Bearing hatred by the Antelope: The Challenge of Modern Journalism

If I tell you that this is the piece I am writing to primarily pay tribute to the late Chinua Achebe, it should strike you that the influence that this father of the African novel has had to the African masses and beyond is heart deep. As a novice in the field of literary criticism, or so as I should be said to aspire, I will not pretend to be any closer to other men of letters, least of all the man exiting the stage now. What I only want to do in this piece is to just read a section, one or two paragraphs, or a page at most, of one of his books – Anthills of the Savannah.

As I write this I pay partial attention to a case going on in our supreme court – that of challenging the presidential results in our 2013 general election. I muse for a while and realize we would have had no reason to go that direction had we developed our institutions to that level where we can fully trust them. I soon realize that as the man currently exiting the stage would have seen it, mistrust is just one of the many anthills on this side of the savannah, one that has been threatening to bring down our democracy. But well, just leave it there and let’s move on. I wish to reflect on something else altogether.

I wish to reflect on the challenge of journalism in the modern world, or to be more precise, in modern Africa modern Kenya. That challenge, that responsibility, that task, is what I chose to see as the burden of bearing hatred by the antelope.

Let me put you in the right context or in other words let me bring you up to speed by taking you in the midst of things.

Where is this antelope coming from?

 I pick the antelope from Ngugi wa Thiongo’s Devil on the Cross. In the second passage of his first chapter, down there, he reflects through a Gĩcaandĩ Player who asks “Who am I – the mouth that ate itself? Is it not said that an antelope hates less the one who sees it than the one who shouts to alert others to its presence?”

Now you don’t want to know that this Gĩcaandĩ Player has a prophecy which he ought to share with his people but he is afraid. He actually has to be convinced, inspired if you like, by voices from earth and another greater one from the skies above to tell the story of one “Jacinta Warĩ ĩ nga before you pass judgement on our children,” with the voice from above asking, “who has told you that the prophecy is yours alone, to keep to yourself?”

Well, perhaps by now you already see where I am headed to – the comparison between the modern journalist and the Gĩcaandĩ Player. By now, you can already see I seek to argue that the modern journalist has this prophetic task rolled up in the responsibility of service to the people. Indeed we have often and rightly referred to him as the public watchdog. Whether he has been a good dog is a debate for another day. What we know for sure however is this; he has the obligation to bark every time his people are threatened. And this is where he often finds himself in a situation where he is hated in the same measure an antelope would hate he who shouts to tell others of its presence.

Now, Chinua Achebe, perhaps because he was a journalist himself at some point, exemplifies the role of the writer, who I choose to see as the modern journalist in the book at hand, Anthills of the Savannah. This he does through a discussion right in the midst of the text as we appreciate the different roles that all of us have in this struggle that is the liberation of the post colonial nation. My hypothesis is this, that by lifting the ‘story’ to a pedestal of its own, he lifts with it its writer, and in our modern case the role of the journalist.

He says:

The sounding of the battle-drum is important; the fierce waging of the war itself is important; and the telling of the story afterwards – each is important in its own way. I tell you there is not one of them we could do without. But if you ask me which of them takes the eagle-feather I will say boldly: THE STORY (p. 124-5, emphasis is mine).

He goes ahead to point to the royal features of the story.

One: The story helps us in recalling and “recalling is greatest.” Now to recall is to call to memory your past in a bid to learn from it. And you’ve heard that he who knows not his past, knows not his present and hence his future. By reflecting on our past we are able to discern our pitfalls. So the story is our escort.

Two: The story is everlasting. It outlives its writer as it is carried from one generation to another and the strength of its grasp on everyone of us brings down any person tumbling down. This must be on the effect it leaves on our conscience.

Three: The story is our identity. The story is our voice and through it we speak to the world about our fears and aspirations. But sometimes, that story is our best kept secret and like Ngugi wa Thiong’o says in Devil on the Cross, “the secrets of the homestead are not for the ears of strangers” (p.7).

