Last week, some unexpected incidents took place in the Coast region as Cord leaders, led by Raila Odinga, visited to launch their Okoa Kenya referendum initiative. Unlike their previous successful visits to Mombasa and Taita Taveta to launch the referendum, the team faced hostile receptions in Kilifi, Kwale and Tana River. In the latter case, the Okoa Kenya registration booklets were burnt. In Kilifi, the leaders were booed and heckled, while in Kwale county, a supposedly deranged middle-aged man confronted Raila and Governor Salim Mvurya and whipped them in public with a walking stick. It is now becoming clearer that after more than a decade of unfettered massive support for ODM in this region, the party is now facing serious challenges from some leaders and local communities who are dissatisfied with the party’s way of doing things in the Coast region. The incidents of violence also stand against Cord as the most vibrant party in this region. Reflecting on these violent incidents meted out on the Cord leadership, Naomi Cidi, who contested the Kilifi county senatorial seat in last year’s general elections, said: “ODM is finished.” According to Cidi, the ODM wave in the Coast region “will never be there again, unless we agree on a coalition formula to accommodate each other.” Mustafa Idd, the ODM Member of Parliament for Kilifi South, says the future of Coast politics will depend on the unity of all coastal leaders. “Every region at the moment speaks in one voice on issues agreed by everybody. We’re 38 elected leaders in a party (ODM) in which we have no voice in national politics whereas others with only 14 elected leaders have more voice than us in the majority. We can’t accept that.” Mustafa suggests that even though people love Raila, it is time the Coast region had a leader so “we can come together to accommodate other leaders as a coalition.” Since the Orange Movement translated itself into the ODM political party following the popular victory in the constitutional referendum of 2005 and altered its support for the 2010 constitutional referendum, virtually all voters in this region have been ODM converts in the belief the party would address the much-touted historical injustices associated with the Coast region. The matter of devolution, in particular, which the ODM has strongly supported, has inspired strong support from this region. In the absence of a strong political party or leader to articulate coastal grievances, the ODM has come in to fill this gap that had been missing since the dissolution of the Coast-based, pro-majimbo Kadu party in 1964. To prove ODM’s perennial popularity in this region, the last three multiparty elections of 2002, 2007 and 2013 handily won the ODM, with rival parties getting paltry votes. This is what can be referred to the ODM wave in the Coast because it has had a domino effect across the region. In the 2013 elections, for example, more than 90 per cent of the elective seats at both county and national levels in this region were to ODM party. Of the six governors in this region, only Timamy Issa Abdalla of Lamu was elected on the United Democratic Front Party, the five others – Amason Jeffa Kingi (Kilifi), Mvurya Salim Mgalla (Kwale), Hassan Ali Joho (Mombasa), John M Mruttu (Taita Taveta), and Tuneya Hussein Dado (Tana River) are ODM/Cord governors. The six county assemblies are also ODM party-dominated, unquestionably enjoying the tyranny of numbers, just as the Jubilee alliance does in the National Assembly. Mombasa and Kilifi counties lead the pack. In both counties, the ODM county representatives account for more than 90 per cent of the assembly representatives. Why Cord is popular in the Coast region As stated above, the primary definitional reason the ODM has had strong political grip in the Coast region is because of stated support for the marginalised communities of this region. In words, if not indeed, the ODM party manifesto and its rhetoric have fascinated the impoverished coastal communities.
Posted on: Sat, 04 Oct 2014 10:54:28 +0000
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