EAJA holds Investigative Workshop in Uganda

EAJA has held a two day workshop in Uganda. The workshop ran from August 11-12, 2014 at the Eureka Hotel, Ntinda Area of Kampala.

Participants at the EAJA-Uganda workshop

ECHOES FROM THE PAST: WALLS REGAINING EARS!

 OPINION:(This opinion was initially published by the author on his facebook page)

By Oduor Ong'wen

July 24, Nairobi · 

WALLS REGAINING EARS!

The National Intelligence Service could soon have complete access to your mobile phone messages and emails if a Bill proposing the removal of a requirement mandating them to first get court warrants before accessing any citizen's private messages sails through National Assembly.

The Bill proposes the deletion of section 36 (2) of the current act, on limitation to right to privacy as enshrined in Article 31 of the Constitution, that provides for the court's participation.

The court process was to mitigate between the need for the protection of citizens' privacy while at the same time allowing government agents monitor the activities of those that they suspect of criminal involvement in activities such as terrorism, money laundering, drug trafficking and corruption.

Before gaining access to a citizen's private communication data, it was upon the spy agency to convince the courts why it was important to have the rights to privacy removed. This may not be the case soon, if the government gets its way in National Assembly.

The section targeted for amendment provides that, "the right to privacy may be limited in respect of a person suspected to have committed an offence to the extent that the privacy of a person's communications may be investigated, monitored or otherwise interfered with".

Section 42 as currently written gives NIS powers to browse your mails only after obtaining court warrant. The spy agency therefore needed to apply for the document from the High Court, in writing stating among others the type of information, material, record, document or thing proposed to be obtained.

If parliament approves the amendments, the government spies will now have powers to listen in on your phone conversations and intercept your mails without the Judiciary exercising any control.
The Bill further seeks to amend Section 36 (1) of the Act to give the spies power to infringe on the privacy of any person who is subject to investigations. Under the same Act, NIS can only monitor, listen or intercept communication of any person deemed to have committed an offence.

The right to privacy set out in Article 31 of the Constitution which states that every person has the right to privacy, which includes the right not to have their person, home or property searched; their possessions seized; information relating to their family or private affairs unnecessarily required or revealed; or the privacy of their communications infringed.

Saba Saba Rally held amid heavy security, sets stage for the continued tussle with Govt

The public rally called by the Opposition Cord at Uhuru Park in Nairobi, dubbed "Saba Saba", was attended by thousands of the opposition coalition supporters amid heavy security which some people said was reminiscent of the police state under the former Kanu regime voted out in 2002.

A section of the crowd at the Cord Rally

According to the government, more than 15,000 police officers were deployed at the venue of the rally and in the city, the presence of which scared away many people. Business remained closed and the city centre and its environs remained deserted as thousands of people streamed to the rally venue while other stayed at home. Many schools were closed both in Nairobi and in other parts of the country.

Police presence at the Rally: Kenya turning into police state?

There were brief skirmishes in Kisumu in Western Kenya but the situation across the country remained largely peaceful. The Cord rally, led by the threee principals, Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetangula passed a serries of resolutions which they said would define their next course of action in moving the country forward.

Many Kenyans had expected to follow th rally live on TV but this did not happen, prompting many people to complain about the media 
 being compromised. There has been an attempt lately to intimidate the media in Kenya. Senior editors were recently summoned to ameeting with chief security officers who reportedluy warned them to tread carefull and to report on security matters "responsibly", a euphimism for censorship.

Below is the full text of the resolutions:


RESOLUTION BY THE PEOPLE OF KENYA DURING THE SABASABA SABA SABA RALLY WAS PEACEFUL AND SUCCESSFUL, HERE ARE RESOLUTIONS
ASSEMBLY HELD ON MONDAY 7TH JULY, 2014 AT UHURU PARK, NAIROBI

WE THE PEOPLE OF KENYA here assembled at Uhuru Park on this historic day on which we commemorate our struggle for freedom, democracy and good governance;

REMINDED of the events of the 1960s leading to the clawing of the democratic ideals in the Lancaster Constitution by the administration of the late Jomo Kenyatta and noting that the Jubilee regime has adopted a similar pattern in reversing the democratic gains in our new Constitution by curtailing media freedom through the enactment of the Media Act, Amending the National Police Service Act and the National Police Service Commission Act, introducing amendments to the land laws to remove powers from the National Land Commission to the executive, amending the Truth Justice & Reconciliation Commission Act to allow Parliament to debate, amend and mutilate the Commission’s Report on historical injustices; and, introducing legislation to curtail the Civil Society movement in the country.

RECOGNISING that Article 1 of the Constitution of Kenya vests all sovereign power in the people of Kenya;

ALARMED by the direction that our country is taking; in particular, the rising insecurity, escalating cost of living and increased negative ethnicity and exclusion from public service and national resources;

CONCERNED about the refusal by the Jubilee regime to accede to National Dialogue with the
CORD Coalition to discuss issues of national concern to the people of Kenya;

CONCERNED by endemic corruption rife within Jubilee Administration, including complicity by senior officials in Jubilee Administration including: Anglo-leasing, Standard Gauge Railway, School Laptop project, Security surveillance equipment procurement fiasco;

CONCERNED that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission has failed to take responsibility for their failure to duly discharge their mandate of managing an independent, impartial electoral process, with the open connivance and protection of the Jubilee Administration;

DISTURBED by the Jubilee Government’s relentless assault on our Constitution; in particular, the curtailing of our fundamental rights and freedoms including the freedom of belief, expression and assembly; freedom of the media and press; undermining devolution by establishing parallel structures of Provincial Administration in competition with County Governments; and, flagrant failure to uphold the national values and principles of patriotism, equity and inclusivity;

AWARE that Devolution is the greatest gift in the new Constitution to the people of Kenya to promote equitable sharing of national resources and therefore deserves to be jealously guarded;

CONCERNED about systemic profiling and victimizing of sections the country based on religion and ethnicity by the Jubilee regime, leading to capital flight by for example the Eastleigh Somali business community to neighboring countries;

DISMAYED by the emasculation and abuse of Parliament by the Jubilee administration by subverting and undermining its legislative authority and mandate;

NOTING that this has already led to the assault on and reversal of democratic gains brought by the Constitution by enacting retrogressive and unconstitutional legislation;

DETERMINED to defend our hard-earned Constitution and to continue undeterred our pursuit of democracy, good governance, unity, peace, equality, inclusivity, justice and prosperity;

THEREFORE ASSERTING our sovereignty as the people of Kenya and our right to exercise the sovereign power directly; the Jubilee administration having refused to accede to our plea for national dialogue;

WE NOW RESOLVE as follows: -

1. We launch today OKOA KENYA, a people’s movement to defend our Constitution, support one another in good and bad times, protect the gains we have made in democratic governance, and rededicate ourselves to national unity and peaceful co-existence.

