Orma elders endorse CAS Dado for Tana River governor

The Orma Council of elders in Tana River has settled on former governor and Interior CAS Hussein Dado as their preferred candidate for the county top seat.

The Council of Elders known as Matadeda, made the declaration in a public meeting held at Wayu village, about 50km from Hola town, amidst reports that Bura MP Ali Wario, a strong opponent of Dado who is also an Orma, was against the decision.

Reports indicate that Wario only had support from the Council of elder’s chairman and was holding a parallel meeting in Bura town against the blessings of the larger council of elders.

During the endorsement ceremony attended by hundreds of Orma community members on Saturday, the elders said they do not recognise the fellow elders who were with Wario and went ahead to declare and issued a certificate to the CAS allowing him to contest for governor.

In the Orma community, one of the larger communities of Tana River, negotiated democracy is normally applied and an endorsement by the elders is perceived to lead to victory for those aspiring for different seats.

Whoever is endorsed by the Matadeda is the one who will be supported by all the community members.

After the endorsement, the candidate reaches out to other communities to seek alliances and coalitions to win the majority votes.

Dado now has a hard task of making the right calculations to win the hearts of other communities with many residents saying he has an upper hand based on his leadership track record.

He will be battling it out with the incumbent Governor Dhadho Godhana a Pokomo who is also being challenged by former Trade CEC member Adam Barisa for the ODM ticket and are from the same Pokomo community.

The Wardei community also are divided as former Speaker Dr Nuh Nassir and Ibrahim Sane have shown interest on the governor’s seat.

During the ceremony in Wayu village, Dube Barissa was appointed new chairman of Matadeda with Abdalla Bakero as his Deputy.

Before his appointment as Tana River county Matadeda chairman, Barrisa was the chairman of Galole constituency.

Barissa who is also a former Tana River county council chairman said the differences have caused delays in naming the Orma community’s flagbearer.

“The Orma Council of elders got opinions from Kora, Kipini and Galole where everyone settled for Dado as the preferred candidate for governor,” he said.

Bakero said on behalf of all the Orma community and the people of Tana River, as elders they had agreed that Dado is going to be their governor candidate.

He said the announcement was not a decision made by 20 people who self-imposed Wario as the preferred candidate for governor but the majority of the elders are against him.

“We urge Wario to join us, the community has established that the candidate who can carry the community's flag is Husssein Tuneiya Dado, he has served in government for over 40 years from a primary school teacher in Wayu, DO, DC in Baringo for many years during Moi era, Ambassador for Namibia and became the first Governor of Tana River,” he said.

The elder said after going round the county seeking opinions, they found that Dado has support not only from the Orma community but the larger Tana River county.

He advised Wario to shelve his ambition and defend his Bura  parliamentary seat, adding that if he does that as elders, they will make sure he retains the seat.

In his acceptance speech the CAS said what happened today was not only an endorsement by elders but a coronation as he would be able to have a say even after the election as an elder.

He said there were few people who met after being given money and went to a private home to endorse Wario which sparked harsh reaction from the majority of elders.

He said since the community has agreed it was him, he was free to go to other communities to seek for votes.

“I would urge other community members to join hands with me so that we work together for the betterment of Tana River I don’t want to be a governor of Orma but the for the whole county but most importantly I would urge residents to maintain peace,” he said.

The CAS thanked President Uhuru Kenyatta for giving them two subcounties.

Also present during his endorsement were Senator Juma Wario, former Women Rep Halima Ware together with MCAs Masha Boru, and Musa Wario.

All leaders supported the decision by elders who endorsed Dado as the flagbearer and also thanked President Kenyatta for introducing new sub-counties.

-Edited by SKanyara