Family ties still dictate next crop of political leaders

That Edith Nyenze was last week nominated to succeed her husband, Francis Nyenze, in the Kitui West parliamentary race did not come as a surprise.

If she triumphs in the by-election scheduled for March 26, Mrs Nyenze will be joining the league of politicians who took over parliamentary seats from family members.

Her husband served as Minority Leader in the last Parliament before he died on December 6, 2017 from colon cancer.

While many fought to carve a leadership niche for themselves, a good number of leaders today have names that are easily recognisable from the country's past political arena.

It starts from the top.

President Uhuru Kenyatta is the son of Kenya’s first President, the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, while Raila Odinga is the scion of the country’s first Vice President and later the doyen of Opposition politics, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.

The national chairman of Kenya's independence party, Kanu, Baringo Senator Gideon Moi, is a case in point.

The son of Kenya's second President, Daniel arap Moi, Gideon took over from his father as a Member of Parliament for Baringo Central Constituency after his father retired from active politics in 2002.

Moi had represented the people of Baringo Central in Parliament for 47 years, from 1955 to 2002.

Gideon inherited the seat from his father and held it for one term, between 2002 and 2007, before he was ousted by Sammy Mwaita in the 2007 General Election.

He made his political comeback in 2013 when he won the Baringo Senate seat on a Kanu ticket.

By eyeing Presidency in 2022, Gideon, who has been fighting for political dominance in Rift Valley against Deputy President William Ruto, seems keen to follow in his father’s footsteps.

The seventh Vice President and former Deputy Prime Minister Wycliffe Musalia Mudavadi inherited the Sabatia parliamentary seat from his father, Moses Mudamba Mudavadi.

The late Mudavadi was an influential minister in both Kenyatta and Moi’s governments.

Musalia became Sabatia MP in 1989 when he was elected unopposed following the death of his father.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga's brother, Oburu Odinga, took over the Bondo parliamentary seat from his father Jaramogi Oginga Odinga in 1995.

Water Cabinet Secretary Eugiene Wamalwa also made his debut to the august House following the death of his elder brother, Michael Kijana Wamalwa.

The elder Wamalwa died in 2003 while serving as Vice President, prompting a by-election in Saboti constituency that saw Eugene clinch the seat.

In lower Eastern, another scion of a prominent politician who inherited his father’s political seat is Mutula Kilonzo Junior.

The Senator Mutula junior is the son of Mutula Kilonzo, the former senator for Makueni who died on April 27, 2013.

Kilonzo Jnr first won the senatorial seat in a by-election. He was re-elected in August 8, 2017 General Election to serve a full term.

In 2015, when death robbed the people of Homa Bay County their eloquent senator, Gerald Otieno Kajwang in 2015, voters did not struggle much to pick his successor.

His younger brother Moses Kajwang fitted well in his shoes.

He was elected on February 12, 2015 in a by-election. Moses retained the seat in the August 8 polls.

The death of Kipkalya Kones alongside Lorna Chepkemoi Laboso in a plane crash on June 10, 2008 occasioned two parliamentary by-elections, one in Bomet and the other in Sotik constituencies on September 25, 2008.

Kipkalya Kones

In Bomet constituency, Kipkalya Kones' window, Beatrice, won her husband's seat on an Orange Democratic Party (ODM) party ticket.

In the neighboring Sotik constituency, Laboso's sister, Joyce Cherono Laboso won the seat. Ms Laboso is the current Governor for Bomet County.

Earlier in April 2006, Nakuru Town MP Mirugi Kariuki died in a plane crash in Marsabit.

His death occasioned a by- election in the constituency, which his son, William Mirugi Kariuki, easily won.

In Naivasha, the late Paul Kihara was the first MP for Naivasha constituency when it was created in 1997. He served the people of Naivasha until February 2003 when he died in a South African Hospital after a long illness.

During the by-election, his wife, Jayne Kihara, won the seat.

In the Coast region, Senator Juma Boy inherited political power from father, Juma Boy Mwandeyi, as Member of Parliament for Kwale Central. In the 1983 general election, the younger Boy was campaigning for his father when the ageing politician suddenly fell sick.

Sharriff Nassir

Still at the Coast, the name Sharriff Nassir Abdallah Taib is a household name.

The Mvita MP was regarded as a Kanu stalwart not just in the coastal region but across the country.

Nassir, who lost his Mvita seat to Najib Balala in the 2002 General Election, died in November 2005.

Eight years later, his son, Abdulswamad Shariff Nassir, was elected Mvita MP, the seat his father had held since 1974.

Pundits and some of the leaders who have inherited the seats see nothing wrong with hereditary politics.

Philip Chebunet, a political science lecturer, says because of their proximity to power, close relatives of prominent politicians enjoy a lot of media exposure from a tender age.

“By the time they want to contest, they are well known. It is therefore hard for an upcoming politician to enjoy such publicity; they are disadvantaged by obscurity,” said Dr Chebunet.

Governor Joyce Laboso, who was elected as Sotik MP in 2008 following the death of her sister, Lorna Laboso, says there is nothing wrong with hereditary politics.

"As long as one is capable of articulating their constituents' issues and can deliver on the mandate given by electorate, I don't think it is bad for anyone to inherit an elective position," she said.

Critics say hereditary politics has consequences on the country's democratic legitimacy.

"It creates a situation where a small number of families monopolise political power, undermining the quality of democratic representation," says veteran politician Koigi Wa Wamwere.