By Anderson Ojwang
Mt Kenya is back to the first multi-party election moments in 1992, when the doyen of the opposition, the late Kenneth Nyindo Matiba, faced off with the moderate and close ally of then President, the late Daniel arap Moi, the late Mwai Kibaki.
Matiba was one of the key pillars in the constitutional movement and was detained together with the late former Prime Minister, the late Raila Amolo Odinga, and the late Charles Rubia.
Kibaki, during that time, remained a close ally of Moi and served as Vice President and later as Health Minister.
A famous saying attributed to Kibaki in the 1990s was when he likened KANU to a Mugumo tree.
In the opposition struggle for the repeal of Section 2A, Kibaki said the move was like “cutting a Mugumo tree with a razor blade.”
In the early 1990s, during the fight for multi-party democracy, Kibaki likened the mighty KANU regime to a sacred, giant fig (Mugumo) tree.
He dismissed the activists pushing for quick change as trying to cut down that massive tree with a tiny razor blade, implying the task was impossible.
But history proved Kibaki wrong as the activists’ struggle yielded the repeal of Section 2A and the humbling of KANU in the 2002 General Election, where Kibaki, leading NARC, rode to the presidency.
Similarities
Interesting similarities exist in the political chess game between Kibaki-Matiba and Gachagua-Nyoro.
For instance, Gachagua is from Wamunyoro in Othaya, while Kibaki was also from Othaya, where he served as the area Member of Parliament and rose to become the third President of Kenya. Othaya is in Nyeri County.
Matiba was the Member of Parliament for Kiharu and became the Leader of the Opposition after the 1992 presidential election.
Nyoro is the current Member of Parliament for Kiharu. Kiharu is in Murang’a County. In Mt Kenya West, Kiharu is yet to produce a president. Nyoro recently acquired the People’s Party of Kenya.
In the 1992 General Election, Kibaki’s party, Democratic Party of Kenya (DP), became the party of Nyeri County, while FORD-Asili controlled Murang’a and other parts of the Mt Kenya region.
In the 1992 presidential election, Kibaki garnered 1,050,617 votes to come third, while Matiba of FORD-Asili received 1,404,206 to come second.
Interestingly, Kibaki and Matiba’s votes combined totalled 2,454,412 against the winner Moi’s 1,962,366.
The late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga came fourth with 944,197 votes, and the combined opposition votes came to 3,398,609.
A disjointed opposition handed over the victory to Moi despite having more votes, with a margin of 1,436,243.
Just like Kibaki, Nyoro resigned from their parties, KANU and UDA respectively, a year before the elections to join their new political formations.
Both FORD-Asili and DP locked KANU out of Mt Kenya, and currently DCP and PPK are locking out President William Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) from the region.
Just like Matiba, Nyoro has declared nationwide rallies and will start with the Rift Valley region, where he is expected to receive an arousing welcome.
Dominance
Matiba became a dominant political figure in Mt Kenya, just like Gachagua, whose party DCP is viewed as the strongest party in the region. But PPK is also emerging as a strong challenger to DCP in the Mt Kenya power matrix.
Acting Secretary General of DCP John Methu recently dismissed Nyoro’s party as President Ruto’s project to divide the Mt Kenya vote bloc.
Methu has subtly attacked the People’s Party of Kenya (PPK) associated with Nyoro, describing it as a “green wheelbarrow” designed to dilute the influence of their party.
With Ndindi Nyoro’s PPK featuring green as one of its signature colours, a shade similar to that of DCP, Methu, without mentioning the party by name, went ahead to describe it as a strategy to confuse the region and a deliberate plan to dilute DCP’s influence in the region.
“Even that other wheelbarrow, they want to steal our color so that they can say it is a green wheelbarrow. Whether it is a green-yellow wheelbarrow or not, a wheelbarrow is just a wheelbarrow. The way we have been dealing with big wheelbarrows is the way we will deal with small wheelbarrows,” Methu stated.
Party of the region
Gachagua has stated that his party is the only political outfit to beat in the Mt Kenya region, urging residents not to be swayed by the growing number of political parties seeking to establish a foothold in the region.
Gachagua made the remarks during a series of meet-the-people tours in Nyeri County, where he led a delegation from the Wiper Patriotic Front in rallying support for DCP ahead of next year’s General Election.
Methu took aim at Nyoro’s new People’s Party of Kenya, accusing President William Ruto of using emerging political parties to divide the Mt Kenya region ahead of the 2027 elections.
“This wheelbarrow that is coming from Murang’a, we know you had a wheelbarrow coming. We know there is another wheelbarrow that is coming from Laikipia and Nakuru as you try to divide this mountain. Bring them on. A wheelbarrow is a wheelbarrow and it will be dealt with like the other wheelbarrow,” Methu stated.
Wave
Nyoro said the People’s Party continues to grow across the country, with several defections and expressions of interest in the party ticket.
“Today we received sitting, former and aspiring leaders into the party,” he said.
History is back
From whatever point you look at it, Mt Kenya has walked back to the Matiba-Kibaki era. Gachagua and Nyoro replay the script, with both likely to be on the presidential ballot and could be the vent for Ruto’s re-election.
