Whichever side you supported, the latest (failed?) Ford Kenya coup was very much phenotypical of the party’s DNA. Such has been the history of Ford Kenya: bloodless coup after bloodless coup.
In the recent weeks, we have been treated to the intrigues of the Kutalang’i party, once the vehicle of Bukusu political dreams. Ford Watengula and Ford Wamunyinyi are in battle to be the bonafide Ford Kenya party of Kenya. For some, it’s been a case of Wanyonyi Omukoyi’s Mayi Muro. But for others it was a longtime coming, certainly time for Amos Barasa’s bindu bichenjanga.
I was once a loyal Ford Kenya member, as loyal as they come. It therefore is a matter of duty that I feel like I owe history the burden of telling it as I remember. About how it was when I was a member, and the self cannibalism that I witnessed eating up our beloved Ford Kenya (FK as we the loyalists called it). I candidly want to address myself to the endless fights to wife this beautiful girl named Ford Kenya aka Fot; an iconic product born to the short lived FORD: a son, heir, with a lion heart.
It goes without saying that any Bukusu who believes in the dream of a son or daughter of Mbukusu ascending to lead our beautiful motherland, Kenya, has deep attachment to this party.
Omwami Masinde Muliro’s Dream
This is because Ford Kenya is the house that was constructed by our patriarch Omwami Masinde Muliro to nurture our political ambitions. My community believed in every word Muliro uttered because of the vision that the man held. Muliro had what we call kamaroro ke bun’gosi. A vision for Kenya like no other, not even former president Kibaki comes close.
Born a selfless leader who put his people first, Muliro the son of Bakokho clan expanded our territory. He facilitated many Bukusu from Bungoma to settle in the present day Trans Nzoia county. The dirge Muliro by the late Isaac Kisache WaMwasame, is a perfect tribute.
For this, and for teaching us how to dream my community was deeply indebted to Muliro both when he lived and posthumously. More importantly, today we honor Muliro for revealing to us the big things just a bit of mulembe in our politics could so for us.
During Muliro’s time, the lion party, FK, delivered. The future was one to look forward to. But the cruel hand of death snatched Muliro from us before we could share him with Kenya. He was a rare individual, one who like my mother, I believe would make anyone a better person once they meet them. Look no further than his protegee Micheal Kijana Wamalwa for credence to this claim.
Micheal Kijana Wamalwa’s journey cut short
Exit Muliro, enter Micheal Wamalwa Kijana son of the infamous Baengele clan. Wamalwa was this gentle soul, so gentle he managed not to appear haughty even with his impeccable English. This boy could speak English like the queen herself. To date, we the Bukusu have a saying: “So and so speaks English as eloquently as Wamalwa. With his English, he mesmerized us enough to hold our attention. Held it long enough so that with his big heart, he could care of all the flock Muliro left.
As any student of history will know that our Wamalwa had to battle through a Ford Kenya coup. Though this time, the threat was from without. Like in most wars, victory for Wamalwa was Pyrrhic. Nonetheless, in 1997 a limping Ford Kenya was on the ballot for the presidency. Moi won, we came in a distant fourth. Despite the odds, I believe Kijana Wamalwa went all the way for one purpose only: to lay down the maker and shape the party\’s vision and ambition as a vehicle to attain power.
By all means, five years later in 2002, Wamalwa became the first and only Luhya leader so far to buck the trend of the politics of Nabutundu. The son of William Wamalwa the independence senator managed to gather Luhya votes in one basket and deliver victory. This ability to consolidate the voter base allowed him to stand on the shoulders of the Luhya the community; propping the boy born in Sosio in Kimilili, and the party he led, to the vice presidency. Imagine that! The country\’s vice president, from the kutalang’i party! I’ve never felt so proud.
The transition
For those brief eight months that we had Mike, as his beloved called him, a heartbeat from the presidency, it appeared like Masinde Muliro’s work on earth was finally coming to fruit. Then in August of 2013, death came calling once again. Omuengele’s soul to mumbo it went. Looking back, Kijana Wamalwa was the one. Yes, we mourned him as Babukusu, Baluhyia, Kenyans; but maybe we should have cried more.
A fact that was apparent much sooner. Despite the vice presidency getting retained within the community, Wamalwa Kijana’s replacement did not make himself felt by the common mwananchi. And to his peers, well, he seems to have ruled with an iron fist. I remember this one time when Omwami Wakoli Bifwoli, then the Ford Kenya chief whip, was up in arms in the prescient of Parliament screaming his lungs out: “Awori is a tiktator! Awori is a tiktator!”
Though this moment is often bread and butter for Kenya’s political satire and popular comedy, it was a seminal one for Musikari Kombo’s Ford Kenya. In a while, I will explain.
Musikari Kombo\’s heady heights: Ford Kenya roars
Once Wamalwa closed his eyes at the Royal Free Hospital in the Hampstead area of the London Borough of Camden, the community was thrown in a disarray. The party, our party, threatened with our leader no more. Vultures descended on the community and worked hard to split the Luhya vote into meaningless blocks.
