Onyonka says Kisii turnout for Matiang’i was meant to send Raila a message
Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka has asserted that the massive turnout during former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i’s recent homecoming was intended as a political message to ODM leader Raila Odinga, in response to the perceived marginalisation of the Kisii community.
Speaking on a local media station on May 5, 2025, Onyonka emphasised that the gathering was a statement that, despite being a small community, the Kisii people deserve a seat at the negotiation table.
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“I want to thank my political party leader, Mzee Raila Odinga, when he commented and said you are so small as your tribe, you can never even make it as a president. Those crowds came to show Raila that no, we’re here. We are small, yes, but we can negotiate and we are ready to sit at the table with you, Mzee,” Onyonka said.
He highlighted that the Kisii community has been supportive of Raila for decades, but raised concerns about unequal development in the region.
“We’ve been with you for 25 years, we respect you, we don’t have any issues with you, Luo Nyanza, and we are not complaining about it,” he said.
“But when you announce how you’re going to spend Ksh25 billion in Luo Nyanza and we in Kisii and the Abakuria, who are non-Luo Nyanza, are getting nothing, naturally there’s going to be a reaction to your actions,” he added.
According to Onyonka, that “reaction” was reflected in the turnout at Matiang’i’s event.
National interest
Onyonka went on to clarify that the show of support for Matiang’i should not be misunderstood as ethnic mobilisation.
“What we were trying to do is not to tribalize Matiang’i. We were saying we have a community that historically has carried itself, I believe, to a large extent with dignity and professionalism,” he stated.
He pointed out the successes of many Kisii professionals, including lawyers and scientists, insisting that their unity is rooted in national interest, rather than tribal motives.
“Our community nationalism is not tribal. We don’t want to use our unity to be against anybody. We are getting our unity together because our country is so dysfunctionally broken,” he said.
Political shortchanging
Onyonka also addressed the situation of the neighbouring Kuria community, which he said was promised its own county during the Kenya Kwanza campaigns but is still waiting for that promise to be fulfilled.
“The Kuria people were promised by President William Ruto that they’d get a county. Why? Because at that time it was convenient for the campaigns of Kenya Kwanza to use the tribal angle — how the Kuria people have been marginalised for years against the Luo community that has been in Nyanza,” he explained.
“The Kuria people were saying yesterday, Where is our county?” Onyonka posed.
