It was Senator James Orengo, then Ford Kenya MP, who coined the metaphor Owili Gom. The imagery returns, 25 years later, through its weaver, to the political parlance.
The senator says he will not be intimidated, and that he is not ready to sell his conscience. But the legislator will not say who wants to buy his conscience, at what price, and for what purpose.
Only two people – President Uhuru Kenyatta and the People’s President Raila Odinga – can intimidate Orengo.
Before the Nyatike outing, two weeks ago, Orengo met the President, who facilitated his trip to Migori county. Raila, ODM party leader, facilitated Orengo’s meeting with the President.
Promoting the Building Bridges Initiative Bill was the agenda. But Orengo complained of skewed sharing of the 70 constituencies, which BBI proposes. Orengo was in the political committee that reviewed the BBI draft in Naivasha, before the Bill went to the IEBC.
Orengo, the Minority leader in the Senate, was paired with Amos Kimunya, the Majority leader in the National Assembly, to review the document. Orengo was always in the know as a senator and ODM legal adviser.
When did the interests Orengo represents lose control of BBI? Is there something Orengo knows that he is not saying? Orengo was not expected to be complaining to villagers about the distribution of constituencies.
The choice of Nyatike, which missed out on a new constituency, was potent. Was Orengo using the BBI fault line to rebrand? He later went to Bondo, Alego Usonga, and then visited Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya.
Local correspondents passed Orengo’s sulk to the national audience. Pundits picked up the snippets for analysis. Speculative reactions came up, fast and furious.
Twenty-five year ago, the Siaya senator, Nyatieng’ wuod Nyar Mayanga (Nyatieng', son of Mayanga's daughter), was a thorn in the flesh of the Moi regime. Kanu had in 1992 won a multiparty general election the regime was expected to lose.
Orengo had also lost the control of Ford-K, the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga’s party, which the senator was expected to inherit. He lost the plot to a suave Raila, who was cultivating a loyal constituency. Raila has since built a firewall around this constituency.
By the 1997 second muitliparty election, Luo MPs who were elected on a Ford-K ticket, won their seats on the National Development Party ticket, whose leader was Raila Odinga.
The loyalists were, in Orengo’s poetry, comparable to oxen, who turn at the bidding of their master. ‘Owili’, the ox, represented all others. The imagery, ‘Owili Gom’, is familiar to people from areas that still rely on oxen to plough. A farmer needs four oxen for the job.
Cynics picked a ‘fine’ time for Senator Orengo to reinvent himself. He is running for Siaya governor next year. Raila is keeping a low profile, recovering. Were cynics then inciting Orengo to reinvent himself? Is this Orengo’s way of seeking Raila’s endorsement for his Siaya governor ambition? Is Orengo scared Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi may beat him to the ticket?
There is caution, though, for Orengo from ODM strongholds: Don’t mistake a rained-on lion for a cat. You may be clawed again. It’s Raila who saved Orengo’s political career when a young but monied Steve Mwanga gave the senator a memorable scare for the Ugenya seat in 1997. A mention of ‘Mwanga’ was enough to make Orengo turn.
Orengo’s ‘dissent’ has since dissipated. He had to paraphrase Shakespearean poetry to return to reality. ‘In Kenya’s politics, life really imitates art. But the artist is a conspiracy theorist with a hypothesised fanciful narrative fed as news or fact. Before the big lie unfolds the public debate on the issues of the day is just a shouting match. Full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”