So how does this connect to modern journalism?

The role of the modern journalist is assisting his society to reflect on its plans. This has been characterized by asking hard questions and a call to counter the status quo.

The modern journalist has a task to set an agenda that will be everlasting. An agenda that will easily cut across generations as it answers to that which makes them who they are.

The modern journalist is faced with the task of painting an image to the rest of the world of what kind of society his people are, or ought to be. And we surely loathe at times those people who want to voice the negative script of that which we are not.

To achieve this the modern journalist has been faced with the challenge of asking hard questions against the compact majority lest he becomes an enemy of the people, as Henrik Ibsen alludes in his play Enemy of the People. As Chinua Achebe would see it, in Anthills of the Savannah, that task is akin to not giving prescriptions but to giving headaches (p. 161).

Now stirring the compact majority is not easy and this is where the challenge of the hatred by the antelope manifests itself proper. A journalist is always hated by the regimes he counters and with that hatred comes dangers.

But one will say with advancement in technology the process of sharing the story has been made much much easier and faster. My thesis is this, while this may be true, the dangers of telling the story have been increasing with every discovery of a new technology in this industry. And this is partly because as the technology expands, the audiences grow.

So what is the result – the bigger the audience the bigger the responsibility and the bigger the heard of the antelopes hating the journalist for his shouts. This, though  covertly, means more dangers which can sometimes just be in the form of the simple stares and ish ish feeling you arouse among people whilst in their midst.

A MAN OF THE PEOPLE NARRATES A FAILURE OF LEADERSHIP

Chinua Achebe begins his pocket-manifesto-like book The Trouble with Nigeria by talking about what he feels is the root cause of all the problems in Nigeria:

The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which is the hallmark of true leadership.

The above statement can be used to read through A Man of the People not only in seeing who (and how) participates in failing the leadership institution, but in analyzing the aftermath of such a failure. Thus, although the story starts as a simple mundane visit to the Anata Grammar School by the local Member of Parliament (M.P.) it develops into a triangle, a kind of love wrangle of its own, between him and one of his former female students.

This is the initial stage at which the loopholes of leadership the text aims at start being exposed. They are developed slowly as the nation is finally led to a coup (led because the events of the revolution are necessitated by the events of the time) and the story finally reaches its climax as the people kind of turn back not to ask that resounding question by Achebe, “when did the rain start beating us?”, but to reflect on their mistakes. As you can see asking the ‘when did the rain start beating us’ question at this point is not of importance since they are fully aware of when the torrential rains started, to the extent, they had better just sit and plan how to dry themselves. 

Like Anthills of the Savannah, A Man of the People can be seen as Achebe’s commentary on the burning issues of his society. Its basis as a fictional text only makes sense when conceived from the point of view of its fictional characters, otherwise the setting is factual. 

It is this feature perhaps that critics have picked on in placing the text as among postcolonial texts. Simon Gikandi in Reading Chinua Achebe for instance sees it as concerned with the ‘Realities of the new Nation’ which is better interpreted as post-colonial: 

…the problems that were going to accompany the country as it tried to seek the norms and values which would define its nationhood and as it sought what Fanon calls ‘the seething pot’ out of which the learning of the future will emerge.

As seen above the nation is termed new, or better still as a young nation, for it has just been conceived after independence transferring leadership from the colonialists to post independence African leaders who not long ago may or may not have been part of the independence struggle.

On the other hand the problems are wide and the challenge is not their discovery but the discovery of the ‘norms and values' to fix them. But one can confidently say the major issue or setback in the new nation is the weakness of nationalism. This is what, as we have seen in Achebe’s earlier comment, the root of the absence of true leadership. 

One Odili laments about the controversial issues surrounding the death of Max and Koko, the former having been avenged by his girlfriend Eunice, in the analogy of the village with a mind and the nation without any, and it is surely here where we know Achebe is talking about the ‘pitfalls of nationalism’:

The owner was the village, and the village had a (cosmic) mind; it could say no to sacrilege. But I the affairs of the nation there was no owner, the laws of the village became powerless.

