political scale more than anything else. These are not virtues. They are not qualities to be proud of at any one moment. We have to drop that negative side of ourselves.

No community can develop on insults. No quality leadership can be achieved through insults.

In 2002, Uhuru Kenyatta stood for Presidency but lost to Mwai Kibaki. His people took him to the dry-cleaners and in 2013, he was clean enough to be our President

On our part, Musalia Mudavadi stood for President in 2013 and lost to Uhuru Kenyatta. Ten years later, and even now, we are still insulting him. That is not how to get one of us to the Presidency. We have a problem. A very big one.

Musalia Mudavadi, Moses Wetang’ula, Eugene Wamalwa, George Natembeya, Wycliffe Oparanya, Fernandes Barasa, Ken Lusaka, Paul Othoma, Dr. Wilber Ottichilo, Johnson Sakaja, etcetera, etcetera are leaders from the Mulembe Nation and we must respect them as such. Each and everyone of them.

Hurling insults at each one of them or encouraging them to abuse each other is naive and retrogressive as it cannot get us the Presidency.

The younger leaders within our political ranks are right to express themselves as freely and loudly as they can. However, they still can drive their point home without abusing others.

After all, a day shall come when age will have shelved the likes of Mudavadi, Wetang’ula and Oparanya from the political stage and our current young leaders like Natembeya, Edwin Sifuna, Godfrey Osotsi, Cleophas Malalah, Caleb Amisi and many others will be dominating the political space, both locally and nationally.

I am not sure it shall be in their interests to be publicly abused every now and then by their political opponents. Politics of insolence are very destructive.

We must therefore always encourage our political leaders – both young and old – to embrace and respect each other and their electors. Not to throw brickbats at one another.

We always have petty excuses that drive us into the fit of failure. In 1997, the late Martin Shikuku and the late Michael Kijana Wamalwa stood for Presidency.

We did not vote for them, claiming that they were not “pure Luhyias”

Instead, we voted for Daniel arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga.

In 2013, Musalia Mudavadi stood for Presidency. We did not vote for him. Instead we voted for Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga.

We have this knack for preferring non-Luhyias to our own people after which we turn around to start blaming them for all manner of our political shortcomings.

Quite honestly, in 2022 we voted for Raila Odinga (70% of Mulembe Nation). Mudavadi and Wetang’ula only happened to be in the winning team. Not the one we voted for. Did not someone say that choices have consequences?

Now we spend all our day and night insulting and ridiculing Mudavadi and Wetang’ula. Why can we not, for once, stop one day to reflect and blame ourselves for always making the wrong decisions?

Musalia Mudavadi and Moses Wetang’ula have already declared that they will not be running for President in 2027 but will instead support the re-election of incumbent William Ruto.

That gives anyone from the Mulembe Nation a chance to run for President in 2027.

That is what the critics of both Mudavadi and Wetang’ula like the outspoken George Natembeya should be doing.

Unleashing abuses against the two leaders at weekend funerals for purposes of grabbing media headlines will not help deliver the Presidency to Mulembe Nation. It is not a strategy. If not a retrogressive one.

Respect counts first. Facts count most. On the other hand, we must push all our elected and appointed leaders to start addressing the status of the economy of the Mulembe Nation. It is long overdue.

It is worth noting that it was during the era of Masinde Muliro, John Osogo, Elijah Mwangale, Martin Shikuku, Peter Kibisu in the 1970s that the economic installations the Mulembe Nation boasts of today were inaugurated.

These are Mumias Sugar Company, Pan Paper Mills, Bukura Institute of Agriculture, Nzoia Sugar Company, Sigalagala Technical Institute, and Western College (WECO – now Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, – MMUST).

No tangible economic venture has been unveiled since the 1970s

What Mudavadi and Wetang’ula need now is the unwavering support from their community. Not insults.
Michael Kikana Wamalwa always reminded us that “there is safety in numbers.”

Do we not remember that? Why are we quick to condemn Mudavadi and Wetang’ula for not delivering when we ourselves have not backed them with requisite numbers with which to bargain on our behalf?

Did someone not say that charity begins at home? We have wasted a whole 50 years on inside, petty prattles and running errands for leaders from other communities.

For how long should we continue to be mere doormats for others to wipe their dirty feet with?
I do not want to say that “my people perish for lack of …..”

Food for thought..

The writer, Mukalo wa Kwayera, is a veteran Kenyan journalist. Email: kazembemose@gmail.com