By THEDISPATCH.DIGITAL REPORTER
Several youths have reportedly been abducted in Kuria East and Kuria West constituencies following a recent protestor-led invasion of the home of Kitayama Marwa Maisori, the MP for Kuri East. Among the abductees was Kuria University Students’ Association President Timothy M. Enock, who had earlier issued an abduction alert on X. In his post, Enock had claimed that fellow youths, Emmanuel Mwita, Vincent Mwita and Phelix Mohagachi had been abducted but not been booked at any police station.
According to reports, Emmanuel Mwita and Vincent Mwita were only produced at the Kehancha Police Station after the OCS demanded that they be brought before him. They had been severely beaten by their police abductors. It was alleged that the abductors claimed to be have been protecting Kehancha town, in Kuria West. No details were provided of where they had been held or why they had been adducted.
Timothy Enoch, a student at Kenyatta University, is the serving Chairman of the Kuia University Students’ Association, KUSA, which brings together university students from both Kuria East and West Constituencies. Vincent Mwita is an NGO operative who works with Tunaweza Empowerment Organization, TEO, a non-profit women’s rights, survivors-centered, and youth development advocacy community-based organization that tries “to catalyze the power of the most vulnerable girls, young women, and youth to create the future they imagine –for themselves, for their society, and for the world” in Migori County. TEO established in year 2015 with a group of young women who had been discriminated in their own society because they refused to undergo female genital mutilation in Kuria.
During the recent political activities and protests in Kuria, MP Kitayama’s property in Kehancha town was razed and his home invaded and looted. It was the culmination of silent but simmering protests in Kuria among the young people who believe they are treated as second rate citizens by the current government and previous ones. Instructively, the Kuria region has always supported the government, giving it most of their votes at every election since 1992. But it ios one of the most neglected and the rewards for their loyalty have been few, far between and insignificant compared to communities with similar demographics.
The recent Gen Z protests seem to have given the Kuria youth a chance to express their frustration with their MPs, who they claim have used money to stay in office instead of being representative. The youths have brought political activity to the two Kurias, which have hitherto been docile and led by politicians who took them to political formations where their personal interests were being attended to.
The current MPs, Kitayama in East and Mathias Robi Nyamabe in West, were both elected on UDA tickets and while they have remained loyal to Ruto’s party and Presidency, including voting for the Bill that was widely resented in their constituencies, have nothing to show for their loyalty. Apart form them two of them, here have been no appointments to government, with the only Principal Secretary from the region, Joeseph Motari of Social Services, having been a direct replacement of former PS Nelson Marwa Sospeter in the same department. Motari has been accused of pursuing a clannist agenda, selectively identifying people from his own clan for junior various opportunities in the government.