After defeating then Kimilili Constituency MP Mukhisa Kituyi, Webuye MP Musikari Kombo wa Nasipwondi took over the reigns of FK party. He of the Balunda clan. The rain makers. But as is the story of our beloved Fot Kenya of perpetual internal turmoil, the victory was once again Pyrrhic. But before the coming of the inevitable, Omwami Musikari Kombo had to establish himself and the kutalang’i party on the national table. The death of our shepherd Hon. Michael Kijana Wamalwa had to appear like it had unified us, as opposed to leaving us rudderless.
Ford Kenya, the bedroom bully
Therefore in 2005 when President Kibaki needed support for his rule after being on the losing side of the chungwa-ndizi referendum, the president offered three slots in the cabinet in exchange for our support. Kutalang\’i Musikari Kombo rejected the deal. The horse trading of politics later, our beloved FK emerged stronger with six cabinet slots; and a host of other party sponsored political appointments in high government.
You\’d think that this Kombo maneuver that saw him make it rain was a roar loud enough to warn all that the lion party was alive and kicking. But as the infamous Wakoli Bifwoli incident served to announce, all was not well. Those outside forces, mademoni, were at it again. The attack from without this time was the dropping of the Ford Kenya nominee for EALA, Gervase Akhaabi. The year as 2006.
That mweshimiwa Wakoli had to resort to that in order to \’save his party\’ talked of the relentlessness of the forces at play against my party. Nontheless, the lion roared again. Wakoli and the party had their way when Hon. Gervase Mathias Buluma Kafwa Akhaabi served Kenya in the EALA 2nd Assembly 2007-2012. However, plain to the eye it was that the writing was on the wall.
Vindu vicollapsanga mu Fot: The double Ford coup of 2006 to 2011
By December of 2006, 12 MPs from Ford Kenya among them Soita Shitanda of Malava and Boni Khalwale of Ikolomani announced formation of a new party. By March 2007, this Ford Kenya coup d’état was complete when New Ford Kenya was registered. The new outfit went about its business of putting its house in order. This included attracting the likes of Mukhisa Kiuyi to it’s ranks decimating whatever was left of Ford Kenya.
Inside FK party, things were simmering between Musikari Kombo and Moses Wetangula. There were constant wrangles between the two and countless court cases. No doubt that this was another Ford Kenya coup, but as a Kombo sympathizer I insist that ‘the elder in the house decided to take a bow’. Omwami Kombo left FK. He, together with Eugene Wamalwa, who had inherited his brother Wamalwa Kijana, joined the NFK faction in 2011.
Wetangula’s Ford Kenya
Kombo left the lion party forlorn, shoulders dropped, head down in defeat. In 2007, he had lost his seat in Parliament to one Alfred Sambu. By the time Weta was taking over, the workings of mademoni both inside and outside had done great damage to the party. From the high of a vice president, six cabinet ministers, diplomatic assignments and other high civil servant jobs, Ford Kenya had technically only one MP: Kimilili’s Hon. Dr. Eseli Simiyu.
It is rumored that Wetangula schemed it that Kombo couldn’t even get nominated back to parliament by the party he led. At Bomas when Moses Masika Wetangula took over FK from Kombo. By his side were the trusted, now foes, Hon. Wafula Wamunyinyi of Kanduyi and Hon. Eseli Simiyu. In truth, Wetangula toppled Kombo. Those on the inside inform me that the Wetangula faction changed our beloved Ford-K NEC clauses to facilitate this ouster.
A new dawn?
With the strength of the party in his hand, Wetangula\’s mouth was full of words of a new vision for Ford Kenya. He promised voters that he was to take the party to the next level. He even promised to go for the presidency. This raised expectations of the masses. The Bukusu particularly got attracted to Wetangula because he promised to bear the burden of the community on his shoulders.
Fast forward to the ongoing Ford Kenya coup. Part of the accusations leveled against Wetangula by the Wamunyinyi faction is that two election cycles have gone by without the FK party fielding a presidential candidate. As a result, the community feels lost with the hope injected by Muliro, Wamalwa and Kombo now nothing but ash.
When I speak to Wetangula’s erstwhile supporters, I find them in the mourning posture: holding their chins up only by their palms, tears dangling in their eyes. Silently they hope for the best, secretly they acknowledge that Wetangula’s flaws were there in the open for anyone with heart and motive to exploit.
The 2020 Ford Kenya coup: An anecdote of how the cookie crumbled
First, what follows might not be good reading for supporters of the Bungoma senator Moses Masika Wetangula. Second, this story is primarily a quest for truth even though bitter. Nonetheless, it is in no way exhaustive.
As is often with a people, as memories faded and the brutality of the present threatens, in recent times, the Bukusu community has found solace in nostalgia. We miss Wamalwa and Muliro. Not that these political fathers of the Luhya nation didn’t have their flaws. More because the Luhya political kingpins of today are naked – and we have been telling them but they chose to tell us instead.