Odili is first alluding to an earlier case where a shopkeeper, one Josiah, was chased away from the village after he cheated a blind man and took away his walking stick for he (Josiah) believed it could make him richer. 

Odili’s comments on this incident are not very different from Frantz Fanon’s on commitment to nationhood ion the new nations:

The faults that we find in it are quite sufficient explanation of the facility with which when dealing with young and independent nations, the nation is passed over for the race and the tribe is preferred to the state.

And more specifically the problem is worsened by the state’s lack of mind and in essence lack of voice to demand for its rights.

In a nutshell, A Man of the People exposes the intrigues of grand corruption, dirty politics, degraded morality, the tussle between old regimes and young-turks or to put it differently the generational friction as well as political immorality which fans the sycophancy of the masses so as to maintain the status quo.

As a writer Achebe feels deeply concerned in participating in shaping the destiny of his nation. One actually sees how he moves from the narration of the events during the initial encounter of Africans with their colonial masters to the relationship among Africans themselves in the absence of the rulers. It is however important to notice that the rulers are not completely out of the equation as they still dictate affairs of the new nation from their capitals. 

Gikandi says the question has changed with the new role of the post colonial writer:

…what is the function of the writer in the new nation and is there a fundamental relationship between nation and nation…? The primary function of the post-colonial writer was the liberation of his country, the prison house of colonialism, especially as it was embodied in the colonial mentality.

Well, the role of the narrator in A Man of the People may not be too much emphasized as in Anthills of the Savannah. The two books however end on a low tone after some key characters in the story have been killed and the remnants are reflecting on their future – a way forward becoming those who shall tell the story to the coming generations.

A Man of the People calls us to go deep in our reflection of the features of post-colonial Africa. It calls us to think critically of the leadership we have presently and whether that leadership is steering the ship in the right direction. There could be hope for the change for instance in the personalities such as that of Eunice who can avenge a fallen hero without asking to be paid, but the challenge lies in rallying enough people behind her for a similar cause, if not in killing ‘physically’ the likes of Koko, then in killing the rot in them.

Reporting Transitional Justice in Kenya: Challenges and Opportunities

‘Transitional justice’ (TJ) is arguably not a very common phrase in Kenyan media circles despite the fact that journalists have been reporting on it for decades now. And when you talk about it today it arouses references on the International Criminal Court (ICC) only leaving out a huge chunk of processes that are in practice mechanisms on transitional justice. 

Looked at from that angle then reporting on transitional justice in the wake of what has come to be referred to in this country as the ICC Process presents journalists in Kenya (read Kenyan journalists) with a myriad of challenges cum opportunities. 

The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), sees it as “all efforts to help societies deal with the legacy of mass human abuse.” As ICTJ acknowledges, this is a broad spectrum of efforts which may include; “national prosecutions of alleged perpetrators but also international and hybrid tribunals, truth commissions, reparations for victims, and institutional reforms.” And as Howard Varney, a senior consultant with ICTJ would have us reflect, TJ is about “confronting the past so as to build a stable, peaceful, and democratic future.”

At the international level TJ has a long history from the days of post World War II with the establishment of such tribunals as Nurenberg and Tokyo that dealt with the crimes of the war. At the continental level one traces it with the establishment of such ad hoc tribunals as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) associated with the cases of the Rwanda 1994 genocide and the decade long civil war in Sierra Leone which ended in January 2002, respectively.

The above processes, as well as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) have come to be documented as the journey travelled by the world in getting the International Criminal Court which many would refer to easily when asked about TJ today. This is a broad history and one would just guess right that as TJ developed, it’s reporting also developed. After all, journalism in the form of media and documentation, is as old as humanity itself. 

But we also have a number of processes that societies have undertaken especially in Africa that have been critical in TJ. The ICTJ mentions in a handbook on TJ reporting where much of the above information is quoted, peace agreements are critical TJ mechanisms as has been witnessed in the recent years world over. 