2. Demand that the Jubilee administration addresses the escalating cost of living by reviewing the taxation regime; failing which we will boycott the consumption of goods and services whose prices are beyond the reach of the common Mwananchi and commence commercial sanctions against companies which continue to ignore our plight.

3. Convene an all-inclusive National Referendum Committee (NRC) for the purpose of preparing the people of Kenya for a national referendum on the critical challenges facing our Nation.

4. Mandate the National Referendum Committee to ensure the maximum participation of the people of Kenya in the referendum at the County, Sub-County and Ward levels all over Kenya; in formulating the referendum question(s), collecting and collating one million signatures to initiate the referendum.

5. Having lost all confidence in the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC); do now demand its immediate disbandment and the establishment of a new electoral body.

6. Demand the immediate end to corruption, wasteful spending, reckless borrowing within and by Jubilee Government. In this regard, we demand that the Jubilee administration immediately cancels the inflated security camera contract irregularly awarded to Safaricom and that Safaricom withdraws from the contracts and subjects itself to competitive bidding, failing which we will commence commercial sanctions on Safaricom and other companies abetting corruption or engaging in monopolistic practices.

7. Demand that the Jubilee administration takes immediate steps to withdraw our gallant soldiers from Somalia to join our forces in securing our nation from home.

8. Demand that the Jubilee administration takes visible, decisive action to deal with runaway insecurity, including holding the senior security officials accountable for hundreds of Kenyans who have been killed and maimed in the various attacks and conflicts across the country.

9. Reject attempts by the Executive through Parliament to bastardise the Report of the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC Report) and demand the immediate implementation of the original and unadulterated Report.

10. Demand that the Jubilee administration immediately addresses the underlying land issues that are at the heart of some of the most enduring historical injustices and conflicts in our society.

11. Demand a National Audit and publication by the Public Service Commission of all appointments made in the public service by the Jubilee administration, with full details listing names, ethnic backgrounds and percentages.

12. Recognizing that the Jubilee administration has failed to apply national resources equitably across the country, we demand that 40 per centum of the projected ordinary revenue of the current fiscal year be allocated to the County Governments.

13. Demand that a National Audit on how resources at the disposal of the National Jubilee administration are applied across the country.

The Cord leaders (L-R) Moses Wetangula, Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka address the rally.

GOD BLESS KENYA

UK Journalism students in Kenya for familiarization tour

A group of journalism students from the University of Central Lancashire in the United Kingdom are on a learning tour of Kenya to familiarize themselves with how the media is contributing to community transformation.

One of the students during an interview at Radio Nam Lolwe

The students, led by A Senior Lecturer in Journalism Dr. George Ogola arrived in Nairobi on July 28, and have met different groups in Nairobi and Kisumu.

The group arrived in Kisumu today July 2 and visited Radio Nam Lolwe and Radio Lake Victorie where they met the staff and journalists. They were briefed on the kind of radio content broadcast by the two radio stations which focus on governance, health, environment, gender, fishing and other economic activities.

On July 3, the students and their lecturer held a round table discussion with journalists and community leaders drawn from Kisumu and its environs to discuss the role of the media in community development. The meeting discussedd the need for the media to focus on social and economic issues of the local community as a way of transforming society. There emerged interesting views on the role of the media, and more so the radio broadcasting in local languages and the place of the ordinary citizens in setting the agenda and informing the content of the radio programs.

The UK students talk to Kenyan journalists in Kisumu

The students with their Lecturer Dr. George Ogola (second left in cap) at Osienala/Radio Lake Viictoria

Oluoch Kanindo: The End of a Colourful and Controversial Political Career

The Late Phares Oluoch Kanindo

One of the most colourful politicians in Nyanza and Kenya over the last 40 years or so has been the late Phares Oluoch Kanindo, who passed on at the Aga Khan Hospital in Kisumu shortly after mid night on Saturday May 24/25, 2014.

He was burried on June 13, 2014 at his Komolo Rume home near Sony Sugar Factory in Awendo Constituency of Migori County. The burial ceremony attended by key political figures in Nyanza and beyond, among them the former Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga.

Kanindo was a likable personality, full of humour and was an acclaimed orator who would leave the crowd in stitches, even at funerals. He was an adept Dholuo speaker who understood the nuances of the language and would always have choice words, phrases, parables and quotes befitting different occasions. 

People who knew him always looked forward to listening to his speech. He was also straddling a generation within the Luo community, between the older generation who took time to know and and value people and the younger group. Kanindo knew many people and their families intimately and could relate with them and ask about their family members whenever he met them. 

It is perhaps easy mien that made him charm his way into the hearts of voters in the then large Homabay Constituency in 1979, beating a crowded field of seasoned politicians from where he rose to become an Assistant Minister in the Kanu government of retired President Daniel Arap Moi. 

The then larger Homabay has since then been split into Rangwe, Homabay Town, Rongo and Awendo constituencies. He served as the Homabay Constituency MP from 1979-1988 when he lost at the "mlolongo" (queue -voting system)  nominations to Dalmas Otieno.

As an Assistant Minister for Education, Kanindo will be membered for helping many young people from South Nyanza access college education and teaching jobs before he was sacked by Moi after he was seen greeting the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga in Nairobi. At the time, it was politically suicidal to associate with the Odingas. 

Raila Odinga

Jaramogi parted ways with the Kanu establishment following the 1966 controversial Kanu conference at Limuru during which the then ruling party created 8 Vice Presidents, and even in Nyanza , he was edged out of the pary’s leadership even though he was the country’s Vice President. 

In Nyanza, the Kanu vice Chairman became the late Lawrence Sagini from Kisii in an orchestrated party coup that marked part of what ails the country to date.  Kanu strategiss Tom Mboya was widely believed to have been ingeneered this coup at the behest of President Jomo Kenyatta, and of course Mboya himself who was Odinga's rival within the party and in Nyanza. 

Odinga was to immediately thereafter form the Kenya People’s Union (KPU), an opposition party to give space to those whofelt uncomfortable in Kanu. Although KPU brought together politicians from different communities including Bildad Kagia from Muranga, the government was to create a most restrictive and intimidating political environment ever seen at the time, coupled with propaganda, which emasculated the nascent opposition party .

But the Luo saying goes, "Ondiek chamo wendone!". The Kaimbu mafia under Kenyatta were soon scheming to get rid of Mboya, even more violently that TJ, fondly known as "Oke G'Odhiambo" could imagine, after he helped them tame Odinga.

Mboya, then the Economic Planning Minsiter and Kanu's Secretary General was cruelly assassinated in broad daylight on July 5, 1969 on Moi Avenue. Another senior Luo politician and a prominent lawyer, CMG Argwings Kodhek had also died the previous year in a suspicious car accident near the Deparment of Defence in Nairobi. 

The Luo nation was seething with rage against Kanu and the Kenyatta government. The president skipped Mboy's burial in Rusinga amid the demos in Nairobi and Kisumu. However, three months later, Kenyatta drove into Kisumu from Kakamega, to preside over the official opening of the Russia Hospital (Now Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital), which was built with aid from the Soviet Union, through Odinga's influence.

