By Anderson Ojwang
Renowned Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe, in his book Things Fall Apart, wrote: “When the dry bones are mentioned, the old feel uneasy.”
In the Kisumu gubernatorial race, the debate on curriculum vitae and academic credentials is likely to cause unease among some aspirants.
Indeed, things may start to fall apart, not only for gubernatorial aspirants but for various elective posts in Kisumu County and Nyanza at large.
The emerging CV and academic conversation is likely to radically change the old order in the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), where nominations of candidates for various elective posts were based on other preferential factors with least consideration for education.
Aduma’s thunderbolt
Nyakach MP on Saturday opened the academic battlefront by saying Kisumu County cannot afford to vote in a nurse instead of a professor.
“The Governor’s seat requires one with a degree. How does Kisumu leave a professor and go for a nurse officer to be the governor?” he asked.
Founding Governor Jack Ranguma last weekend doubted some of the academic credentials of some of the gubernatorial aspirants.
“I highly doubt some of the aspirants who call themselves with some non-existent academic prefixes; they must be called out. We know the history of education of our people, and we will soon tell the truth,” he said.
Kisumu Deputy Governor Dr Mathews Owili said sound academic excellence and managerial competence were some of the ingredients required in the next Kisumu governor.
The CVs of the two governors
Ranguma
The founding governor, Ranguma, is a former Kenya Revenue Authority Commissioner of Income Tax and later Domestic Taxes. In 2008, he became a senior policy advisor for Taxes Justice Network Africa, a Pan-African organisation.
He holds a Master of Science (International Accounting and Management Information Systems) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Prof Nyong’o
The incumbent, Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o, is a respected academic, having taught at the University of Nairobi, where he was a professor of political science, and a visiting professor at universities in Mexico and Addis Ababa.
From October to December 2013, Nyong’o was a Brundtland Senior Leadership Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
In 2023, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed Nyong’o to his Advisory Group on Local and Regional Governments, co-chaired by Pilar Cancela Rodriguez and Fatimatou Abdel Malick.
Aspirants
The gubernatorial seat has attracted several aspirants, including Ranguma, Deputy Governor Dr Mathews Owili, Kisumu Central MP Dr Joshua Oron, Nyakach MP Aduma Owuor, Kisumu Senator Prof Tom Ojienda, Kisumu Women Representative Ruth Adhiambo Odinga, and Kisumu West MP Rosa Buyu.
The declaration will see Kisumu Central, Nyakach, and Kisumu West producing new MPs, as will the seats of Senator and Women Representative.
The goon politics
Kisumu county politics had degenerated into a goon paradise, with the majority of aspirants using them to harass their opponents.
The first casualty of goon politics was Vihiga Senator Godfrey Osotsi, who was attacked at Kisumu’s Java restaurant. Osotsi suffered injuries and was admitted to Kisumu Aga Khan Hospital before being airlifted to Nairobi’s Karen Hospital.
At the burial of the father of Seme MP Dr James Nyikal, goons disrupted the function, nearly killed his son, and forced Siaya Governor James Orengo to walk out of the burial.
Nyikal, the chairman of the Luo MP caucus popularly known as “Duol,” was not impressed at his father’s burial and called on Prof Ojienda to rein in his goons.
The chaos briefly disrupted the funeral programme and forced security officers to escort Orengo out of the venue to a safer exit.
Nyikal, the bereaved, lamented that the goons nearly killed his son at his father’s burial and was forced to ask Kisumu Senator Prof Tom Ojienda to go out and calm his goons.
“They nearly killed my son. I walked there to Senator Ojienda and asked him, ‘These people came with you. Can you tell them to stop?’ Senator, were you able to stop them?” he asked.
Nyikal said popularity is like love and cannot be bought with money, and wondered why fellow politicians walk to funerals in the company of goons.
“Let us be truly popular. Let us be able to walk to a funeral alone. I think popularity is like love. You cannot buy it with money. You may get it with money, but it will be lust,” he said.
Maseno South Bishop Rev Charles Onginjo accused politicians of encouraging the culture of handouts in the community and taking advantage of the poverty among the youths.
He said politicians have formed a bad habit of transforming youths into political goons by exploiting their economic constraints for their own good.
“You are reducing our people to dogs and beggars. Stop cheating our people and riding on the ignorance of the people. It’s a very unfortunate culture we are developing,” he said.
Rev Onginjo challenged the politicians to develop a culture of truth and honesty to avoid sinking the community into beggary.
“If you walk around with goons, thinking you are popular, then you are cheated. That doesn’t make you popular. Empower the youths and make them economically independent,” he said.
On Saturday, Aduma accused one of the MPs of allegedly sponsoring goons in the lake town and failing to come out to condemn the act.
The emergence of issue-based politics at the gubernatorial level is likely to escalate to the lower seats and provide the electorate with the opportunity to elect credible representatives.
