Kenya Insights

Tag: Luhya politics

  • Mudavadi, Wetangula camps in silent wars over Luhya kingship

    Mudavadi, Wetangula camps in silent wars over Luhya kingship

    Prime Cabinet Secretary Hon. Musalia Mudavadi struggles to be Luhya’s kingpin ahead of the 2027 general elections amid a looming showdown between him and the National Assembly speaker Moses Wetang’ula in supremacy battles in the Mulembe nation.

    Already, vocal political players in his Vihiga backyard and ANC Party are feeling betrayed and are trooping towards Wetangulas Ford-Kenya. They are accusing Mudavadi of sticking in bed with Luhya elders who served during the reign of former later President Daniel Moi who are misleading him.

    He has held consultative meetings with a section of Luhya leaders in Busia as part of his wider plan to take control of Luhya politics, but the fact that his ANC party is now under the leadership of one sleeping Lamu Governor Issa Timmamy is doing him more harm than good.

    The former VP was hosted by Busia governor Paul Otuoma, a move that angered some of his ANC allies like Sakwa Bunyasi whom Otuoma defeated in last year’s governor race.

    Mudavadi is also targeting many ODM faces in Western Kenya on his side to stage a decisive onslaught against Wetang’ula.

    But constitutionally, the speaker of the national assembly is the third in command after the president and his deputy, though Mudavadi feels that his prime cabinet secretary position makes him the third in command.

    He led another meeting where he prevailed upon Luhya politicians to back him for the presidency in 2032, but it was given a wide berth by politicians allied to Wetangula as he appealed to the region to rally together and guarantee President William Ruto an easy win in 2027.

    Busia is ODMs political stronghold but Mudavadi cut links with ODM to team with Ruto in the run-up to the August 9 general election. It was during the Busia meeting that he was crowned the chairman of the Western council of elders.

    Wetangulalater joined him in the meeting where they also met five elected governors including host Otuoma, Bungoma’s Kenneth Lusaka, Kakamega’s Fernandez Barasa and Wilber Ottichilo from Vihiga but battlelines for the Mulembe nation have already been drawn and are being fanned by their allies.

    The Wetang’ula camp insists the national assembly speaker is the senior most, while Mudavadi camp accuses Wetang’ula of not fearing to be impartial as the speaker of the national assembly by playing active politics and also not relinquishing his seat as Ford-K leader the way the PCS did by resigning as Amani ANC party leader.

    The speaker’s allies also argue that Mudavadi was nominated to his position through Ruto’s Executive Order while Wetang’ula had been first elected as Bungoma senator and was still brave enough to resign to run for the national assembly speaker seat, which he eventually won against Kenneth Marende.

    Mudavadi got his current position on a silver platter while Wetang’ula struggled and also made sure his successor Wafula Wakoli triumphed in the subsequent by-election.

    The former ANC leader has not run for any elective position since 2013, when he came a distant third in the presidential election. He also has not held any elective post since 2002, when he served as vice president for two only months.

  • Parties fighting over corrupt KETRACO boss

    Parties fighting over corrupt KETRACO boss

    As the race to succeed Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya hots up, political parties with dominance in the region have taken their battles to the next level. Instead of aspirants being sycophants to popular parties, the inverse is the case in Kakamega.

    Respective parties are in a silent fight to have the corrupt Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) C.E.O  Fernandez Barasa as their flag bearer in the 2022 gubernatorial race. Baraza has not officially declared his candidature but he ‘meets’ what it takes to venture into Kenyan politics. He enthusiastically corrupt.

    With an eye on his bag, political parties are salivating for Baraza’s heavy pockets to help fund their campaigns, money that he has amazed from looting the public coffers and in the public limelight. The media loving Ketraco boss, has also contracted media houses and bloggers to praise and worship him allocating him airtime to be seen as a saint.

    Many looters of state agencies like Kirinyaga Governor Ann Waiguru and suspected drug pushers got into active politics like that. But they are becoming attractive to political parties with lowered leadership thresholds because of their deep pockets. They can oil their campaigns and market the party sponsoring them at the same time.

    Barasa runs Ketraco, a state agency mandated to plan, design, construct, own, operate and maintain high voltage electricity transmission grid and regional power inter connectors which the National Transmission Grid heavily relies on.

    He has swindled taxpayers billions of shillings through Ketraco through shady contracts including the Ksh14 billion meant for the 450-kilometre, 1,500-megawatt Mombasa-Nairobi power line whose huge percentage was paid to fake land owners.

    Wycliffe Ambetsa Oparanya, the current governor of Kakamega County [p/courtesy]
    Investigations revealed a case in Kajiado County where one landowner was paid 10 times more than the value of his land and that was repeated in hundreds of times during the construction of the Mombasa-Nairobi transmission line.

    Barasa was also implicated in a $240M contract between Ketraco and China Electric Power Equipment and Technology Company Limited (CET) which was signed in February 2018 to electrify the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) but got lost in the air.

    He brought the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) to its knees before joining Ketraco which he has siphoned enough to bankroll his way to Kakamega County coffers.

    Though he downplays his political interests, Barasa has used his loot well to prepare the ground ahead of 2022 election. Kakamega seat will fall vacant when Oparanya’s term expires next year and Baraza has already won hearts of residents of the vote rich Mumias West and Matungu constituencies.

    The battle for the corrupt man has seen Raila Odinga led ODM party ditch Oparanya’s deputy Phillip Kutima who was thought to be the party’s man to watch but he’s no longer trusted.