Tom MBoya: His killing enraged the Luo

 During the function, Kenyatta got into a furious argument and quarrel with Odinga leading to one of the worst massacres of unamed civilians in Kenya's history. Chaos erupted in Kisumu, with angry members of the crwod stoning Kenyatta's motorcade which literally shot its way out of the city, with Kenyatta's body guards, in the process, killing more than 100 people by various accounts, although the government put the death toll at 30. 

The government blamed the incident on the opposition party KPU and Kenyatta immediately banned it, throwing most of its leaders, including Odinga, into detention. 

From that point on, it became suicidal to associate with the Odingas if you wanted to survive in the Kanu regime or in politics generally. Odinga himself was to be kept in political Siberia for decades until the return of multi-party politics in 1992.

When Moi took over and announced he woulf "fuata Nyayo" (follow in the footsteps of Kenyatta) then all those who wanted political rehabilitation knew they had to disown Jaramogi to make it to the Kanu eating table or be in the neighbourhood to even smell the aroma, wafting from the ruling party's eatings chief's table and kitchen.

Yet Kanindo’s father Anindo Wuon Nyakachunga was Odinga’s long -time friend and one of the key elders within the Luo community and Kanindo his son and Odinga’s eldest son Oburu, went to Pe-Hill High School together and would often stay at Anindo’s Awendo home during the holidays. 

By meeting and talking to Odinga when he was an Assistant Minister, Oluoch Kanindo risked his position in the government. Such was Oluoch’s daring nature which Oburu told mourners at his burial on June 13, adding that the late Kanindo could take risks for the sake of friends.

Kanindo often took very controversial positions in Luo politics but he was never vilified as much as other politicians who went that route. This was because he was skillful in his political operations and was “sungura mjanja” so to speak, retaining a leg and friendship in the opposition with the rest of the Luo over the years even as he benefitted from the Kanu largesse.

“An achalo muok. Kweya ni edhoga. Lewani ema achiemogo!” (Literally, he meant that it was his power of speech (residing in his mouth and tongue!) that kept him going and made him reap benefits from the political establishment, helping him survive between the opposing political forces). And survive he did!

Part of the crown at Kanindo's Burial

Following the introduction of multi-party politics in 1991, Kanindo quickly joined the original Ford and later followed Jaramogi and the rest of his Luo community to Ford Kenya when the original Ford split up, with Kenneth Matiba and the late Martin Shikuku taking away one part of it, which they named Ford Asili. 

But Kanindo was to take an about-turn in late 1992 after he lost the at the Ford Kenya nominations for the Rongo seat. He was beaten by the late Linus Aluoch polo who went on to become the MP for two terms. Kanindo issued a strong statement denouncing Jaramogi and Ford Kenya, a statement which the state radio and Kanu propaganda machine then, KBC, aired prominently for nearly one week.

The Luo community was appalled by the statement and Kanindo became, at least for a while, a pariah, feeling the heat from every quarter. The Luo community viewed him as a sell-out, betraying his father’s longtime friend, Jaramogi.  

Unfortunately for him, he could not get the Kanu ticket as the current Rongo MP Dalmas Otieno had wedged himself firmly as the then ruling party’s favourite candidate at the time, having been propped up by the then powerful Internal Security Permanent Secretary the late Hezekiah Oyugi in the 1988 “mlolongo” elections.

Dalmas Otieno (r) with President Uhuru Kenyatta

After Polo became the MP, Kanindo sought rehabilitation within Ford Kenya unsuccessfully. But he never held grudges and would attend political forums, meeting his rivals and using his oratory skills to endear himself to the people even as he poked fun at them and his rivals. 

“Eeh wuod gi Nyuando! Polo wuod gi Nyuando!” (Nyuando was Polo’s cousin so Kanindo would praise him as a "Nyuando's brother!"), he would fondly call out to the Rongo Ford Kenya MP whenever they met at public places and funeral, sometimes as he welcomed him to address a gathering. 

Kanindo was never re-elected as MP for Homabay or for the Rongo seat which was split from the larger Homabay, but he maintained relative political relevance and proved quite a thorn in the flesh to his rivals. 

In the 1990s he would often team up with Otieno Dalmas, campaigning for Kanu, first in 1993 for Charles Owino Likowa who had that year defected from Ford Kenya to Kanu, leaving the Migori seat vacant and in 1994, for Tom Obondo in Ndhiwa who also left Ford Kenya for Kanu.

However in Migori, Owino Achola beat Likowa on Ford Kenya ticket and represented Migori for two terms while Obondo was replaced in Ndhiwa by the late Joshua Orwa Ojode. In between, there were also some civic by-elections where Kanindo joined Otieno to drum up support for Kanu candidates.

Former Migori MP Owino Likowa

In 1995, Kanindo also joined Otieno and other Kanu luminaries in Nyanza to campaign for Ochola Ogur who had also defected from Ford Kenya to Kanu. However Ogur was beaten by the late Tom Akuoro Onyango who went in on Ford Kenya ticket.

At some point, between 1995-1996,  Kanindo got tired of playing second fiddle to Otieno Dalmas in Kanu. He waged a determined effort to dislodge Dalmas as the Migori Branch Kanu Chairman. 

Kanindo teamed up at the time with John Dache Pesa, who had just retired from being the Migori Teachers Training College Principal, in an unsuccessful attempt to take over the Migori Kanu Branch Chairmanship from Otieno and his team. Pesa later joined ODM, in 1997, to become the MP for Migori from from later that year to 2013 when he was dislodged by Junet Mohamed.

During the struggle to replace Otieno, Kanindo and Pesa at one point mobilized truckloads of supporters including cane cutters from Awendo in an attempt to take over the Kanu Branch Office in Migori town located at Pand Pieri near the Juakali sheds. 

Dalmas, then a powerful cabinet minister got support from the provincial administration and the police, which sent the Kanindo-Pesa axis fleeing from Migori town. But a section of the crowd later gathered at Girango Hotel, which was then being run by Pesa, for a meal which had been prepared in anticipation of victory. 

Such was the drama that characterized Kanindo –Otieno relationship but they remained politically tolerant of each other with bouts of love-hate relationship. 

Kanindo somehow maintained his own direct access to Moi even though Otieno was the only Luo cabinet minister through whom most delegations would go to Moi. Kanindo would always find his own way to Kabarak, to see Moi, who twice appointed him the Chairman of Sony Sugar Company.

He was a very clever political operative and could sometimes make his opponents most uncomfortable at public places and even use some of his own supporters to painfully prick both Dalmas and Polo. 

Oburu Odinga (in yellow shirt) with Raila at kanindo's burial

In one instance, he mobilized an anti –Otieno wave in Rongo, using Ford Kenya councilors, led by the late Omolo Miguna and Were Ogango. The group issued statements which called on Otieno to discourage delegations to his Kangeso home saying this divided the people of Rongo, and made Dalmas compare with President Moi who was also receiving delegations to his Kabarak home!

