By Anderson Ojwang
After two decades, history is about to make a repeat, Kenya is about to watch what could turn out to be a seismic battle.
A battle reminiscent of the power struggle in Ford-K after the death of the doyen of opposition, the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, that left his party into a shell and currently confined only in Bungoma county and pocket of places in Western Kenya.
The lion that roared every corner of the country is today toothless and can no longer hunt away from the home and faces a battle of survival with the emergence of other players in the den.
The battle over Jaramogi party that involved his deputy the late Wamalwa Kijana and his son Raila Amolo Odinga, whittled down the once a popular movement party to a community and to now a county party.
The battle was over party leadership and a possible 1997 presidential contest and candidate.
Wamalwa had the leadership instruments while Raila had the people. The endless battle forced the latter to jump ship, resigned from the party and Langata parliamentary seat, sought a re-election on his new vehicle National Development Party (NDP), now defunct after the merge with Kanu, to re-engineer his political journey to the current status.
Currently, DAP-K leader, Eugene Wamalwa, the younger brother of the late Vice President, is facing a historical repeat.
He holds the instruments of power for the party but he has least control over the people and the support base of the party.
He is rightly walking into his late brother’s footsteps. He is right in the mix and the question, will he wriggle himself out and retain the power, or will he lose it altogether?
In the context is the Trans Nzoia governor George Natembeya, could be viewed as a re-incarnation of Raila and is following the footsteps of the leader of Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) to the letter.
Natembeya is implementing every detail of Raila’s script, copying and pasting in his journey to take over the Luhya leadership and that of DAP-K.
Just like Raila, Natembeya have the people but lacks the house, the political party that deny him the opportunity to be at the table of power matrix and run for presidency.
Without a political party, he remains stranger in the high table and this explains why there are disquiet and discontent in the DAP-K, with some sections urging him to take over the party leadership.
During the last Friday’s DAP-K meeting in Karen, Nairobi, a the highly kept secret of power struggle in the party was laid bare by a faction of youths allied to the two camps and nearly confronted one another, akin to Wamalwa-Raila era.
After the meeting, Eugene said that a dispute resolution committee will be formed to resolve the emerging issues in the party.
In a press address read to the media said “The National Management Committee has deliberated and found out that there is therefore a serious dispute in the between members of the party.“
National Executive Council shall be called soonest to appoint dispute resolution committee.
Wamalwa said “ We have heard of a party called Cord, if there is evidence that he (Natembeya) has registered that party and even promoted the ideals of the party, and not of the party that elected him , the consequences are clear legally . We are a democratic party, in fact we have said anyone who wishes to run for any seat in our party can do so.
And we can chew the gum and we scale the stairs the same time,”
Eugene also wrote in his X handle “ My brother , Peter Salasya, both you and my brother George Natembeya do not have to leave or cause a coup in our party in order to become party leaders or presidential candidates, you are welcome to face me for the presidential ticket in free and fair nominations as our is truly a democratic party that can allow us all to realize our political aspirations through internal democracy without recking our party or washing our dirty linen in public.”
Natembeya ‘ there is no need to go to a party meeting where you speak one vernacular language. What kind of nonsense is that? I want to expand the party to make it big. If some said Natambeya has formed a party. If you form a party, you go and have your name in the party leadership. If they claim of my proxies, who are my proxies.
But Natembeya denied the accusation and allegations of forming a new political party.
“I am happy that the National Management Committee has agreed that in the next two weeks, we shall have National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting , it is the decision making organ of the party and it will be able to deal with the emerging issues in the party.“
We do not want to give lip service to democracy. We want any members in DAP-k, who wants to contest for the presidency not be denied the opportunity.
The party does not belong to two or three people, it is for the masses. By the way, you can form a party and the people can come and take over from you. It is within the provision of the law.
We want to brand the party, make it bigger and open it up and remove the notion that it is a party for Trans Nzoia and Bungoma counties. We want it to be competitive nationally.
MP Kakai Bisau, said “ These types of behaviors or primitive takeover of parties, coups have caused troubles across the continent . We cannot have a party whereby the name itself it supposed to be democratic but the tendency, the way it is being driven from the George Natembeya perceptive is not democracy,”.
Salasya said “ There are a lot of issues that are happening in the party , the forceful take over and we have decided as the parliamentary group to call order in the party,”
Who will blink first, will Wamalwa retain the party or will Natembeya go Raila’s way?