A quick look in our region presents the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Government of the Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in 2005 as a good example. This 2005 peace agreement also brought to an end, in a big way decades of civil war between what is now South Sudan and the larger Sudan.
 

So then what are the challenges and opportunities for a Kenyan journalist reporting on transitional justice today?  

First is its broad history that the journalist is required to understand if not to master, and this requires a lot of reading, referencing, and referrals which a faint heart won’t have patience for. This is in addition to the fact that TJ mechanisms are expanding with every rising sun. 

Tom Maliti, one of the journalists who has covered TJ for quite a while in Kenya says reporting on the ICC process alone is demanding on the breath one has to read to grasp the developments of just the Kenyan situation cases, leaving out the other situations currently  before the ICC. “Each document, for instance, of the amended charges for each case is 42 pages,” reflects Maliti. Now imagine reading, other documents with thousands of pages either at the ICC or at the ad hoc courts handling TJ cases.

Still on the ICC, there is what can arguably pass as the challenge of dealing with the shadow effect of the character of the former prosecutor of the ICC, Louis Moreno-Ocampo. May be this is the result of the Kenyan media portrayal of Ocampo and the ICC. Ocampo came to be known among Kenyan masses as a no-none-sense man, yes, but also almost a kind of merciless individual. With him was the face of the ICC. Now, although he has left the office and Fatou Bensouda is in charge of the prosecution division of the ICC, Ocampo’s name has refused to leave the stage. The media (and especially mainstream) still talks of Ocampo 4, and every time you debate about the ICC there is a very quick reference to him even when it is unnecessary. Many a radio talk show hosts can testify this. That they have had to remind their audiences that Ocampo is no longer with the ICC. The effect of this has been the derailing of the growth of ICC reporting in the country and misinformation on the court processes and procedures. 

Thomas Obel Hansen of United States International University (USIU) says there are dangers that come along when TJ is reported uncritically. He says elites capture and manipulate the debate and that can divert the overall mission of TJ. 

On uncritical and misinforming reports on the ICC Tom Maliti argues journalists in the country have not been sharp in getting their facts right especially on the referral. “The idea that the ICC cases can be moved to somewhere else […] it is not automatic that the cases can be moved.”

In the Rome Statute, the law that establishes the jurisdiction of the ICC, the above issue is handled in Article 17 under the subtitle ‘Issues of Admissibility’ and points to this procedure that Maliti is talking about. That there has to be seen a demonstration of the willingness and ability to investigate and prosecute a certain individual case before the ICC for it to be ‘pulled’ out. Perhaps Kenyan journalists have not critically questioned this ‘demonstration and ability’ by the government but have only reported proceedings of the resent African Union meeting in Ethiopia and other diplomatic attempts that sought to revert the process.

The other challenge is about the competition between political processes and TJ processes. It is the question of: who has been informing the masses largely about TJ in the country, and we know better it is the politician. While on a legal basis TJ processes are largely judicial, their interpretation is being done by the political class who have their agenda, hence misinforming the public and manipulating the processes, especially the ICC one. 

Or maybe TJ processes are political after all as Maliti also argues and therefore should be treated politically. He argues the crimes under TJ cannot be committed unless one has political power, “so the ICC process is a political one”. Could Kenyan journalists be at such a crossroad of not being able to make a clear distinction of political processes and judicial ones?

Challenges aside the Kenyan media will have a vital role to play if TJ is to be finally achieved in Kenya like every media in a state going through transition has had, a role in which lies their opportunities. 

Picking on the experiences of Sierra Leone, Ibrahim Tommy, a former journalist currently working for the Center for Accountability and the Rule of Law in Sierra Leone (CARL-SL)  advices that journalists should always remember the overall aim of TJ in confronting that ugly past. That’s why he says to “bring closure to a brutal or violent past, cherry picking the issues won’t help. A holistic coverage would better serve the interest of the victims and promote a peaceful society.”  