The statement appeared in the media at a time when President Moi was visiting Nyanza and at a time when Otieno, as a cabinet minister was under surveillance to gauge his loyalty to Kanu.

The Moi regime was still smarting from the after effects of the grisly murder of the then Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Robert John Ouko, whose body, with gorged out eyes, was found at the foot of Got Alila in Muhoroni, Kisumu County. So the Kanu loyalty barometer was on Otieno.

The late former powerful PS and Otieno’s mentor, Hezekiah Oyugi Ogango (Kalambe duong!” – the one with a big pen!”) had died abroad under suspicious circumstances after he was arrested and later sacked as he prepared to to and give evidence at the Ouko Commssion of Inquiry then sitting at Kisumu.

Oyugi was arrested together with the then Moi confidant and powerful Minister Nicholas Biwott. But the Kerio Valley MP was quickly freed and later re-appointed to the Cabinet.  

Kanindo’s activities caused quite some unease for Otieno who reportedly got a tongue lashing from Moi. Biwott,o was back in the Cabinet, with increased influence in the Moi government remained deeply paranoid of all Luo politicians after he was blamed for Ouko’s killing.

Characteristically, Kanindo often emerged unscathed after fomenting trouble for his political rivals. He had his way of explaining himself out of tight situations and even though Otieno blamed him for undercutting him as the only Luo Cabinet Minister, a sizeable chunk of Rongo and Luo people sided with Kanindo. 

In one case in 2002 before the General Elections which saw Moi beaten by the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), Kanindo, who was angling for the Rongo seat within Narc had to explain his reported presence at President Moi’s Kabarak home. 

At a funeral at Ranjira near Awendo, Kanindo disarmed the agitated crowd who were unhappy that he had been spotted at Kabarak when he claimed he was in Narc and the Liberal Democratic Party led by Raila Odinga at the time thus:

“Achiedh nade mamiyo dhiang’ kaw lewe mochiemogo to kendo ochako onang’ogo olunde ema nyocha omiyo adhi neno Moi Wuod Odongo!. Nyocha ung’eyo ni ne awito migoka dalaka koro nadhi ni Jaduong Moi mondoo yuora e chandruok, to kane awuok to aromo kod jothurwa moa Migori ka e rangach! To kanyo ema picha mar television omenya kamoso yawago! Koso ne kik amos jothurwa mabende ne odhi dwaro mogo ir Moi? An ne ok an kodgi! 

The point he was making in very persuasive Dholuo was that his being seen (on TV) at Moi’s Kabarak home was out of a tough choice he had to make becuase he had lost his daughter and because he was in dire need of assistance and had visited Moi's at Kabarak. He dismissed claims that he was part of a Kanu delegation from Migori at Kabarak at the time, saying he was captured on TV as he greeted members of the delegation, which he could not avoid since they were from his district! 

Dalmas had led the delegation to Kabarak, along with remnants of the Kanu supporters, apparently to pledge loyalty at a time the Narc wave was beginning to sweep across the country and the whole Kanu brigade was treated with utmost disdain by most members of the Luo community.

Kanindo’s last stab in elective politics was in 2013 when he unsuccessfully vied for the Migori Senate seat as an independent candidate.  He lost to Dr Wilfred Machage who stood on an ODM ticket. However, he never faded from view and was before his death concerned at the apparent bad blood between Raila and Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero.

"Uneno kaka jomoko tiyo gi jo gaset thuwo joluo?(Do you see how some people are using them media to create bad blood between Luo leaders?", he told mouners at the burial of the wife of the late former Maranattha Mission of Kenya Director James Nyambuoro at Agongo Village in Sakwa, Awendo early this year.

Kanindo’s demise leaves a yawning social, economic and political gap. In politics and sense of humour and power of speech, he was one of a kind in his generation, ranking alongside former Alego Usonga MP Peter Catro Oloo Aringo, former Nyatike MP Ochola Ogur and former Muhoroni MP Onyango Midika and the late former Bondo MP William Odongo Omamo “Kaliech”.

Kanindo's wives at the burial

The older generation of Luos who valued the power of speech, humor and parables, and less of the more irritating casual approach and name calling that is so rampant now, will miss Kanindo dearly. He was also a committed supporter of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in which he was nurtured by his parents and was by all standards, a committed Christian.

Kanindo also loved to dress smartly and often picked choice Italian suits at the Sir Henry's in nairobi or other such expensive shops in the city or abroad whenever he traveled. He had a nack for winning over ladies. No wonder he married many wives. 

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga's wife, Ida made a joke of this at his burial on June 13, narrating how the sweet- talking Kanindo eloped with her school mate who was to be his first wife, from Ogande Girls Secondary School near Homabay. Kanindo hid the lady in Tanzania for  a while before it became known that he had actually married her. 

"Kanindo ni ne mkora malich. Nobiro momayowa nyar skundwa Oganda Girls,  e jaode maduong ma koro uneno kanyono. Nokwale modhi opande mana Tanzania!"  joked Ida at the burial, in reference to the eloping episode.

 Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero, Raila and Ida at  the burial

Although many people were critical of his tenure aas Sony Sugar Company Chairman, nobody could doubt his commitment to supportin and advocating for sugarcane farmers within the Awendo Sugarbelt. 

Kanindo was born on November 29, 1942, in the present Awendo Constituency in Migori County to the late Andrea Anindo and Masella Ojowi Anindo. He attended Manyatta, Lwala, and Komolo-Rume primary schools. He then joined Koderobara and Pe-Hill Intermediate School.

Kanindo later got a scholarship to Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) where he did a diploma in Radio and Wireless Electronics between 1961 and 1963.

After Kenya’s independence in 1963, Kanindo returned to the country where he later joined the Kenya News Agency (KNA) as a technician in radio and wireless devices, where he worked with among others, former Nyatike MP Ochola Ogur.

Kanindo later joined the music production industry through Electric & Musical Industries Ltd (EMI) where he served as the CEO in Kenya, under a proprietor, Graham Shepherd of EMI London, the son of the then speaker of the House of Lords in London. 

 It was during his stint at EMI that he helped many budding musicians including his brother in- law the late Collela Mazee to produce some of the most outstanding songs that rule the benga world to date. Most of the records in the 1970 through to the 1980 bore the famous tag  "Produced by Phares Oluoch Kanindo (POK)".

Nind gi kwe "Galamoro'!

CORD's Big Day in Migori -Thousands attend epic rally

Cord Leader Raila Odinga, with Suna East MP Junet Mohamed arrive at Migori Stadium

Cord Leader Raila Odinga and Co-Principal Moses Wetangula consult at Migori Stadium during the Coalition's rally.

Siaya Senator James Orengo consults with Cord leader Raila Odinga at the Migori Rally. The leaders insisted that they would go on with their countrywide rallies to pressurize the Jubilee government into acceeding to their demands for a national dialogue to discuss the country's problems.

