The battle to control the half-a-million Maa votes pitting President Uhuru Kenyatta and his main rival, Cord leader Raila Odinga, intensifies next weekend as the two converge in Narok for a function organised by the head of the Anglican Church Jackson Ole Sapit.
Together with Deputy President William Ruto, the two have confirmed they will attend the thanksgiving ceremony of the prelate, arguably the most influential individual from the pastoralist community following the recent death of former Cabinet minister William ole Ntimama.
Bishop Sapit succeeded Archbishop Eliud Wabukala on July 3 at the All Saints’ Cathedral with Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto witnessing his enthronement.
Although the Spokesman for the Presidency, Manoah Esipisu, did not immediately come back to us to state whether the President will be attending, Kajiado West MP Moses Sakuda, a key pointman of the ruling coalition in Kajiado, told the Sunday Nation Mr Kenyatta is listed among the key guests on November 19.
“We are excited to have the President and his Deputy among us one more time,” he stated.
In August, Mr Kenyatta was in Narok at another thanksgiving service but this time for Johnson Ole Nchoe, the Managing Director Geothermal Development Company, in an illustration of the high premium he attaches to the Maasai vote as he seeks re-election next year.
Mr Odinga’s spokesperson, Dennis Onyango, told the Nation his boss will be attending Bishop Sapit’s function.
“We welcome all of them,” he said.
In 2013, Mr Odinga beat the President in Narok and still considers the region his constituency, further fuelling the ongoing supremacy tussle.
The DP, on the other hand, views Maasailand as an appendage of his Kalenjin bastion and is pulling out all the stops to blunt Mr Odinga’s inroads.
In Samburu, another Maa-speaking region, he got 58 per cent to Mr Kenyatta’s 41 pc. Mr Kenyatta beat him in Kajiado by six per cent after he won 52 per cent of the votes.
For Mr Odinga, the fight for Narok, Samburu, and Kajiado is a do-or-die affair for these are among the regions that overwhelmingly supported his presidential bid in 2007, an election in which his opponent, Mwai Kibaki, was controversially declared the winner. The stakes are even higher given the requirement to attain 50 per cent plus one of votes to win the presidency.
Observers reckon that the absence of a unifying figure around which the community coalesces after the death of ole Ntimama, the undisputed Maasai kingpin in September, has made Maasailand a battleground of sorts in the coming election, attracting all potential suitors from other regions who in the past would be jostling to court his attention.
“They will continue their forays until election time because in a way, Ntimama’s death has left them political orphans,” Mr Tom Mboya, a political commentator from Maseno University, says.
The current turf wars among Kajiado politicians with each forming their oltims (camps) may delay the ascension of a new kingpin in a region dominated by clan politics.
It is not any different in Narok where Governor Samuel Tunai is engrossed in a fight with the influential Ntutu family led by Senator Stephen ole Ntutu.
Ms Dorothy Mashipei, policy director in the office of the Deputy President who vied for Kajiado Woman’s Rep on a URP ticket in 2013, said the bitter rivalry between Odomongi and Orokiting, two major clans in Kajiado, could steal the momentum from Jubilee. She, however, exuded confidence that Jubilee would still carry the day.
“The fact that youth are rebelling against local leadership has been misconstrued to mean rebellion against Jubilee. The people are solidly behind UhuRuto,” she said.
At the burial of Mr Ntimama, Mr Kenyatta took issue with Bishop Julius Nalamae of the Fountain of Life church who, in his speech, asked the Maa people to emulate the Luo, Mr Odinga’s tribe, and remain united despite external forces keen on dividing them.
Those around the President thought this amounted to inciting local residents against the government.
The President would later trade barbs with Mr Odinga, asking him to keep off the affairs of his newly launched Jubilee Party.
Mr Sakuda denies that the region is up for grabs, saying the majority of elected representatives belong to Jubilee.
“Except for Purko clan in Narok that has remained in ODM, the party can only claim Kajiado governor’s seat, one parliamentary seat in Kajiado and two MCAs, the rest are Jubilee,” he said.
The ruling coalition has lined up many politicians to wrest the governor’s seat from ODM’s David Nkedianye at the polls. They include former Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Ole Lenku and chairman of Kenya Meat Commission Taraiya Ole Kores, among others, readying to fight it out for the party ticket.
Jubilee was humiliated by ODM in a recent by-election in Mosorio ward, Kajiado, an election touted by pundits as a pointer to the direction the region may go in the next polls.
In an indirect admission that they were locked in a tough duel with the opposition over control of the Maa vote, Mr Sakuda said it would be clearer by the end of the year where the region leans.
Jubilee rebel MP for Narok North Moitalel Ole Kenta described the mood in Maasailand as a re-awakening that could no longer be stopped.
“The Maaland was fully Jubilee but they spat in our faces. Now, the Maasai have decided to be their own friends because those we had in Jubilee exploited our votes and resources,” said Mr Kenta.
Mr Kenta said: “Unless a miracle happens, the Maasai people are going to ODM. For Jubilee, it is a case of closing the gates when the goats have already bolted out.”
Mr Kenta cited the arrest of five Maasai leaders after a demonstration against Governor Tunai, the thorny issue of the Mau Forest conservation, saying this was harassment of Maasai leaders. He also cited corruption in the Jubilee administration as one of the reasons for the community’s discontent with Jubilee.
Kajiado Central MP Elijah Memusi, who replaced Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery against a heavily financed Jubilee candidate in March last year, said that the Maa people had “seen the light.”
“Nowhere else in Kenya has Jubilee poured billions of taxpayers’ money to buy votes during the elections and by-elections than in Maasailand. But now, the people have shown them that they will not sell their rights and their souls,” said Mr Memusi.
But Mr Kenta said the problem was much more than money. It was about trust, he said.
Those rooting for the opposition in the region say Jubilee has not addressed the Maasai land question to their satisfaction.