The opportunities for the Kenyan media are thus embedded in the history of the TJ in the country. Actually if the work of the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission is anything to go by, we have been in transition since independence. It will be noted that the TJRC is to help us come to terms with all the historical injustices we have gone through as a people since we hoisted our flag. In essence then there are so many opportunities on reporting on TJ by reporting on the process of the TJRC alone. Journalists did their best to report on its past activities, now as it prepares to report back its findings it’s high time we got ready to lead the people of Kenya in coming to terms with the findings and eventually in the final process of reconciliation. If indeed we have festering wounds in our history the media will have a key role in reporting these findings objectively to heal the said wounds.

Besides this we have peace negotiations, if you like, conflict mitigation processes that have been launched in several places in the country between communities. Seen critically such measures have the grass root effect of the Rwandan ‘Gacaca Courts’ which have been hailed for assisting Rwanda to move away from the ghost of the Genocidal past. But that only depends on whether these agreements are well executed. The media can report on this in a way that critically analyses the effect of bottom up approaches to lasting democratic solutions in the transition from these past injustices. One key question would be: have the peace negotiations and agreements put into consideration past causes of conflict and thereby put in objective measures to address them?

The ICTJ handbook on reporting TJ puts emphasis on building of memorials as part of the process of reparations to victims of human abuses. Now talking of memorials one is quick to remember the memorial of the Sachangw’an fuel fire in 2009 at the very spot the accident occurred. But this is not in the bracket of T.J. So may be journalists can start reporting towards the establishment of memorials in key spots where serious human rights abuses were reported. Like? Like the Wagalla Massacre spot and hot spots of post election violence such as the Kiambaa church and the Naivasha house where a whole family is said to have been burnt. The media can also keep on reporting more on such historical memorials of the likes of Tom Mboya who are surely victims of human rights abuses.

Kwamchetsi Makokha, a veteran journalist in the country says even for those who want to report on the ICC process there are opportunities. The new story lies in “deconstructing the Hague court concept. Localize the court process,” he advices. “Communicate hope rather than despair even to the accused […] if in truth they did nothing the cases will be thrown out. Stop focusing on the negatives at the ICC. ” 

Makokha falls short of saying the media should ask serious questions of the involvement of every community on P.E.V. “Is the trial at the ICC a complete picture or are there other people who were involved? What about the 5,000 cases? How robust are conversations on the ICC at the grass roots or are the communities silent? If so how do we negotiate the community silences?”

On the other hand journalists can just recount the painful history of transition again and again for the Kenyan masses so they are informed of where they are coming from. This includes but is not limited to tracing the story of the second liberation in Kenya and trying to see if there could be a real narrative that has never been told to date. It’s also about reporting on institutional reform: constitutional, judicial, police and the whole renaissance of the Kenyan state as expected in the new devolved units of government.

All in all there is a call for journalists to focus more on the victims of human rights abuses than the perpetrators of the atrocities. The opportunity is in changing the narrative and letting the victims speak for themselves.

Nakuru's Political Landscape: My Opinion

Nakuru is surely one of the most crucial counties in Kenya out of its rich endowment of natural resources, a golden climate and a cosmopolitan population. In fact many people argue correctly about it that it is ‘Kenya in a nut shell.’ For these and many other latent reasons one will expect its residents to be very ‘choosy and critical’ in getting its premier governor to intelligently get going the devolved system of government next year. 

Now while its former history of ethnic clashes makes cohesion and integration almost the key agenda on the manifesto of any of its gubernatorial aspirants, Nakuru, like any other county will need a governor with a mind for business. Such a person is one who will steer ahead the region currently feted as the fastest growing in Africa, to hopefully, the fastest growing in the world – actually this potential is not just visible but stares on every door step sarcastically almost asking “why am I not being harnessed?”

