Ford-Kenya
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Ford-Kenya (Forum for the Restoration of Democracy Kenya) is a Kenyan political party currently part of the ruling NARC coalition in Kenya. It is headed by Musikari Kombo, the MP for Webuye constituency.
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[edit] History
The history of Ford-Kenya is essentially the history of multi-party politics in Kenya. Kenya was a one party state until December 1991, when a special conference of the ruling KANU party agreed to introduce a multiparty political system. An umbrella political grouping, The Forum for the Restoration of Democracy (FORD) had been formed in August 1991 by six opposition leaders to fight for change in the country. But President Daniel Arap Moi had outlawed it, and its leaders had been arrested and detained. They were released only after sustained pressure from Britain, the USA and Scandinavian countries.
In August 1992 Ford split into two factions - Ford-Asili (led by Kenneth Matiba) and Ford-Kenya (led by Oginga Odinga). Ford Kenya performed poorly in the general elections of 1992, coming a distant third behind KANU and FORD-Asili. The reelection of President Moi and KANU, both deeply unpopular, owed much to the division of the original Ford.
Oginga Odinga died in January 1994, and was succeeded as Chairman of Ford-Kenya by Michael Wamalwa Kijana. At the time, Ford Kenya's leadership included some of the top opposition leaders in Kenya, including lawyer James Orengo, economist Professor Peter Anyang' Nyong'o, Raila Odinga, the son of Oginga Odinga, Oburu Odinga, Raila's elder brother, environmentalist (and, later on, Nobel laureate) Wangari Maathai, and many others. But the party was headed for yet another split.
Michael Wamalwa and Raila Odinga tussled over the leadership of Ford-Kenya for 2 years: in 1997, Wamalwa beat Odinga in free and fair party elections, precipitating a devastating tribal split that the party is now recovering from. Raila, with a sizeable number of Luo MP's, left Ford-Kenya to join the National Development Party of Kenya (NDP). In the 1997 general elections, Ford-Kenya came a lowly fourth, behind Raila's NDP.
[edit] 2002 Elections
Kenya's opposition political parties finally put their differences behind them in the run-up to the 2002 general elections, fielding one candidate, Mwai Kibaki, for the presidency. Kibaki trounced the KANU candidate, Uhuru Kenyatta, and formed a government of national unity. He appointed Ford-Kenya's leader, Michael Wamalwa Vice President, as well as giving a number of cabinet positions to Ford-Kenya MP's.
[edit] Change of leadership
Michael Wamalwa Kijana died in London in August 2003, after a long HIV/AIDS related illness. In the aftermath of the funeral, Ford-Kenya elected Musikari Kombo to succeed Wamalwa. Kombo beat another Ford Kenya MP, Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi, in the contest. Ford-Kenya under Musikari Kombo has been a remarkable party. With neither the charisma of Michael Wamalwa nor the crowd-pulling popularity of Raila Odinga, Kombo has struggled to establish the party as an influential component of the ruling coalition. The party has felt shortchanged after the death of Wamalwa: the prized position of Vice President was handed to the LDP's Moody Awori, while a number of other appointments have also gone the way of other parties. Musikari Kombo showed his mantle as the Ford-Kenya Chairman when he led his party MPs in rejecting their appointment to the newly reconstituted cabinet after the constitutional referendum of 2005. This forced President Mwai Kibaki to take Mr. Kombo and Ford-Kenya seriously and increase the number of Ford-Kenya cabinet ministers to 6 from 3 and acquire other senior civil service appointments for its party members.
however the party now is experiencing wrangles following the defection of prominent figures like Mukhisa Kituyi.