A section of the crowd that attended the Cord rally at Migori Stadium. The rally was attended by several senators, MPs and party officials from different parts of the country. They said the planned Saba Saba (July 7, 2014) would define the future of Kenya as citizens will make a decision about the next course of action if the Jubileee government declines to accept to dialogue with them and other stakeholders on the problems facing the country.

It was a "boda boda" (motorbikes) galore as thousannds of Cord supporters poure in from different parts of the county and neighbouring counties to attend the rally. The police guarded them and non was reported stolen at the end of the rally.

TEN KILLED, 80 INJURED IN NAIROBI TERROR BLAST AS FOREIGN TOURISTS LEAVE KENYA OVER SECURITY FEARS

At least 10 people were today afternoon killed and more than 80 others injured when two blasts went off in the crowd Gikomba Market in down town Nairobi.

Scene of the terror attack: Some of the passengers died

Suspected terorists lobbed two bombs made from improvised devices, almost simulteneously, one into a public service vehicle locally known as "matatu" and another at a group of second hand dealers.


At lease two suspects were arrested at the scene, one by members of the public who spotted him fleeing and another, by the police as he hid into a garage nearby. Among those reported dead was pregnant woman who was at the market and at least four passengers in the public service vehicle.

Traders selling clothes fell victims

Some of the victims died at the various hosptials where they were rushed by the Kenya Red Cross Society among other rescue agencies.The blasts caused panic in Nairobi leading to heavy traffic jams which the police cleared after a while.

The terror attack in Nairobi, which took place around 2.30 pm, local time came shortly after more than 900 foreign tourists from Europe and America began leaving Kenya's tourist resourt city of Mombasa following travel advisories issues by  the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, among other Western countries.

The Kenya government had earlier issued a statement dismissing the the issuance of the travel advisories as ill advised, saying there was no danger from terrorists.

Players in the tourism industry who said they had incurred losses from canclled bookings amounting to millions of dollars  and would lay off workers, urged the government to step up security.

Kenya has been hit by a spate of terror attacks since last year, the most devastating being the attack on the upmarket Westgate Shopping Mall in Weestland which left 67 people dead and more than 200 others injured.

The terror attacks have been witnessed more in Nairobi and Mombasa, which has seen the government laubching a security operation which has targeed Eastliegh Area of Nirobi occupied by members of the Somali community.

The area is believed to harbour terror cells and sympathisers of the Somalia based terror group, Al-Shabaab. The group has in the past vowed to hit the country following the decison, three years ago, to send a contingent of the Kenya Defense Forces into Somalia to pursue the militantt grup and help stabilize Somalia.

NYANZA POLITICS: WHAT IS ITCHING DALMAS OTIENO?

There is no doubt that Rongo politician Dalmas Otieno Anyango has been a towering political figure in Nyanza, having served as a cabinet minister both under the Kanu regime and more recently, under the Coalition Government of the retired President Mwai Kibaki and former Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga.  

Otieno has been a colourful politician with the gift of the garb, endowed with massive resources, both at the personal level and from his former Kanu party and its leader, retired President Daniel Arap Moi and his political and business friends.

Dalmas (send right)with South Sudanese delegation and President Kenyatta at State house

He is also quite a mobilizer who has been able to attract admires and hangers on, over the last two and half decades. He has also been an astute businessman. 

Dalmas is now convinced more than ever before that he is ripe for a bigger national role, possibly as the leader of a political party and presidential candidate, going by his most recent pronouncements. 

But many analysts of the Nyanza and Kenyan political scene believe something has been pricking the political skin of the former Minister and longtime Kanu point man in Nyanza and now it has begun to itch. 

Many pundits are convinced that his clamour for a bigger political office or a political party outside the Orange Democratic Movement (DM) is not necessarily driven by a desire to deliver any earth shaking developmental transformation of Nyanza or the Luo community that he purports to be speaking on behalf of. 

The preponderant view is that he is acting at the behest of certain political forces keen on dismantling the legacy of the ODM leader, Raila Odinga, and creating a kink in the Luo community's resilient solidarity and unity fortress, to allow external forces gain a foothold for political and other gains.   

PM Raila Odinga, wife Ida, arrive in Unga, Ndhiwa for the late Ojode's burial

A peak into Dalmas Otieno’s political past will reveal that he is not behaving out of character and that his recent political moves conform to his political past which, for 21 of his 26 years in politics, has been defined by a defense of the status quo and more specifically, the decadent Kanu party and its ousted regime.

Many people view the Jubilee Coalition, consisting of The National Alliance (TNA) and the United Republican Party (URP) led by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy President William Ruto respectively as largely a re-incarnation of the old Kanu party.

The two Jubilee Coalition leaders were Otieno’s buddies in Kanu and there is little doubt that they have kept in close touch. Nothing illustrates this more than the recent appointment of the Rongo MP as an envoy for the South Sudan peace talks at a time when he had just become critical of ODM and Raila.

For sometimes since the March 4 General Elections, Otieno has shown open discomfort being in ODM. A section of the ODM MPs fom the Luo community have openly expressed alarm over Nairobi Governor’ Evans Kidero’s harambee fundraising forays into Southern Nyanza and the hefty donations he has been giving in the name of both Uhuru and Ruto. 

The Rongo MP has not only defended and lauded Kidero’s harambee efforts as the panacea to Luo community’s development problems but also dismissed Raila’s consistent argument that under a devolved system, Kenyans and by extension, the Luo community, needed not beg from the national government.

Otieno was in his element when he and the embattled Migori Governor Zakaria Okoth Obado hosted the Deputy President at the Ranen Seventh Day Adventist Mission in Awendo Constituency late last year. Obado is known to be a close friend of Ruto from their days in the Minstry of Agriculture, which the DP was in charge of under the Coalition government while Obado was the chairman of the Kenya Sugar Board.

Speaking at the harambee at Ranen, Otieno was full of praise for Ruto and his "love" for development and magnanimity of extending his generousity to Nyanza and other areas that never voted for Jubilee Coalition during the March 4, 2013 General Elections. 

The former minister made it clear to Ruto that he would work closely with the national government “for the development” of his Rongo Constituency. That was also the slant of Obado’s speech, which was not unexpected. 

Obado was elected on Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), led by former South Mugirango MP Omingo Magara. Immediately after the March 4 General Elections, the party entered into a post- election MOU with the Jubilee Coalition. For the last one year, Obado has been on edge, not knowing how to act in this difficult political environment. 

On the one hand, he is in Jubilee by virtue of having ditched ODM and got elected on PDP ticket which is now in the rival coalition while on the other his voters were largely ODM supporters with a large group of  Members of County Assemblies elected on ODM ticket. 

Twice when Ruto has visited Migori, the DP could only be hosted in Kuria where his URP party got one seat while the other went to Shadrack Manga of Kanu, which is also part of their coalition. Obado has since his election avoided any ODM functions and skiped even those that leader Raila was in attendance his own county. 

During the burial of the wife of former MP Owino Likowa in Kakrao, Obado caused a scene by attempting to snatch the microphone from Siaya Senator James Orengo was on the podium when he arrived. 