And by now you may have heard the men, no woman so far, interested in taking up this challenge. They are led by the incumbent Nakuru Town legislator and Assistant Minister in The Ministry of Roads, Lee Kinyanjui and immediate former Administration Police Commandant Kinuthia Mbugua who are the front runners so far and who I wish to talk about in this article much deeper. 

This boy from Njoro might be having an idea of Nakuru politial landscape

But we also have John Mututho, incumbent Naivasha legislator and the voice behind the alcohol laws in the tenth parliament, a task that has seen him attract friends and foes in equal measures on regulation of alcohol consumption in the country.  We also have Dr. Francis Kiranga, an Economics scholar and a businessman in Nairobi who is said to be a perennial loser in Molo politics since the 70’s. Then we have Rev. Lawrence Bomet, famous for ‘pastoring’ Nakuru at the Nakuru Chapel, a onetime chaplain of the protestant flock of Egerton University and an immediate former commissioner with the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC). 

Well, looking at this five-man political basket one sees that on the mere principal of popularity, on a national scale, Dr. Kiranga stands to lose in that perennial style he is allegedly known for. For Rev. Bomet the privileges he got while working with NCIC can boost his chances, plus put on a test he is the most eloquent of all the five. However none of these will work for him and it might be prudent for him if he agrees with any of the front runners to be a running mate. 

So what about Mututho? You see a governor is going to be the county president, so even the campaigns for the post are in way ‘presidential.’ They require a lot of resources and needed to seriously start early. Mututho has not been very articulate and strategic as has Kinuthia and Kinyanjui in this campaign. May be he has just assumed that the alcohol laws will endear him to many a people and give him an advantage. Anyway, his desire for the county stewardship is yet to form from the crystallization process it is going through, as it is that of Rev. Bomet and Dr. Kiranga.

That finally leaves us with Kinyanjui and Kinuthia.

Lee Kinyanjui is a pretty young man – just turning 40 – who can be available for a chat when he feels like. I say ‘when he feels like’ as some people who were close to him have disclosed how he allegedly ran away from them once he became a VIP in 2008. In fact there are quite a huge chunk of Nakurians would rather look for his alternative on this fact alone. But he presents a sober mind and he promises to do business with the masses. Only he will have to prove he is ‘a man of the people’ better than he has done. 

Kinyanjui started his campaigns much early, almost immediately the new constitution was promulgated and the new devolved government posts were announced. By now we are sure he has ‘seen Nakuru’s council of elders’ – a group of elderly men (no women) who allegedly control the politics of Nakuru on decisions they arrive at during goat eating sessions anywhere in town but in some ‘members clubs only hotels’. Of course he who wants the favours of the group buys the ‘goat’. 

Note that Kinyanjui is in parliament courtesy of KANU. But one knows how KANU has behaved in the past politically, so even when we report how he almost lacked direction some time back he will be excused. Anyway let us just say he once showed the interest of ditching KANU which we saw and asked him but which he kept on denying until he finally came out of the woods. 

Let us also say when he did that, i.e. coming out of the woods, he almost identified with Mudavadi’s United Democratic Forum (UDF). My argument is based on a UDF campaign Mudavadi led soon after its birth at Afraha Stadium where Kinyanjui was featured almost in some kind of re-loaded style. There he announced, like he has done many times when cornered on his political stand, as only interested in working with likeminded individuals. Never mind though he had even written on his facebook account about this rally in advance calling the people of Nakuru to attend it and be peaceful. Now never mind also that when the Prime Minister Raila Odinga organized a similar tour by his ODM team at the same venue Kinyanjui would not be in haste to announce it to his people. And he would feature no where almost telling you where his political interests lie. But finally he is in The National Alliance (TNA). Enough on him for now, let’s turn to Kinuthia.

Kinuthia Mbugua, is an aged provincial administrator who rose to become a police commandant. He speaks slowly, albeit faintly, and the political vigor one would expect in an aspirant does not present itself so well in him. One might guess right that he has been accustomed to giving directions, not shouting, but may be so firm that whatever he says is followed to detail and someone has to come back to report with a “Yes Sir, Yes Afande.” Down here he seems to be loved by the old who maybe just want one of their own in the helm of the county. But even the young are said to be falling in love with him partly because he may be presenting something new on the political arena which may be exciting to savor. 

