Kenya: 'We Are Going to Be Empowered By Kibaki' - Woman Voter

26 December 2002
allAfrica.com
interview By Ofeibea Quist-Arcton

Muthaiga, Kenya — Josephine Owiro, 50, is a small business woman who sells vegetables on the street in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. One of 10.5 million potential voters, Owiro goes to the polls, Friday, to elect a new president and parliament for Kenya, ending the 24-year leadership of veteran President Daniel arap Moi.

Owiro, and several other women, told allAfrica.com’s Ofeibea Quist-Arcton they would be voting for change come election day, to end the 39 year rule of the governing Kenya African National Union, Kanu, party.

The women want the opposition to win the election and were actively campaigning for their candidate, Mwai Kibaki. They saw him off as Kibaki left his Nairobi residence en route to his Othaya constituency and home district of Nyeri and, in Kenya’s Central Province, to cast his all-important vote.

Owiro shared her feelings ahead of Friday’s historic poll.

We’re outside the house of Mwai Kibaki, candidate of Kenya’s main opposition National Rainbow Coalition (Narc). Madam, may I ask if Mwai Kibaki is your candidate?

He is my candidate, yes.

Why?

We need a change in Kenya, so I thought wisely that if he is going to be our president I know that we are going to gain something from him.

What do you expect to gain and what do you think Mwai Kibaki would bring to the presidency?

Hospitals, because we need good health. And we need our children to go to school. Some of them are just lying outside our houses and they don’t go to school because of lack of money.

We don’t have money in Kenya, there is no money. It’s because of poverty there’s no money in Kenya and there is a lot of poverty in Kenya now.

And why do you think that situation would change under Mwai Kibaki?

Mwai Kibaki will bring a change, because he worked a lot when he was minister of finance and now, since he's no longer there and is an MP and presidential candidate, it’s as if only (President Daniel arap) Moi can do each and every thing. He seems to be the only one who can talk, because he is the president, and then everything can be done. So, we need a change. If we have another president we think there will be a change in Kenya.

So on election day, are you going to vote and for whom?

I am going to vote for Kibaki and my area MP is Maina Kamanda and my councillor is Joe Aketch who is going to be our next mayor by next year. So we need a change.

When I met you, you were busy chanting something, 'Kibaki Tosha’.

'Tosha’ because Kibaki is able. He can do each and everything for us. And Kenya needs a change, with him being our president he can do each and everything for us.

What does 'tosha’ mean? Something like 'Enough'? 'He is everything we need’?

Tosha means he is powerful, he is able and he can do each and everything for us, because we have had enough of Moi and Kanu. Now we are going to have something from Narc.

What about those who say Kibaki is a has-been, a recycled politician and reluctant democrat from the old guard who has no new ideas and is tainted by the legacy of a corrupt regime and that he served under Moi for years?

But you know when we were under one government, which stayed there for quite a long time, for years and years, people did not have the power to talk. This time we think we are going to be empowered. Anybody can talk in parliament from any constituency. An MP can stand and talk on behalf of his people, from any constituency. But with Moi’s game, no you can’t! If you say something, you are not wanted. That is why they were not even talking when they were under Moi, they could not talk.

So do you see the departure of President Moi as the end of era in Kenya and the start of a new one?

Yes it is. It is the end of an era and the start of a new one. I am telling you we need a change. We are for Kibaki, because he is the only one who is going to bring us a change.

What if the government candidate Uhuru Kenyatta wins?

No, he can’t win. I doubt if he can win. He can’t win.

Why not?

The majority needs change in Kenya. We don’t want to elect Uhuru, because those who are surrounding Uhuru are the people who just spoilt the government before.

But he’s a young man, he’s 41, not tainted by corruption and says he has fresh ideas.

Though he is young, he can do nothing for Kenyans. He is young, he was just nominated by the president. He has worked for 9 months only. He was given a ministry which is now doing nothing. That ministry of local government, you know he was made minister of local government. Have you been to town to look? No salary for his people and the place is full of garbage and whatever.

So, he can’t make it. He can’t, we doubt if he can make it. We will try him out in years to come, but for now, no. We need a change. And we need a new party. We are going to see how Narc is going to do and how Narc is going to work for us. So, Uhuru can’t make it. That’s why we need a change.

But supposing Kanu does win? What will you do, because one of the Narc leaders, Raila Odinga, has suggested that you should march on State House if the opposition is cheated of victory.

Unless they’re going to rig, they won’t win. But if they win, we’ll just say okay, they win. There is a winner and there’s a loser. But we will be very disappointed.

So, contemplating possible victory for Uhuru Kenyatta, What will you do?

If Uhuru Kenyatta gets elected, I will just stay like that, but I’ll not feel good, because there’ll be no change. Because Moi has said that if we elect Uhuru, then Moi is elected. Now how can Uhuru be elected and then Moi takes over? Moi is just waiting for Uhuru to be elected for him to take over. He’ll put somebody instead of Uhuru. He is having that power.

So when President Moi said on Jamhuri [Independence] Day that he was going to retire gracefully from politics, and that he won’t intervene in the next government, did you believe him?

No. I didn’t believe him, because he said that if he had done bad to anybody, then they should forgive him and he will forgive anyone who has hurt him. But he is still talking about the same, same evils when he goes round. He was to forgive on 12 December, on Jamhuri Day, but he’s still talking. But he is going to forgive who? He said that if he has done something bad to anybody, he should be forgiven and if anyone has done anything bad to him, he will forgive. But if you want somebody to forgive you and you are not forgiving - he has not forgiven.

Another Kibaki supporter, Freda Mungatiya, currently unemployed but seeking work as a secretary, chips in.

What has Moi ever done for this country? Kibaki has been patient all of this time, he has been opposing all of this time, even when there was nobody to assist him. It’s now that we Kenyans have realised what Kibaki realised so many years ago!

Which is what?

Which is changes, yes, changes. In this country we need changes. What has Moi really done for this country? Tell me. Look at the roads. Talk about whatever you want to talk about, but what has Moi done? Ask him, ask Uhuru, the person who put him there as Kanu’s candidate, the person who is helping him to be there, that is Moi.

You tell me yourself, what has he done for the last 24 years? Heh? You tell me yourself. Tell me what he has done, anything that has actually improved in this country, hmmm?. All the projects, can he tell me, surely, what he can account for?

I am jobless. I am job seeker and a mother. And yet see how the economy has become. And I have children. I am a full executive secretary, yet I have to move from office to office in this Kenya today. I am hoping my children will not, you know, face this. That is why I’m voting not only for myself, but for the future, for the children who are sick in the hospitals. We have to be together as Kenyans to be united with one aim - for what can better us tomorrow.

Nooooooo!! We need a change and that is why we are saying Kibaki will [bring] change. Yes! We trust him and this is a matter of trust, a matter of believing in somebody. Here is Uhuru, you see, and here is Kibaki. Who can we account for, who can actually do the job? That is the question here.

And your answer?

And my answer is, yeah, me as a person I believe Kibaki has the capability and has the self will-power to do it and that’s why I’ll give him my vote. Thank you.

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