By KWENDO OPANGA
Posted Saturday, January 12 2013 at 19:21
Posted Saturday, January 12 2013 at 19:21
IN SUMMARY
- City is the seat of national government and is E. Africa’s largest and most important financial metropolis
Nairobi will be the epicentre of the coming coalition and party nominations in the lead-up to the March 4 General Election, Kenya’s eleventh and biggest since independence in 1963.
Nairobi is the seat of government and will be the seat of the national government in the new dispensation. It is also East Africa’s largest and most important financial metropolis.
It is highly unlikely that a party or coalition nomination will immediately guarantee one the right of way to the Governor’s mansion, Senate, National Assembly or County and Women’s representatives offices in Nairobi.
That is to say the fights for these seats between the various coalitions will be close, vicious, acrimonious and full of drama. Every party or coalition will fight tooth and nail for the control of Nairobi as a symbol and diadem of its political might.
The fight for Nairobi will be a contest between the Coalition of Reforms and Democracy (Cord) of Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and Trade Minister Moses Wetang’ula and the Jubilee Alliance of Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto.
After the presidency, the governor’s office may be the next most powerful office in the land. Why are supporters of Bishop Margaret Wanjiru, the MP for Starehe, confident of pulling off an upset at the Cord nominations? What do they know that everybody else does not?
Why is Mr Philip Kisia, a former Nairobi Town Clerk, persuaded that he stands a better chance of running Nairobi better than his rivals on behalf of Cord? Indeed, why was Dr Evans Kidero, a high-flying corporate executive, obliged to meet Prime Minister Raila Odinga to be assured that the Cord nominations would be free and fair?
Why is Mr Ferdinand Waititu, the MP for Embakasi whose many public antics put seasoned and battle hardened thugs to shame, running for the governor’s seat and why should he be pitted against a polished gentleman known as Jimnah Mbaru who successfully ran the Nairobi Securities Exchange and advised governments on investment?
The answer to all these questions is simply that all these aspirants believe in the power of the ballot and in the power of the people to use the ballot to choose and change the way they are governed. Similarly, they believe that the processes of choosing the candidates of their parties should be, and indeed will be, free and fair.
It is unfortunate that Mr Mbaru, Dr Kidero, Bishop Wanjiru, Mr Kisia and Mr Waititu have not faced the people of Nairobi in a nationally televised debate to sell their wares and answer questions from Nairobians. But, come January 17, Nairobians will choose two of them to face each other on March 4. Let me help you:
Why is Mr Kisia confident? Because, he says, the plans he put in place for modernising the city’s waste management, manpower development, debt and financial management, water management and transport have already readied Nairobi to county status.
And Bishop Wanjiru? She says her tenure as MP for Starehe has shown abundantly that she delivers on her promises and attends to issues her constituents hold close to their hearts. She boasts of superb grassroots networking system and prides herself on being a people person.
Mr Waititu says he has built a city-wide constituency that admires the way he fights for the rights of the downtrodden. He says he is ready to fight for the county the way he has fought for the people of Embakasi.
Dr Kidero says his record as a successful CEO and corporate turn-around artist puts him in good stead to put in place the right plans to manage and grow Nairobi’s status as the biggest contributor to Kenya’s GDP, create wealth and jobs and empower women and youth.
Mr Jimnah Mbaru, too, says he wants to create wealth and jobs for Nairobians and points to his sterling career as an investment banker, commodities and insurance trader and financial adviser to stake a claim to a better understanding of what it means to be a governor.
Personally, I am of the view that the governor’s job is only political in the sense of appointment but, after the election, it is a managerial job. That would put the likes of Kisia, Kidero and Mbaru in the driver’s seat.
But the last opinion polls I saw stunned me. They had Bishop Wanjiru and Mr Waititu as favourites. Of course, opinion polls have been proved right and wrong before.
Kwendo Opanga is a media consultant opanga@diplomateastafrica.com
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