Angry citizens of Homa Bay county are yet to appreciate what Kalonzo Musyoka now understands: The dynamics of Uhuru Kenyatta Succession, especially deliberate attempts to redress the exclusion of gender and ethnic minorities.
The possibility of a woman governor in Homa Bay unsettles male chauvinists. The drivers of male dominance have a challenge with a woman being given direct party nomination.
Woman Representative Gladys Wanga is running against former Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero. Kidero benefitted from direct party nomination in 2013 and 2017. He lost the seat to Jubilee candidate, impeached Governor Mike Sonko. What was good for the goose in 2017 is not good for the gander in 2022.
The choice of Martha Karua rankled Kalonzo, who has twice been Azimio presidential aspirant Raila Odinga's running mate. The duo staged good shows during the 2013 and 2017 presidential elections. But they lost, each time, in controversial circumstances.
Change of tack will tap into the women and Mt Kenya vote. Kalonzo appreciates the fact. The chief minister-designate made this realisation known, on his return to Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya coalition.
Two weeks of communion with nature in the Yatta countryside of Kambaland showed the former Vice President Kenya is yearning for a break with the past. This past has two constants: One is gender-based marginalisation. The other is ethnic exclusion.
President Kenyatta endorsed Raila as his successor because the former Prime Minister has a higher chance of breaking ethnic dominance of state power.
This is the Kenya the President wanted through the deferred Building Bridges Initiative. The President wants a country where presidential leadership is not confined to two communities in a land of 44 ethnicities.
The Kikuyu and the Kalenjin have been enjoined in the presidential power tango for 60 years. Uhuru wants inclusion. Many are cheering the President's seizure of patriotism. This may come to pass if the Raila-Karua presidential ticket breaks the ethnic and gender jinx.
When Raila nominated fellow voyeur Karua as his running mate, over Kalonzo, he made a break with the past. The possibility of a first woman deputy president animates Uhuru succession.
The nomination brings a woman closer to the presidency. Women, civil society, and genderpreneurs welcome the possibility. Karua, a woman of record, integrity, and a reformist, may redefine the Executive.
The Azimio presidential ticket-holder may have known as early as March that he would play the game differently. The difference has disoriented the male-dominated competition. Kenya Kwanza signed a 'women's charter' last week, saying the DP William Ruto column also cares for women's empowerment.
The affirmative action lot landed on Wanga in Homa Bay. No other county woman had gubernatorial ambitions. Wanga had worked a section of the electorate to support her bid, in a race then crowded with men.
The men included the massively popular, former Kasipul MP Joseph Oyugi Magwanga. Others were Deputy Governor Hamilton Orata, former county secretary Isaiah Ogwe, Finance executive Nicholas Obuya Oriko, and ODM chairman John Mbadi. They were all allies of Governor Cyprian Awiti.
Consensus, one of four party nomination methods, favoured Wanga, a gender minority among the contestants. Consensus also favoured Magwanga, a man of impeccable integrity, as Wanga's running mate.
But angry residents of Homa Bay are yet to understand the changing dynamics. Their prolonged anger feeds on propaganda that insiders of outgoing Governor Awiti's regime would retain their positions in a Wanga-Magwanga government.
The Wanga-Magwanga ticket will fly fast once Awiti and his courtiers delink the past, which they represent, from the future. Awiti's decade of poor leadership should be punishment enough for the county.
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