Disillusioned, mocked and abused
With a bed made of aborted dreams, collective disillusionment, no new vision and yawning gap between abami and the led, what is happening in FK is long overdue. This yet to be settled Ford Kenya coup is the expectation rather than the exception.
The destruction of my beloved party into Ford Wetangula and Ford Wamunyinyi is here partly because we\’ve dithered too long on delivering the promise of a united mulembe on the ballot.
On the other hand, the vultures that perennially circle us have with glee continued to descend upon on us. It is therefore not news when I say that most have taken our collective political ambitions for granted. The derogatory terms —watchmen and cooks, watu wa kumbekumbe, mademoni come to mind — that they have sometimes used to describe us is enough evidence.
For those of us who love Ford Kenya, the current air of jibes and taunts directed against our leaders, person and community is suffocating. If anything the current goings on should serve as wake up call to salvage the political aspirations of mulembe. What follows is a story of Musa and a woman in his life known as Simba. It is the story of Ford Kenya. It is the story of mulembe leaders and the people they lead. A story of what has been in an attempt to shape a more prosperous tomorrow.
Musa and Simba
Musa has held simba the way a man keep seduces a mpango wa kango. He calls this woman, sets up a date in a dingy restaurant or bar. When this woman shows up, he buys her average food, drinks and spends time with with said woman.
He may even pay for her taxi services. All this long, Musa keeps telling Simba that when he gets money, he will be marrying her in a big wedding, build her a beautiful house, give her good looking children and all kinds of sweet nothings. You know that kind of talk?
Yes, this has been Musa\’s way of getting himself between the sheets with this woman night after night, year in year out. Simba, the woman, gives Musa time to get his act together. She reassures him that the money might be important, but if they came together shared vision and all, they might force the hand of circumstance.
Musa on the other hand keeps playing a tape of tale after tale of how he has done some work with county A and is waiting for payment. Were it not for IFMIS this, the controller of budget that, the county assembly the other, or if the chief officer who happens to be his close friend keeps his promise; he would have done the honorable thing by her, her family and people.
Soul searching
Fifteen years in, Simba calls herself to a meeting. She searches her soul and makes up her mind to make that bold move and leave. Secretly, she moves on with Musa’s best friend Enyinywi. Not a wise move, experience tells her as she tried some other flings and relationships before to no avail. But Enyinywi, making use of inside knowledge from his close friendship to Musa, has managed to convince Simba that he is the second coming of Christ.
To back his seduction claims, Enyinywi is rolling around with new friends. They are actually Musa’s old friends, but now they say Musa was the problem all along. “Little wonder he couldn’t realize his ambitions,” they say. “Just look at how bad he takes care of you; you used to be omwana inyanya enyengu, now you are looking like somebody’s nyanya,” they add.
Musa hearing the rumors tries to call his ever available woman. Not today though, Simba doesn’t pick or return his calls. She doesn’t respond to his messages either. Then as he scrolls through social media, the rumors he had been hearing for the past month or two along are confirmed.
Musa’s best friend Enyinywi has posted selfies with Simba: victory sign with their fingers, smiles, duck faces and all. Everything about the selfies is telling. Enyinywi has taken over his woman. As if to mock him, in the comments, the first congratulatory message and accompanying emojis are from none other than his bakoki – Doc the general. “Kalaa mumabeka,” he writes.
A different kind of Ford Kenya coup: Fought in the open, thanks to social media
Musa gets infuriated, boils over when both Enyinywi and Doc the general do not pick up his calls. He is especially irked by his bakoki: Didn’t he know of the rule that forbids members of an age set from sharing the sweetness of a woman?
Musa launches his fight back. In an effort to regain some dignity, he does a social media post in which he\’s seen with friends at Simba’s house. The point is to show to those who care that Simba’s house is his domain. The photo is tagged #Squad #NoNewFriends #HatersGonnaLie #Snakes #Blessed. He recruits his buddy Karis from faulkland. Karis likes this photo and hits back at Enyinywi.
“Chilling with my dawg in his crib.” #NoNewFriends #Snakes #Blessed.
In the days that follow through various social media posts Simba is seen with Enyinywi and Doc the general. Another post by Enyinywi has him all mushy proclaiming his love for Simba; thanking her for accepting his proposal.
One post is particularly telling. Simba is at the AG’s office with Doc the general. The hashtags: #NewLife #Soulmate #Newtings #Marriagetings #Blessed. The next day, the AG puts up a notice inviting anyone with reason as to why the new love of Simba and Enyinywi shouldn’t be solemnized to supply reasons within a week.
Somewhere on a radio show, Taplew Taplew, Enyinywi’s new found friend spews that Musa is not only a home wrecker but for years had tricked him into paying rent for the house that Simba lived in. Now I hear Musa has moved to court. Meanwhile, Simba’s loved ones look on in despair. There she goes again. They have seen this use and dump script before. With each split Simba losses life itself. If only she knew who’s boss.