As a new comer Kinuthia however will be faced with the challenge of political naivety, a challenge he is being said to counter by having a ‘serious’ grass root campaign team and one that started the work for him even when he was in government. He will need to explain clearly how he will transit from the ‘administrator’ he has been in government to a ‘democratic’ office where even a child will have the guts to tell to him “to hell with your policies Mr. Governor.” Plus he has reached retirement age and one can aptly argue that he should go home and rest since the office he is chasing will need a much more ‘young, fresh, and robust’ individual. He too is in TNA.

So these are the two men who promise a tough race with each other in the flamingo county. And since they are in the same party, which is actually the party to reckon with here the party primaries here will tell it all if early on who Nakuru’s county governor will be come 2013, March 4^th.

I know you want to argue about the politics of party manifestos. Look it has become difficult to convince the voter on the ground about it. Even by now you know that we are still aligning ourselves to tribes and party euphoria will determine in a big way who forms government next year. On this principle alone, Nakuru will give a Kikuyu governor and in that case from TNA and this we shall know by December. 

Besides this, Nakuru county exhibits the signs of not being able to meet the one third gender requirement as stipulated in the constitution come the elections. For your information the county has been divided into 55 wards and it will need at least 19 seats to be picked by each gender for this law to be achieved. Women in this respect are likely to be beaten as not very strong women candidates have shown interest in the county politics. 

One of the women who looked sober and strong for this is one Damaris Mbuthia, currently serving as the Deputy Mayor. But she has since decided to go for the Women M.P seat in the county, the single basket where the women politicians here are stuffed.  Yet still and unfortunately for her Damaris was recently involved in a murky scuffle in the politics of the Municipal Council of Nakuru whence the incumbent Mayor Muhammed Suraw was assaulted. Those advising Damaris should advice her early enough that this incident is enough to finish her politically should anyone go to court on her conduct and that of the rest of the team including Mayor Suraw in their handling of public office.

Others in this race are Grace Kibuku, a very outgoing woman in Nakuru town and who has arguably interacted with the who is who in Kenya’s political scenes. Grace is also a philanthropist and Rotarian who has a big heart for women and the girl child but generally for everyone with special needs. She also has a soft spot for health issues, and cancer specifically having lost her dad through it. She is also preaching peace having been personally affected by the post election violence in 2007/2008.

There is also one Purity Muritu, a graduate of Egerton University who wants to use her dairy technology skills to “improve agriculture and the welfare of the people of Nakuru in a big way.” Molo also has an aspirant for this post who is basing her candidature on her experience in maternal health.

Let us also say there is a Nakuru based journalist who has been saying she will try her luck in this. But I advice her to continue being a scribe, since although I don’t hate her and I would personally do my best to see her win, I don’t think she has the muscle to make a woman county rep, let alone a woman M.P. You see, she lacks that critical analysis of the political landscape in Kenya today, so I am not sure what she wants to do with her alleged candidature.

Besides the women running for the women seat there are other women who are promising to show men a run for their strength in the coming elections. I am talking of one Rev. Ziporah Kimani who is eyeing the Senatorial seat. Actually until I met the Sam Ole Nairoshi I felt Ziporah was the best candidate for this seat which is also being eyed by former Naivasha M.P Jane Kihara and Koigi wa Wamwere a veteran politician who needs no introduction in Kenya today. I see Ziporah and Nairoshi becoming the two horses in this only they should not under estimate Koigi whose knowledge on not just Kenya’s but world politics can deflate their egos with a snap…pap!

I finish by saying there will be need for serious vetting by the public for those seeking elective posts in this county. Should we miss we might miss the much needed speed in the take off on devolution for the next five years. Then I lament the women leadership gap in the making. 

I will keep you updated. Cheers!