MP Charles Ong’ondo Were had publicly warned of threats to his life. He was gunned down by a motorcycle assassin near Nairobi Funeral Home, minutes after leaving Parliament.
For a long time, Kasipul was this quiet constituency with isolated cases of violence during election campaigns or during the post-poll period.
The constituency, which came into existence in 2010, was hived off from the larger Kasipul Kabondo Constituency following the boundary review, with its first MP being Oyugi Magwanga, the current Deputy Governor of Homa Bay County.
When he took over, there was still excitement about the constituency and therefore little violence was witnessed, and the peace was witnessed even during the first-term of Charles Ong’ondo Were, the MP who was shot dead on Wednesday night in Nairobi.
But as other leaders would attest, the violence started springing up in the constituency in 2019 and got worse as the country headed to the polls in 2022.
People would accuse Mr Were of sponsoring crime which led to injuries, deaths and destruction of property.
His death on Wednesday night was like a sigh of relief to some people in the region based on their expressions that some residents had on social media.
According to Ndhiwa MP Agostino Neto, there has been a wave of political violence that has lingered around Mr Were since his entry into elective politics.
“There has been a wave of political violence that has lingered around him, both in the offensive and defensive, since his entry into politics. This has however intensified over the last two years across Homa Bay County but Kasipul Constituency in particular, with many losing their limbs and lives,” said Mr Neto.
Funerals and political events have been the battle field that has always left people wounded and property destroyed, sometimes fatalities.
Political rivals walk with tens of youths who go against each other to impress their bosses.
The kind of chaos being witnessed sometimes is referred to as ‘Violence on wheels’ where youths are ferried using vehicles from within or out of the constituency.
Besides the big fuel guzzlers, which are always the vehicle of choice for most of them, the convoy also has some Toyota Probox model cars which are normally used to ferry youths.
The Probox vehicle, despite being designed to carry five people including the driver, can sometimes be used to ferry up to 12 people.
Mr Jared Mwai, a Probox driver operating between Homa Bay and Mbita said youths hired by politicians to act as security prefer using the vehicle because it is cheaper compared to other cars.
"Most drivers charge an average of Sh5000 for a day's job. Operators of other vehicle models will charge more than Sh8,000 for the same task," he said.
Youths hired as security personnel are known to belong to different groups.
Most of them have leaders who are approached to mobilize the rest before they go for an assignment.
Different groups ask for varying sums of money to help politicians achieve their objectives.
Others even don uniformed clothes including military fatigues complete with boots and caps to cover their faces.
Most attackers who use machetes and knives hide the weapons in oversize coats which they put on even when the temperature is very high and they are sweating.
Their encounter with rivals has always ended up bloody with casualties.
Mr Magwanga, the immediate predecessor of Mr Were, summarised the recent status of the constituency as worrying and required prayers.
“What Kasipul requires is prayers, soberness and peace. Kasipul has lost two MPs mid-term. First was the Senior Owidi and now Ong’ondo Were who we lost when we least expected it,” said Mr Magwanga.
He attributed the unrest to failed leadership and partly the lack of action on the side of enforcement officers.
According to him, politicians must know that they are leaders who have a huge following, some who can even kill for them, hence calls for showing leadership to enable their supporters to follow and avoid violence.
“Taking an oath of office requires wisdom and tolerance. Whatever we do as leaders will dictate how our followers act and how far an incident can go. Leaders should be role models and provide leadership to avert chaos,” said the former Kasipul MP.
He is calling on the security agencies to do more to avert the violence in the constituency and Homa Bay at large. If nothing is done, there is fear that the violence within the constituency will continue.
Already the constituency has not only lost enough lives, but also left many with permanent injuries.
Mr Were’s violent death seems to have amplified the voices of those who claim to have suffered injustice at his hands.
The scars on the stomach of Mr Kenneth Jabuya remains a painful memory of an incident that will forever disturb him since a person he perceived as a friend and boss, turned against him
In June 2, 2019, Mr Jabuya, once a strong supporter of the MP, was stabbed multiple times on the stomach by two men allied to the legislator, leading to injuries that have left him with permanent scars.
Prior to the elections, their agreement was that the legislator do away with issuing handouts to his supporters but empower them economically through projects and tenders.
"I took part in his campaign until he won the 2017 election. During campaigns, he said, the legislator would promise people in his cycle that he would reward them with contracts, but my expectations were not met after the poll," Mr Jabuya said.
Instead, after winning the election, some of the campaign officials were kicked out and the people who benefited from the election were brought in.
Mr Jabuya said he raised complaints about being side-lined but this angered the MP and his allies.
And in June, he was attacked, stabbed on the abdomen as his assailants walked away.
The case was taken to court but the man feels he did not get justice.
The court ordered that he be paid Sh170,000, but he insists he had spent more than Sh1 million which he said was paid by friends.
He decided to keep away from any meeting which the MP attends.
Mr Clinton Ogaga was burying his grandfather within the same sub location where Were comes from, when he faced the MP’s wrath.
Despite coming from the same area, Mr Ogaga took a different political path.
He told the Nation that he supports one of the critics of MP Were, businessman Philip Aroko, which he knew was not welcomed by the slain MP.
Mr Ogaga shared a video as he was rushing his brother to the hospital after an attack at a funeral on April 6 this year.
During the funeral service, he said everything was going on smoothly until politicians were asked to speak when hell broke loose.
“One of the youth managed to pin me down and was about to hack me when my brother shielded me with a club. He was the one who was attacked instead when his hand was hacked,” Mr Ogaga said.
In a video, he fiercely condemned Ware moments after chaos erupted during the funeral service.
Besides injuries, one family claimed the slain MPs action led to the disappearance of their daughter.
Daughty Apondi vanished without a trace in November 2010.
Her family said the MP promised her a job in a hotel in Meru, one she never lived to take.
His brother Bob Adongo said he never saw her sister.
“We suspect foul play. We have reported the case to the police,” he said.
Apondi's sister, Nancy Adhiambo, said her search for answers has been relentless, despite facing repeated threats from the late legislator himself.
“He knew where my sister went. He knows how she disappeared,” she said.
Human rights defenders said the revelation of what Were did to his critics raised a red flag on the future of politics in Homa Bay.
Asego Public Litigation Forum Executive Director Michael Kojo expressed concern that cases of violence in the region may not end soon unless politicians decide to change.
“We recently witnessed cases of violence in the ODM grassroots election where some people were injured. Politicians and security agencies should act now before it is too late,” he said.
Kojo also faulted politicians who use violence to silence dissenting voices, saying everyone should be given an opportunity to speak about their opinion about politics.
Mr Audi Ogada, a human rights defender, said the allegations against the MP have exposed lapses in the security sector.
He said police may have turned a blind eye and deaf ears on what was going on within Kasipul.
“Some allegations may be true because not everyone will accuse the MP of crime. This means we are losing war on crime because the cases were not addressed,” the activist said.
Mr Ogada said it appears as if violence is widespread in Nyanza and other political leaders should learn from Were and change if at all they are accused of crime.
The activist said public servants in top positions in the country are also fond of using youths as bouncers who provide them with security.
But some have ended up engaging in fights in events they attend leading to injuries.
“Different agencies responsible for fighting crime alongside civil societies should come out and save the country because we are headed in the wrong direction. Politicians who perpetrate violence should also be publicly named and shamed,” Mr Ogada said.
As the vice chairperson of the National Cohesion and Equal Opportunity committee at the National Assembly, Mr Were was expected to be a politician whose leadership brings people together.
The role of the committee includes promoting national cohesion, equal opportunity and regional integration.
However, Were was ironically [email protected]
