Why Garissa voters should send Aden Duale packing

As we inch closer to the much-awaited date with the ballot, I wish to explain why voters in Garissa Township should send the incumbent MP, Aden Duale, home. For starters, Mr Duale failed to strike a healthy balance between his primary job as a legislator, who is a representative of the people of Garissa Township, and his nominative assignment as the Leader of the Majority in Parliament.

The latter role eclipsed his mandate as a legislator who was elected to voice the concerns and grievances of his constituents and made him to appear to be a full-time Government and Jubilee Party spokesperson. I hear and read a lot of flirtatious comments of people praising Duale for bringing mega development in Garissa town during his tenure in Parliament. While it would be injudicious for me to dispute the improvements we have seen in the town under his 10-year rule, his development record is too low when measured on the scales of a man who tagged himself 'the third in command' in Kenya's hierarchy of power in the past four years, during which he had unfettered access to State House and other prized government installations.

I expected him to, for example, lobby for an individual from Garissa County to be appointed to the Cabinet. I guess that would not be a big deal, given Garissa past technocratic history in the Government. Sadly, today, the senior most official that Garissa County has produced in the Jubilee administration is the Mining Principal Secretary, Dr Ibrahim Mohamud, who is a brother-in-law of Duale. Under the watch of Aden Duale, Garissa town has lost the regional facility of passport issuance that was established by the Kibaki-Raila grand coalition government in order to ease foreign travel for the residents of the northeastern region, especially the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

Locally, Duale has not done well in matters of social cohesion and integration. Due to his incautious way of doing politics, he has, for instance, caused a rift between the Abduak and the Auliyahan clans, which share Ogaden brotherhood ancestry. The sad result is that Garissa town is now listed among the 33 election violence hotspots. It would, therefore, be imprudent to retain Duale in Parliament as an MP when he has significantly failed to write the popular will of his constituents.