By Matiko Bohoko

As the Yusuf Haji led Building Bridges Initiative task force concluded its public hearings last Friday, smaller communities grouped together with larger ones in same counties held their fingers crossed over the BBI recommendations.

Minority ethnic groups like the Kuria in Migori county are optimistic that their proposal which they presented to the committee requesting for their own county as a measure to ease ethnic antagonism, divisive elections and exclusion would bear fruits.

In a memorandum the community presented both in Migori and Nairobi sittings, they proposed for a national referendum which they hoped would recommend for amendment of the Constitutional of Kenya 2010 to permit creation of a Kuria county.

“This is a humble submission from the Kuria people calling for a national referendum to amend the COK 2010, particularly schedule 1 to allow for the creation of a Kuria county. Indeed, increase of devolved units like counties world over has never been undertaken to diminish others but ostensibly to promote social and economic development, the provision of proximate and easily accessible services to citizens”.

President Uhuru Kenyatta and Orange Democratic Movement party leader former prime minister Raila Odinga in their BBI inaugural speech presented nine issues namely; ethnic antagonism and competition, lack of national ethos, inclusivity, devolution, divisive elections, safety and security, corruption, shared prosperity and responsibility.

President Uhuru Kenyatta had this to say; “Politically, devolution has led to exclusivity in the counties where some local communities have found themselves isolated and excluded by the more populous ones creating marginalization”.

On ethnic antagonism and competition, the community presented that they have been treated with contempt in terms of governance and allocation of resources. “Kuria has since been referred to as “the diminutive beautiful widow for use and dump” in Nyanza, a derogatory insinuation, mocking the community that for the last 50+ years of independence, we have been vulnerable to being married and dumped at will by the big communities of Kenya”. 

One can authoritatively state that Kuria today cannot enjoy the provision of the constitution as enshrined in chapter 11 of the COK. It has not benefited from the objects of devolution which seek to promote democratic and accountable exercise of power and fostering national unity by recognizing diversity. We can only talk of exclusivity because as one of the 42 communities domicile in Kenya, we find ourselves more disadvantaged and completely excluded from what was envisaged in the constitution.

“It’s against this constitutional backdrop that we seek to impress upon you to propose for a national referendum which will allow for amendment of the law to create a Kuria county”.

The community alluded their predicament to schedule 1 of the constitution which capped the counties at 47. “Our own county will provide a “kind of equity by leveling the ground upon which to recognize the right of minorities to manage their own affairs and to further their development within their own dictates”.

A County will provide the community the right to protect and promote their own interests and rights as minorities and marginalized people in Kenya. It will help in the purpose of bridging the disparities between the haves and the have not.

It will ensure equitable sharing of national and local resources. It will facilitate the decentralization of the state organs, their functions and services from the capital to the poor Mwananchi. 

They felt that Kuria was unwillingly placed together with majority Luo neighbors in Migori County after a separation in 1993 when retired president Moi created Kuria district and the Kehancha Municipal council, “therefore heralding the coveted self-governance and political independence”.

On divisive elections, the community wrote that the political set up and party politics in Kenya had placed them in a much worse and disadvantaged situation than it was before multiparty.

“Developed democracies world over, recognize the peculiarities and difficulties of minorities and deliberately go out of the way to create for them safety valves i.e. own areas of governance, specific number of seats or posts instead of leaving them to compete on equal footing with the majority groups”. Even on this basis alone, Kuria deserves a county of its own. 

They thought that Kuria had rapidly expanded administratively to four sub counties under Migori. “It’s only fair that the political wing also recognize that we have grown and give us our own county”.

As a matter of fact, and fairness if not equity, other communities in Nyanza i.e. Kisiis, Luos have benefited. Kisii has two counties while Luos have four counties. Elsewhere, Lamu, Isiolo, Taita Taveta and Samburu which are homogenous with a lesser population than Kuria have their own counties. 

The regions have each at different times been favorably considered while Kuria has been side stepped due to political power games.

It’s a fact of science and sheer common sense, that there is no time now and in future when Kuria will achieve parity with other communities to enable the same parameters apply in determining the county issue. Only strict adherence to the tenets of devolution as stipulated in the constitution that can help achieve this.

Politics being a game of numbers, ethnicity always takes center stage during electioneering period therefore numerical superiority offers greater power to win elective seats. This is not likely to end given the political power matrix applicable in Migori County. Kuria will always loose.

Matiko Bohoko is a consulting journalist based in Migori