Obado initially declined to speak before Orengo as the area MP Junet Mohamed had proposed, arguing because Migori was an ODM zone, Oreng was the more senior politician to speak last. However, Obado  shot from his seat to interrupt Orengo who apparently annoyed him for calling on voters to reject him if the Supreme Court upheald the Court of Appeal ruling thatt voters in the county go for a by-election.     

Otieno has since last year been seen to be speaking out of turn at various other forums, but more pointedly in Bondo, Raila’s home turf, at the party to celebrate the election of Bondo MP Gideon Ochanda. 

Dalmas Otieno speaks at the home of Bondo MP Gideon Ochanda

At the Ochanda party, Otieno dismissed Raila’s position saying it was misguided urging other Luo ODM MPs to ignore their party leader and work closely with the Jubilee government which he said has the power and the resources for development. 

“Dongo orem e piny Luo ka nikech kar yalo tich to jotelo yalore kendgi! Ng’ato kik wuondu ni ok unyal tiyo gi sirkand Ouru Kenyatta, (Luoland is backward because leaders are busy undermining one another instead of discussing development. Nobody should lie to you or dissuade you from working closely with the Uhuru Kenyatta government)” Dalmas intoned to the surprised crowd. 

Otieno later left in a hurry, ostensibly to attend to other matters,before other ODM MPs could arrive. And arrive they did later, in a group that included Oburu Odinga, James Orengo, Nicholas Gumbo, Jakoyo Midiwo, John Mbadi, James Opiyo Wandai, among from a funeral in neighbouring Gem Constituency. 

They launched a scathing attack on Otieno, describing him as a dishonet and an ungrateful person, who was looking at a gift horse in the mouth. They said ODM and Raila who he was now rubbishing, had pulled him from political oblivion and made him a cabinet minster for five years.

They said Otieno had never genuinely been in ODM and had all along retained his links with his former party Kanu, to which he ws now plotting a return.

"Dalmas to ok osebedo jakorwa malong'o. Enga mana kocha to nyocha obiro irwa ka mana mar wuondruok to kwasekonye to kendo koro olokore kodwa, (Dalmas has never been really on our side. He has always been on the other side and he joined us pretending to be sincere but has turned his back on us after we helped him)" said Oburu.

So, now, like in the Kanu era of the 1990s, Otieno has thrust himself into the arena, once again appearing bent on antagonizing the Luo community and its stand on national politics; that they do not need to bend over backwards to accomodate and give legitimacy to a national government, which like all others over the last fifty years, has, in their opinion, little regard for them. 

           

Otieno was not known in political circles before 1988. But that year, he was suddenly thrust into the political limelight through the infamous “mlolongo” (queue voting system) by the late Hezekiah Oyugi Ogango, at the time, a powerful Permanent Secretary for Internal Security and Provincial Administration in the Kanu government.

He became the Rongo MP through the massively rigged “mlolongo” system which many people described as "a selection” and not an election process. Kanu party youths and security agents intimidated the voters and in some cases, whipped people to forcefully line up in his favour. 

When the agitation for a multi-party system finally bore fruit and Kenyans went to the General Elections of 1992, Otieno stuck with Kanu. and lost his Rongo seat to his uncle Linus Aluoch Polo of Ford Kenya.

In an apparent demonstration of his loyalty to Kanu and Moi, Otieno was to make a statement against his Luo community as the elections approached, which has haunted him to date. 

The media reported Otieno as ominously predicting that the Luo would never rule Kenya even for the next 100 years unless they returned to Kanu, which he argued, was their historical party to which they had donated instruments and emblems that made the national and party flags. 

“Kanu eodwa kama wan kaka jo-Luo, wakane gigewa kaka okumba, tonge, gik mane wakedogo gi wasigu, kod thuon gweno,ma wagoyogo mier,( Kanu is our home where we as Luos, kept the shield and spears for defending the community against enemies and the cockerel, for making new homes,” Otieno would often repeat over and over in the 1990s.  

 

Nairobi Governor Dr.Evans Kidero

The Rongo MP took a lot of flak from many Luo leaders who had then moved to the opposition Ford Kenya. The community was so outraged that for decades, Otieno was virtually a political pariah, incapable of being elected by Rongo voters, till he joined other Luo leaders and Raila in ODM in 2007. 

From 1992, the Luo community, who were at the forefront of agitation for political pluralism under the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, were all in Ford Kenya as that year’s elections approached. 

The Luo were part of the earthshaking original political movement –Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD) which had brought together Odinga, former ministers Kenneth Matiba, Masinde Muliro, Charles Rubia and a slew of young politicians named “the Young Turks”. 

But political egos and competition saw the original FORD split into two, with Matiba and the late Martin Shikuku running away with one side which they named Ford Asili, while Jaramogi with a number of the Young Turks, including his son, Raila, James Orengo, Prof Anyang’Nyong’o, Paul Muite, Kiraitu Murungi, Mukhisa Kituyi and Gitobu Imanyara, among others, teamed up to form Ford Kenya.    

  

Dalmas remained comfortably ensconced in Kanu, actually becoming a cabinet minister, and representing, to the Luo community, the face of Kanu’s decades of painful memories of persecution, brutality, torture, detentions, political and economic exclusion.

So in the 1992 General Elections, Otieno was trounced by Polo on Ford Kenya ticket who went on to represent Rongo from 1993 to 2002 when former Cabinet Minister Polycarp Ochillo Ayacko took over. 

However, Otieno remained in parliament as a Kanu nominee, serving in different ministries to spite his rebellious community and to represent Kanu interests, which he did up to 2007 when for the first time, he grudgingly teamed up with Raila in ODM, which he now wants to ditch.  

Bondo MP   Gideon Ochanda

In essence, Otieno was never at any time elected democratically as MP from 1988 until he joined ODM in 2007 which gave him a new lease of life and legitimacy that he never had for all those years he was in Kanu.     

   

That Otieno eventually joined Raila’s side in Luo and national politics was something of surprise to many people given the open disdain with which he has always regarded the ODM leader and past opposition parties that have been associated with the Odinga family.

Few people know what motivated Otieno to join Raila but those in the know attribute it to a number of factors. 

First, his erstwhile party Kanu, had shrunk in size and influence after its defeat by the Rainbow Coalition/Narc in 2002, leaving the former Minister with little or no access the financial largesse and political influence that he had enjoyed and wielded for a long time. 

Analysts say his business empire was not doing very well and one of the financial institutions he had been closely associated with during the Kanu days, Thabiti Finance Ltd, had collapsed. This scenario had left him vulnerable. 

On the political front, Otieno had suffered a pariah status over the years and with Moi out of power, he retained no iota of political warmth and he was not nominated back to parliament. The freezing political Siberia was so biting he had to do something about it. 

Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi: Otieno's move divisive

There is the other narrative which says Raila roped him in to tap his deep Kanu links, to try to woo back his longtime associate in Kanu, William Ruto, who was pulling away from ODM over The Hague trial cloud.

