Masood comes face to face with Fred Gumo

It was in late 2007. The campaign heat was palpable all over the country. The ODM was creating shockwaves everywhere it went. Its ticket was the most coveted in many constituencies. In some areas candidates would wait to be sworn in as MPs after clinching the ODM ticket.

Most of the University of Nairobi was situated in Westlands Constituency. Some candidates were also ferrying students to register in their constituencies. In short students were in high demand by politicians. The clever ones had already began to use the clueless students to mint money from politicians.

Fred Gumo was the local MP. He was a giant of a man. Very tall,heavy set,mean looking,bald and he was dark skinned. He had been a status quo politician most of his life.

He was born to Pius Magero, a prominent large scale kitale farmer and big Landowner. In 1974,he was elected Kitale Mayor at the tender age of 27.In 1979 he would go on to controversially defeat the late Bukusu Kingpin Henry Pius Masinde Muliro in the Kitale East race.

Gumo was made an Assistant Minister in the Local Government Ministry where he deputized the Maasai Supremo Stanley Sapashina Oloititip.

In the 1983 snap election ,which was ocassioned by a failed coup in 1982, Gumo oncr again trounced Muliro under controversial circumstances. The election would be nullified in 1984 by the courts. One of Muliro’s key witnesses was a young Law Lecturer and an MP in the neigbouring Kitale west constituency,Michael Christopher Simiyu Wamalwa.

Gumo knew the game was up and he did not contest in the byelection. Muliro defeated his sole opponent, a Mr. Yego, by a landslide.

Mr. Gumo would later unsuccesfully vie for the MP position in 1988 in Kwanza and in 1992 in Bunyala or Budalangi. In 1990 he was appointed to head the Nairobi City Commission which had replaced the elected Nairobi City Council. By a stroke of luck(good or bad) the MP for westlands Mr. Amin Walji died in 1994 and Fred Gumo emerged as the only KANU MP in Nairobi after winning the subsequent Byelection.

He would serve as an assitant minister in various dockets until Mzee Moi left power. Gumo carved a Niche for himself as a political warlord with fearsome antecedents. His supporters terrorised his main opponent, Madam Betty Tett, over the next decade ensuring his iron grip over westlands constituency was maintained. These qualities made him very wealthy as the regime showered favours on their Nairobi mr. fix it.

In 2007,Gumo faced a two pronged assault. Betty Tett was the candidate of the then Ruling party. Furthermore, Gumo faced a serious challenge for the ODM ticket from Amin Walji Jr.,the scion of the man Gumo inherited the seat from.

It was a Saturday afternoon when i joined a group of students near the Womens Hall aka Box at the University of Nairobi. We wee over 100 students and Gumo was to adress us. He soon arrived. He was dressed casully and was at ease smiling at us in a friendly but distant manner.

Our leader explained how all of us had registered in Westlands and would support him against the usurpers’ onslaught. Gumo then adressed us and told us he aporeciated our support. He claimed the VC of the UoN was his friend so he did not want to spoil us with money. He however proposed that we go with our IDs and Voter’s cards to his home for a serious bash. Once the gateman verified our details we would eat and drink to our fill until morning. This proposal jolted most of us.

I knew that he had discovered we were largely impostors who were voters in rural areas far from the city. Further the proposal for us to go to his home would enable him to separate the wheat from the chaff. I guessed the impostors would be caned by his feared millitia,the Jeshi la Mzee.

We began to plead that he should atleast give us something small as we planned a visit to his home. One drunkard even called him Baba Pius. Pius was his favourite son and was named after Fred’s father. Gumo was known as Kaa Ngumu and indeed getting money from him was like getting blood from a rock. We left dejected and angry. Our con attempt had failed.

I would later meet Gumo in town. The ODM nominations had been bloody and Gumo and Walji’s goons had clashed in bloody confrontations. Gumo had won the violent contest and Walji defected to a fringe party.

I used that knowledge to approach Gumo near the 680 hotel. I called him loudly,referring to him as baba pius. I narrated how i had escaped death by a whisker when we clashed with Walji’ s boys in Kilimani. I told him i had been whipped because of him and he should atleast compensate me.

All this time he was looking down at me and smiling. He then said ," Sawa sawa tutaonana kijana." and left without looking back.

Amakweli Mzoea Nazi,Samli haiwezi.

Remind me to tell you how we became agents of the dreaded Total Man and how we misled his opponents.

Nice flow.

Please go on. Never stop…
Nice

:D:D

Continue man

It was easier to get money from muhidi !

I was just an opportunist. I had not reached the level of crafting serious schemes to extort cash from politicians. The mastermind of this particular heist or lack of it is now a Socialist activist and has amassed some wealth using activisim. He cannot do an honest job.

that means you left with your soul intact…

No. It only means once you are used to that lifestyle getting an 8 to 5 job is anathema. Most want quick cash and big cash.

I am lucky i was just a small cog in a large system of neopatrimonial politics.

haya… leta hekaya ya Total Man… popcorn iko tayari na soda kubwa

Bril’ writing as usual. Great stuff.

Asante

Nice stuff man.

:D:D:D a true tikiteta. Now thats a man

Mwangi :smiley:

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D hii ndio huitwa anticlimax kwa movie

I had a run in with one of the sons in my hey day. SUMBITCH just like his father.

Nice one, kwa hivo wewe uliponea, kuna mafala walienda hio luncheon, after pilau na soda, baba Pius alifunga mlango za dining akawalalisha chini and caned them personally, mpaka the sonu officials, ati anawatoa hio ugonjwa ya kuomba omba

Ten-nil. :D:D:D:D:D

Nice flow @Masood, keep them coming.

:eek: :eek: