WHY CORD HAD TO LOSE THE 4TH MARCH, 2013 ELECTIONS? I wish to respond to Kalonzo Musyoka’s advise to cord that affiliate political parties should merge into one entity in preparation for 2017 general elections- Daily nation October 2013. I am not sure whether the word ‘’merging’’, meant, strengthening cord secretariat to include representatives of affiliate political parties with semi-autonomy to make decisions in matters regarding finance, discipline, nominations, elections, recruitment and effectively keeping of members records both at county and national levels. I wish to speculate that by merging into one entity, the Wiper leader meant, coordination of functions at the central point where all affiliate parties are supposed to be effectively represented i.e. at cord’s headquarters and at the secretariat . In my view, I think he wants affiliate political parties with diverse values, cultures and ideologies to recruit members on a large scale and to educate voters on the manifesto of cord and why we want to make the next government. He wants members records to be kept safe for ease of mapping genuine members and the regions in which they are dominant- he wants to see credible figures of registered voters whom we can rely on in making strategic plans for 2017 general elections since our opponents relied on such theories and they were fine. I am happy that Kalonzo has frankly admitted we lost the last elections due to disorganization of our political parties as well as mismanagement of both financial and human resources. To admit that we lost is in itself a strength which is being brought on board to help us fight our enemies- it is important to let our enemies know that we were weak when they were strong and that we have surrendered not because we fear them but because we want to put our army in order. In his speech at a campaign rally in Kibwezi, Makueni last week, the wiper leader pointed out two important hypothesis why we lost elections as follows:_ • That there was fierce competition amongst cord affiliate political parties- ODM and the Wiper movement had presented strong candidates in competitive campaigns that gave our opponents unnecessary advantage. • That affiliate political parties were not organized- this was in reference to ODM and Wiper political parties which seemed unaware of the goals they wanted to achieve - what this means is that he wants all leaders to strengthen their political parties through civic education and recruitment of new members- he wants people to register as voters in big numbers and to vote in big numbers. I intend to agree with Kalonzo that Cord was not ready for March 4th, 2013 general elections-we miserably lost due to mismanagement of party affairs at the orange house. Both ODM and the Wiper movement party had committed the most grave offences ever to be committed in a tough election campaign like the one in the just concluded elections– the failure of Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka to fund some of their candidates who were very strong but lacked finance to facilitate their campaigns and yet the campaign money was being misappropriated at cord’s headquarters. For those of you who never visited the orange house, it was a horrible hell with security guards who could not allow anyone see any Cord official. The office in Orange house became official only when Raila Odinga and his team were visiting there, otherwise, it was another black market similar to the coffee market which existed in Busia in early 1970’s. What you people used to see as ODM office was in fact a skeleton of an office with accounts assistants, telephone operators, receptionists, secretaries, clerks and security guards who could not serve anybody as policy makers were residing elsewhere in secret offices in Lavington, Nairobi West, Karen, Upperhill, Huringhum and along Mombasa road. It was in these offices where nomination certificates were being printed, manipulated and sold to election losers at a cost of Kshs. 1,000,000. What I am writing here is the truth since I was a victim and I witnessed all these things happening with my five senses. When I was declared ODM winner for Vihiga constituency on 1/2/2013, the returning officer advised me to immediately go to Nairobi to collect nomination certificate because there were many things involved-he did not want to elaborate. I therefore went to Nairobi and drove direct to the orange house where I kept going for more than two weeks without any help. The receptionists kept telling me the executive director was away on leave when actually she was operating in a different office in Lavington. When I tried to go to Lavington to see her I was prevented access into her compound by security guards whom I had explained to that I was from western province and that I had been around for two weeks trying to chase my nomination certificate. Instead of helping me, they called reinforcement of other guards and they chased me away. By good luck, I was tipped by one of them who was kind to me and who murmured, ‘’those things’’, which means nomination certificates, are being issued along Mombasa road on payment of a fee. To me, I thought the fee was Kshs.1,000 or 2,000 or so, ‘’No, you are wrong, he exclaimed, keep with you 1M, he cautioned me as he went to lock the gate’’ I therefore drove to Mombasa road but before I got there, I passed through the ODM offices in Upperhill where I met a guy from Kuria East constituency who introduced himself to me as Chacha. The guy told me that he had same problem and he had been informed by a friend that nomination certificates were being given in Karen at a certain office located at the junction of Karen and Ongata Rongai in the compound of Nakumatt and Oil libya Petrol station. I changed my mind going to Mombasa road and I followed Chacha to Karen where we reached at around 7.00 p.m. When we got there, Chacha entered into a certain office and immediately came outside again before a certain guy whose ascent seemed Kuria came out to meet him and without saying a word to me, he moved straight to Chacha and told him, ‘’your nomination certificate can’t be given to you because somebody else has appealed against it in court’’. When I enquired to know who the gentleman was, Chacha hastily replied, ‘’imagine this guy comes from my area and is a professor’’- the way he looked at the gentleman suggested that although he had all along respected the guy as a professor, he was beginning to doubt him. On hearing this bad news and after following this certificate for more than 2 weeks, Chacha nearly fainted. He quickly disappeared from the scene without notice. I was left alone on the corridors of the building. Luck enough, I remembered I was told by security guards in Lavington that other certificates were being issued along Mombasa road, so I drove to Mombasa road arriving there at 8.30 p.m and after waiting for 2 hours, the gentleman concerned with the issuance of certificates arrived in a company of a lady going straight into a room where there were people waiting for him including former members of parliament from western province. When he looked behind and saw me with a colleague conversing, he got shaken and he tried to run away but I stopped him by holding on to his hand and demanded for my nomination certificate. He became furious and he threw the certificates he was holding to the floor ready to deal with me. Fortunately, the lady came and asked me what was the problem to which I replied I had not gotten my nomination certificate. She quickly spoke to the guy and they started perusing papers as if trying to get the certificate which was not there. In a short while, the lady called the gentleman a side and they conversed for some seconds, is like they thought we were C.I.D Officials. This made the gentleman to softened his heart and began to sweet talk me asking me to give them thirty minutes to rush to Ongata Rongai to have the ODM board chairman sign the certificate. I waited for them and they never came back again. At about 10.00pm, I and my colleague decided to go back home. The following day, I tried to call Raila’s number but it couldn’t go through. This made me go to his offices ....... but still I couldn’t find him instead I reported the matter to his personal assistant as I notified on his timeline. At about midnight, I got a call from ODM executive director asking me to go for nomination certificate at the orange house the following day. When I went there, everyone treated me very well and I was given the certificate only to be informed that the gentleman who was clinging to it had been arrested and was about to be arraigned in court on allegations of selling nomination certificates to the losers of elections. Indeed the gentleman was arrested and arraigned in court, but the question which disturbs people is, was this man doing all these things alone or there were other forces behind him? What social conditions existed that enabled him to act as he did? With my nomination certificate in hand for which I paid nothing to get, I rushed up country to organize my campaign but time was not on my side. I went for the 4th March, 2013 general elections without sufficient campaigns due delay in accessing my nomination certificate and with only Ksh.600,000 which Raila Odinga had offered us to facilitate our campaigns, I was only chasing after wind- the money was too little for such a campaigns hence the jubilee candidate disguised UDF took advantage of this and snatched my victory. I want to agree with Kalonzo that there was no democracy in cord. I also want to add that corruption at the cord secretariat was our biggest enemy and that is what costed all of us success- Raila himself was not involved in all these corruptions, neither was he aware of what was happening. What ails me most is that those people who betrayed Cord by selling nomination certificates, branding and rebranding election materials and selling them in the open market for profits are the ones who got nominations to parliaments and senate and yet some of us who did everything possible for the success of Cord e.g. by selling our only properties we had have all been forgotten. It is unfortunate that whenever cord meets its members, some of us who lost elections are never informed. Cord’s meetings are only presided over by parliamentarians and senators and yet we are the people on the ground. My advice to Cord is that, if Raila and Kalonzo wishes to go to state house in 2017, they should involve all stakeholders in their political affairs by directly speaking to aspirants both in parliament and those who lost in the election as well as other people who may have interest in cord but don’t know how to approach Raila or Kalonzo. I concur with Kalonzo that we only need one official central point for Cord where all members can walk in and find Raila Odinga , Kalonzo Musyoka, Moses Wetangula and others unlike a secretariat where it is very difficult to meet even the executive director leave alone meeting Raila or Kalonzo. If the functions of cord can be centralized, it will make the administration of services faster since it will act as checks and balances on abuse of authority and misuse of resources both human and finance. However, while I support centralization of cord’s functions, it should not be misconstrued to mean that all political parties affiliated to cord should dissolve and form themselves into one outfit called Cord, No- that could be suicidal because even the Forum for the restoration of democracy (FORD) tried such a thing in 1992 but they failed because of dictatorial and authoritarian tendencies within the hierarchy of leadership. My point of departure with Kalonzo is that, we do not want to repeat same mistakes which e.g. loyalists members of KANU and LDP did and were disappointed when president Moi pushed Uhuru Kenyatta above formidable candidates who were qualified and fit to become KANU’s flag bearers in the 2002 elections, a situation which automatically created rebels in KANU that led to its split and formation of opposition outfits such as Rainbow Alliance and the rebirth of NARC, ODM and ODM-Kenya. I wish to submit that the beauty of democracy can only be realized when there are alternative choices of candidates competing for provision of qualitative policies and programmes which are expected to be consumed by voters. The election of the governor in Mombasa which Kalonzo refers to in which ODM and the Wiper movement both fielded strong candidates is a good example in that direction. What we ought to do in such case was to weigh between which political party was the most popular in the region in terms of voter registration -this would have helped Cord to determine which political party was going to field a candidate in those elections. In conclusion, I wish to request both Kalonzo and Raila to declare their interest i.e. whether both are intending to stand for the 2017 general elections or whether they have chosen on one candidate among themselves to stand in order to avoid conflicts among them. It is good to agree on this important aspect of democracy (consensus) early in time to avoid a split of the last minutes declarations. Christopher Amasava Former ODM Aspirant, Vihiga Consituency. Email:christopheramasava@yahoo Cell:0725909011 7.10.2013
Posted on: Wed, 09 Oct 2013 07:55:25 +0000
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