Otieno seems to be clutching onto his reported role of being part of the team that brokered the deal between the Wiper brigade, part of his long time Kanu colleagues, led by Kalonzo Musyoka and one time Provincial Commissioner turned politician David Musila and ODM to create Cord Colaition.

The former minister appears to be putting such a high premium on his role in the founding of the Cord Coalition that it should automatically translate to his elevation to some senior position within ODM.

In the run-up to the botched ODM party elections, Dalmas made it look like he had acquired such very high democratic credentials that should have made him not only a dominant voice in the preparation for the elections but should have confered on him, almost unchallnged, the position of party Secretary General.

When it emerged that Raila was not keen to have too many Luos crowding space in the top echelons of the party, Otieno cried foul, dismissing the ODM leader as undemocratic and undermining his bid for the seat. Many people have wondered where Otieno got the credentials to pontificate about democracy.

Therun up to the botched ODM elections marked a turning point as it was shortly after his loud complaints that Uhuru appointed him to the new South Sudan assignment which has left many people baffled given that Otieno has no background in diplomacy and international relations.

Otieno’s entry into ODM in 2007 came at some cost to Raila. A number of the former Prime Minister’s close associates including his elder brother Dr. Oburu Odinga did not and have never trusted Dalmas. 

Former Assistant Minister and Ndhiwa MP the late Joshua Orwa Ojode who perished in a helicopter crash with his Internal Security Minster Boss George Saitoti in June 2012, never trusted him either and went to his grave bitter with Dalmas.  

Ojode had been close to Raila since his election as Ndhiwa MP in 1994 in a by-election occasioned by the defection of then MP Tom Obondo to Kanu. Ojode had hoped to be given a full and powerful ministerial position in the Post-Election Coalition government.

Gwasi MP John Mbadi and his Bondo counterpart -Ochanda

The entry of Otieno, also from South Nyanza like Ojode, complicated the situation. Raila named the Rongo MP as Minister for Public Service, to Ojode;s discomfort. Ojode and other ODM insiders considered Otieno "an outsider who had fought Raila and ODM and was "a Johnie –come- lately" who did not deserve such a plum job.  

Dalmas kept a low profile after his appointment to the cabinet in March 2008 till March 2013, but maintaned enough visibility and closeness to Raila to enable him survive that difficult period. 

However, many now think it was a strategy for survival and a convenience for him, and not representative of any ideological and loyalty shift away from from Kanu and the status quo. 

Otieno’s political profile and disposition to the vexed question of Luo community’s political stand, contribution to the country’s democratization process and the elusive efforts to lead the country can be described as intriguing and decidedly negative.

To understand that Otieno is behaving true to his long conservative and some say, opportunistic, political character, it is important to trace some of his key political activities and pronouncements since he entered into the political arena. 

As already alluded to above, Otieno rattled the Luo political psyche by saying the community was ill advised to ditch Kanu and join Jaramogi in Ford, and later Ford-Kenya and that they were fated to fail in their quest to rule this country, even for the next 100 years, unless they returned to Kanu. 

Although the former minister later claimed the media misquoted him, he has been unable to shake off the label pinned on him as a person who has fought against the larger Luo community's aspirations.    

Rarieda MP Nicholas Gumbo

That he has now loudly pronounced his displeasure with ODM, a party that rescued him from political oblivion, and announced that he is forming a new political party, has not come as a surprise to those who have followed the former minister’s political beliefs and inclinations over the last 26 years.

Immediately after the 1992 elections, Dalmas is believed to have played a major role in the defection in March 1993 of his then business and political friend Charles Oyugi Owino “Likowa”as Migori MP from Ford-Kenya to Kanu. 

Otieno was to lead the Kanu brigade in Nyanza and from the national level in a campaign blitz to get Likowa re-elected as Migori MP but the Ford-Kenya team, led by Jaramogi himself, vanquished him and his team, instead getting Owino Acholla elected as the new Migori MP. 

However Otieno acquited himself well as the Kanu pointman, assembling the remnants of the Kanu team in Nyanza who included former minister and one time Kanu Chairman Ndolo Ayah, former Health Minister Peter Nyakiamo, former Assistant Ministers, Lazarus Amayo, Shadrack Manga and political chameleon Phares Oluoch Kanindo. 

Others in his team were Kanu activists and businessmen Herbert Ojwang and the late Kassim Owango and former South Nyanza County Council Chairman Aketch Chieng’, among a motely of other low level officials.   

In early 1994, Otieno was at it again, helping to nab the then Ndhiwa MP Tom Obondo back to Kanu. An attempt to lure the then Rangwe MP Prof Ouma Muga and Nyatike MP Ochola Ogur hit a brick wall following hostility from their constituents. 

Otieno again, with his Kanu brigade, mounted a big and violent campaign to get Obondo re-elected on Kanu ticket to no avail. The then little known Orwa Ojode triumphed over Obondo to clinch the seat on Ford Kenya ticket.

Jaramogi died on January 20, 1994, and soon, Ford Kenya was to be rocked by internal succession battles which pitted Raila and the then deputy party leader Kijana Wamalwa,splitting the party into two. 

Attempts to heal the rift through mediation led by Prof Edward Oyugi Akong'o, the ODM Migori gubernatorial candidate and Anglican Archbishop Mannases Kuria failed to yield any fruits with Raila eventually jumping ship to take over the little known National Development Party (NDP) from Stephen Oludhe and Mzee Okuwa Oguok 

The apparent vacuum in Luo leadership attracted Otieno who mounted a determined bid for it, haggling publicly with the late Arch Bishop of Maseno South Henry Okullu over who between them would fill up Odinga’s shoes as Luo leader.

During a campaign rally for some civic seats at Opapo in his Rongo constituency in October 1994, Otieno paraded a group of elders who he claimed had brought him a dream from Odinga’ "anointing" him the Luo leader!    

“Uneno jodongogi? Gikelona lek koa kuom Jaramogi ni an ema akaw kare kaka Ogae mar oganda Luo! Juok Piny omaka kendo an ma owira gi mor telo! (Behold, do you see these elders? They have come to inform me of their dream from Jaramogi anointing me as the Luo leader. I am possessed by the communal spirits as I am the one anointed to lead the community!),”  he ecstatically announced.

For those who can remember, The Daily Nation carried the report prominently and followed it with a hilarious cartoon, featuring Otieno and Okullu, attempting to fill jaramogi’s shoes, which were too big for them. 

Luo elders, other Luo leaders in Ford Kenya including Raila himself dismissed Otieno's claims with derision, saying they were far fetched, wondering how Jaramogi could annoint Dalmas to succeed him as Luo leader when the Nyanza Kanu leader was part of the scheme that thwarted his presidential ambitions and persecuted him to death. 

Otieno lost steam in his quest to step into Odinga’s shoes but not in his determination to help Kanu gain a foothold in Nyanza, especially South Nyanza. He had a powerful ally in the then Nyanza Provincial Commissioner Joseph Kaguthi who had also initiated a nebulous outfit called “Church and State Cooperation.” 

