Muchemi Wachira
22 March 2008
analysis
Nairobi — Were the major political parties targeting the so-called marginalised groups or communities when they nominated their Members of Parliament?
Parliament: Most slots for nominated MPs went to the North Eastern and Eastern provinces.
Of the 12 nominated MPs, six are from the pastoralist or Muslim-dominated areas.
The two have always considered themselves marginalised groups. And since independence, they have always complained of being isolated from the rest of the country, especially when it came to the allocation of resources and appointments to senior government jobs.
But looking at the way the major political parties picked their nominated MPs, the groups can no longer claim to be marginalised, at least not in the political sense.
Indeed, for the first time in the history of Kenya, they are the biggest beneficiaries of the political cake in terms of nomination to Parliament.
The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), which had six slots, picked Mrs Sophia Abdi Noor and Mr Muhamad Dory Yakub, both of whom are from the Muslim-dominated North-Eastern province.
The region whose inhabitants are wholly pastoralist, is one of the most undeveloped in the country.
Likewise, ODM Kenya chose to nominate two Muslims to fill the two opportunities apportioned it by the Electoral Commission.
This was done amid protests from some of party supporters. The supporters had widely expected the party leader, Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, to nominate his chairman, Mr Daniel Maanzo, and presidential election running mate Julia Ojiambo.
Instead, Mr Musyoka and the committee coordinating the nominations settled for Mr Mohamed Abdi Affey and Ms Shakila Abdalla.
Mr Affey comes from Wajir district and Ms Abdalla from Lamu.
As if wishing to equal its partners, PNU decided to sacrifice their ardent supporter from the predominantly ODM Nyanza, Mr Raphael Tuju, substituting him with Ms Maison Leshoomo, the chairperson of the Samburu district Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organisation.
Samburu district is another marginalised area where population is sparse, and the residents are, like their counterparts in North-Eastern province, mostly nomads.
Kanu, too, nominated a Muslim, Ms Amina Abdalla, for the second time while some supporters had expected the former ruling party to select one of the party stalwarts from Rift Valley province.
It was rumoured that the party might pick Mr Gideon Moi, the party's former Baringo Central MP.
In the ninth Parliament, Ms Abdalla was the only nominated law-maker from the Muslim community.
And there was no other nominated MP from the marginalised areas of North-Eastern province or upper Eastern and Coast.
Apart from Ms Abdalla, Kanu had nominated Mr Mutula Kilonzo, Prof Ruth Oniang'o of Western province and Ms Esther Keino from Rift Valley.
Narc, which was the ruling party then, had chosen Mr Franklin Bett, Mrs Betty Njeri Tett, Mr Oloo Aringo, Ms Njoki Ndung'u, Ms Cicily Mbarire, Dr Julia Ojiambo and Ms Adelina Mwau, while Ford People went for Mr Kipkalya Kones.
All these names are from the Rift Valley, Nyanza, Western, Eastern and Nairobi areas.
Was it a deliberate move or a coincidence that, this time round, it is people from the marginalised groups who got the lion's share of the 12 slots?
One of the ECK requirements is that gender be one of the factors to be considered by political in arriving at nominated MPs.
"In the ODM manifesto, one of our priorities is to address problems of the people who have been marginalised since independence," says Mr Salim Lone, who is in charge of publicity at ODM.
Mr Lone gives example of North-Eastern province which, he says, has been forgotten since independence.
"One way for ODM to ensure that people in North-Eastern province feel they are part of Kenya is to engage them in the formulation of policies," he adds.
"And this will help the region to grow." He adds that it is a similar case with Muslims who, he points out, have equally been isolated from the country's mainstream politics.
PNU had initially picked Ms Beatrice Wasike of Ford Kenya, but she was later replaced with her party chairman, Mr Musikari Kombo, apparently at the directive of some senior party officials.
Perhaps this explains why Mr Tuju was excluded from the list when the party decided to include Ms Leshoomo for the sake of gender balance.
Ms Leshoomo who is said to have been the choice of First Lady Lucy, can therefore count herself lucky.
The same befell Ms Abdalla in Kanu since, with only one slot remaining unfilled, the party had to comply with the ECK gender requirement.
Nevertheless, it was an interesting scenario in ODM Kenya when the party ignored demands and pressure from their supporters to give their two slots to Mr Maanzo and Dr Ojiambo and picked Mr Affey and Ms Abdalla.
The two are notable figures among Muslims. Mr Affey, a former ambassador to Somalia, is a veteran politician who once represented Wajir South in Parliament.
Ms Abdalla, on the other hand, unsuccessfully contested the Lamu East parliamentary seat on an ODM-K ticket in last year's elections. She is a formidable politician in her own right.
According to the Kangundo MP, Mr Johnson Muthama, who chaired the committee selecting people to be nominated by ODM-K, the party was considering representation from North-Eastern and Coast provinces.
ODM-K, he explained, had not fared so well in the two regions during the elections. And they wanted to give people from these regions a chance in the party.
"This is how we ended up with the two names," Mr Muthama says. "And what I can say is that they were just lucky."
Mr Affey and Ms Abdalla were actually the leading figures from North-Eastern and Coast on the list of candidates who had applied for the two slots.
And the committee selecting the nominees, Mr Muthara adds, comprised all the 16 party MPs and other members.
"We screened and analysed them and they came out as the best candidates from the two regions," he said.
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