TRENDS IN THE GUSII POLITICS

GUSII POLITICS How big is Gusii in the political geography of Kenya? How voluminous is Gusii in terms of decision making in the Kenyan politics? How predictable are the voting patterns of the Gusii people? How dear are the Gusii people to the government? These are hard questions, right? You need a sack of groundnuts to ponder them... Believe me. Gusii politics have gone through a rough system of maturity for many decades, to where they are currently. The landslide has been definitely brought by education, civilisation, democratic growth, population growth, benchmarking, among other issues. For instance, political lords of the days before, were known to use tricks as a means of influence to lure voters. A story is told, of how the late George Anyona beat the late Makone Ombese by telling the public to mark X against his (Anyona) name if they were against him. By doing so, they overwhelmingly voted for him and saw him to parliament. Another story is told in the Nyaribari arena, where the Gusii legend, Simon Nyachae, used to caution his people against voting him out. The cautious Abanyaribari could not dare, especially with the cautionary tale at hand. In these two examples, no politician ever promised anything developmental to his subjects, but they still voted him in. The Gusii region has never produced a female member of parliament (except those two catered for in the new constitution) making it a male dominated community. Women were less educated (a practice with roots even to date), shy, married off early, subjected into early pregnancies among other barriers. But since then, a number of things have changed with the major change of the law of land. Today men are equal to women, giving Gusii a new face. We currently have women vying against men in some posts, a good example being Rachael Otundo of Nyaribari Chache who is vying against men for the MP seat. The formerly marginalised group now enjoys constitutional fruits like the new seat of Women Representative and the two thirds gender rule. Like the Kenyan politics in general, the politics of forming alliances to gain power seem to dominate the Gusii region. This is at times accompanied by sharing of power and coming up with memorandums of agreement. For instance, some sources indicate that the Jubilee party Kisii county senatorial candidate, Charles Nyachae, at first wanted to clinch the gubernatorial seat before Senator Chris Obure came in. The son of former minister Simon Nyachae landed on a political agreement that he will support Obure for the gubernatorial seat and Obure will support him in 2022. This is deeply elaborated as a political coalition between the Abanyaribari and Ababasi where the two politicians hail from respectively. In Nyamira, residents of Kitutu Masaba have been on the forefront condemning their former MPs for failing to put the idea of a coalition into consideration in order to clinch the gubernatorial seat. Mwancha Okioma of the People's Democratic Party and Walter Nyambati of The Jubilee Party hail from Kitutu Masaba constituency and are both vying for the gubernatorial seat. Popularity in Gusii is a determining factor for development of power. Newcomers in politics are awarded the ticket of retrying again and again until citizens 'memorise' them. A good example is Chris Bichage of Nyaribari Chache and Timothy Bosire of Kitutu Masaba. Both are said to have vied for up to 4 times before success. However, first time candidates at times can be successful if they are famous. A good example is the Nyamira County women representative Alice Chae. Mrs Chae, who was a radio presenter was known to almost everyone in her county by the time she was vying, advantaging her over her opponents, most of whom had a small share of fame. A similar case was recently seen in the just concluded Jubilee primaries in Kisii County where Mrs Doris Aburi was declared the winner. Aburi, who was also a radio presenter, was well known and took advantage of the media to reach her supporters, elevating her. This clearly shows that fame is power in Gusii. Resources are another interesting factor. Politics is all about distribution of power and resources, in other words, resources equals power. Wealthy people are easily elected in because they use money to lure voters by giving them goodies or holding expensive campaigns to attract people. Almost all candidates in Gusii have resources since it is actually hard to find a youth vying for a position, old people who have been working the rest of their lifetime are familiar in politics. Only few cases of 'poor' politicians have been reported in Gusii, a good example being the MCA Birongo ward who used to campaign using a bicycle and was voted in. Party politics are a factor to took into consideration. In the 2002 general elections, when we had a candidate from Gusii, only FORD People party candidates were elected. At times, the Gusii people vote swingfully but they still tend to lean to one party more than the other. Gusii is a region that is hard to study and conclude upon politically. The politics of the region change with time and other factors, and are not easily predictable.