In March 1995, Dalmas, Nyakiamo and Likowa, among others, led a delegation of Suba Community leaders and elders to the then President Moi’s Kabarak home, agitating for Suba community autonomy from the “anti-government” Luos.

Moi immediately instructed the PC Kaguthi to facilitate the creation of Suba District. What Dalmas and his delegation did not tell the president was that the Suba community was so widely dispersed and had so intermarried with the Luo that it was futile attempting to herd them into an administrative and political corner.   

The Kanu leaning Suba leaders designed an elaborate stragey to benefit from Moi's handouts and appointments, in the process mounting a vicious attack against then Mbita Ford Kenya MP Dr. Omollo Opere, who had beaten Nyakiamo, a longtime friend of Moi, to take over the Mbita seat in the 1992 General Elections.  

The current Suba District was created as part of this political intrigue, to convince the community that their continued association with Luos in the Opposition Ford Kenya would hurt their development agenda. 

The Suba clans of “Jochula” in Awendo (to which Nation columnist William Ochieng’, former Mathare MP Ochieng’ Mbeo among others belong), Josuna of the late former Minister John Henry Okwanyo and those in Muhuru, were spread across what is now Migori County.

These clans, residing more than 300 km from their kinsmen, in the Subaland proper along Lake Victoria, could not be herded back into the new Suba District, stretching from Ruri Hills near Homabay, through Mbita, Mfangano, Gembe, Magunga and Gwasi and engulfing the Lambwe Game Reserve.  

Kaguthi had to be a realist in implementing the presidential decree in creating the new politico-administrative unit. In Migori, all the divisions in Suna were quickly renamed Suba -East, Central and West while Muhuru was made a Division, to separate it from the Kadem dominated Macalder Division. 

Interestingly,  despite getting the district and other administrative units, and other state goodies, the Suba community never really supported Kanu and continued electing their leaders on Ford-K and later on ODM ticket. Kanu got a few civic seats in subsequent by-elections though.

The Kuria had long been socialized about "the dangers of Luo domination" and anti-government stand. Through this divide and rule method presided over by Dalmas and Manga, the Kuria were hearded into the Kanu corner with promises of state goodies, with a new district being created for them in 1993. 

The Kuria stuck to Kanu, under MPs Walter Mwita and Shadrack Manga from 1992-2002, moved to Democratic Party with Dr. Wilfred Machage from 2002-2013 and in 2013 back to Kanu and URP in parliamentary reresentation.

However, under "a negotiated democracry" arrangment which did not go entirely according to expectations, Machage was elected Senator and Denita Ghati, Women County Representative on ODM ticket by the larger Migori County electorate despite reluctant support from their own Kuria community.  

The determined attempts by Kanu to fragment Nyanza and the Luo community into quarrelling pieces appears to return now, this time, sponsored by Kanu's offspring and successor, the Jubilee Coalition again,  with Dalmas as its chief priest. Of course there are the catechists and other low level people within this heirarchy. 

In 1995, Nyatike MP Ochola Ogur finally fell into the trap that Kanu had started laying for him in 1994. He defected back to Kanu and despite a spirited campaign by Dalmas and his Kanu team, Ogur lost to the little known Tom Onyango of Ford Kenya.

Otieno kept the Kanu flag flying, but now with diminished energy till the party was bundled out of power by the Narc Coalition in 2002. Consistent entreaties by other Luo leaders and supporters to join Narc and later ODM, fell on deaf years till he “saw the light” in 2007. 

But with his new declared political direction and choice, Otieno is again consciously drifting into what could easily be political oblivion. It is doubtful that Otieno can drum up enough support for his new party, which some already refer to as “kalausi” (a cyclone or storm) to rival ODM in Nyanza despite the Opposition party’s internal problems and setbacks of losing two successive General elections.

What is likely to put Otieno and his supporters into a political quandary is the perception that the move is being instigated by those who want to eat at Raila’s home base and scuttle Luo unity ahead of 2017. 

A gathering in Nyanza: Otieno's party will be  a hard sell in the area

The youthful MPs from Luoland  who have lately been critical of their party ODM are unlikely to join Dalmas in what is evidently a politically suicidal mission, given the community’s stubborn streak. 

In 1997, Prof Anyang' Nyong'o joined in the current Lands cabinet Minister Charity Ngilu and his idological compatriot the late Dr. Appollo Njonjo to mount a campaing for the presidency and to challenge Raila, then running on the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) ticket. 

Nyong'o lost his Kisumu Rural seat and hand to eat humble pie and rejoin Raila for political rehabilitation. Siaya Senator James Orengo inherited the Social Democratic party and contested the presidency after a fall out with Raila in 2002 but did not go far, losing his Ugenya seat in the process.

Former Rangwe MP Shem Ochuodho also attempted to form some political outfit which never took off and in the process fled to the corporate sector, getting apponted to head the Kenya Pipeline and later took up an ICT position in Rwanda and is now in South Sudan doing ICT for the new government.

He resurfaced shortly before the March 2013 General Elections as a running mate to lawyer Paul Muite in what many laughed off as  big joke. He could not even vote as he had not exercised due diligence in registering as a voter. He is currently championing the rights of the Kenyans in the Diaspora from his Juba base.

A more recent brazen attempt at "democratizing the Luo political landscape" or what others say was an attempt at "dismantling Odingaism", was mounted by former Rarieda MP and one time Foreign Minister Raphael Tuju. 

He formed POA, a political outift that did not attract a single candidate from Nyanza, including all those who have always professed the need for "alternative political vehicle". Tuju himself never made it to the ballot as a presidential candidate despite a flamboyant launch and brief campaingn stint.

Luo community solidarity, expressed a sit were through their inclination and loyalty to the Jaramogi legacy, dubbed “Odingaism” and which currently resides in his son Raila, may be on the wane somewhat due to a number of factors. 

But any effort to to get a new stream of thinking, ideology or an orientation different from this will most likely take along time to come, especially if the proponents portray the community as "undemocratic unqestioning followers" of that legacy. 

The history of the Luo community over the last fifty years is repleat with such proponents being destroyed in the process. Many of such attempts are often driven by selfish interests which the larger Luo community believe are attempts to auction them to the highest bidder in the national political arena.

  

There has been little exxcitement about Otieno's announcment of the possible formation of a new party. Reaction has been mute if not largely hostile. He was recently heckeled out of a funeral in Siaya County when he attempted to sell the new party and had to be rescued by Siaya Governor Cornel Rasanga.

Callers to a recent radio talk show on Ramogi FM and comments from the ground have not been overly complementary of Otieno’s new move and he may need to remember the unpleasant songs of the 1990s composed to deride his Kanu stand, one of which went like this:

“Otieno okelo pesa ji chamo nono, ji chamo nono, kura onge!;

Moi bende omede, ji chamo nono, ji chamo nono, kura onge!