Koech unafraid to gamble in his long political career

John Koech survived long in politics because he knew how to hedge his bets, but sometimes they did not yield the intended results.

Take for instance his action on August 1, 1997. Just months to the high stakes general election, he drove to the Nation newspaper’s Nakuru bureau and announced his resignation from President Daniel Moi’s Cabinet.

He had just attended a graduation ceremony at Egerton University presided over by Moi. After the event, a reception was hosted by the President at his residence but the minister was denied access.

Irritated by the humiliation, Koech drove straight to the media house offices that evening in his government vehicle accompanied by his bodyguard and asked to be shown who was in charge, dictated his resignation and asked that it be published in the next day’s paper.

But the following day, with the news of his voluntary Cabinet exit out, the minister retracted his letter, and Moi allowed him to serve for the remaining months.

He went on to lose his Chapalungu parliamentary seat in Bomet to Issac Rutto. The long-serving MP who also served at Unep as ambassador after he lost the 1997 elections has died aged 79.

He served as a diplomat from 1998 to 2000. He had served the constituency since 1979 on a Kanu ticket.

His gambles plunged him into political oblivion without a comeback.

He bid his time in the Kibaki administration despite its unpopularity in his Rift Valley backyard, only to dash to Orange House weeks to election seeking its ticket to defend his seat.

Once he recaptured his seat in seat in 2002 from Ruto, he was appointed by Kibaki as the East Africa Community minister. But as the highly charged 2007 election neared, the Raila Odinga-led ODM was becoming increasingly popular in his backyard, with all indications egging him to align himself.

Koech remained put with the Kibaki government.

In fact, as late as June 2007, he was still aligned with government, dismissing ODM agitators in his backyard as idlers.

In Parliament on June 27, 2007, as the December elections were on fever pitch, he was still decampaigning the Orange side, claiming they were not ready for elections and it was why they were still demanding for minimum reforms.

The Raila-led side, which also had then Kanu secretary general William Ruto, was at the time demanding for minimum electoral reforms, including 1997 IPPG-style of appointing election commissioners.

“I think we have done a lot of damage to this nation for coming up with minimum constitutional reforms. If the country is going to be ready for a comprehensive constitutional review, then we should go for that. We should not be talking of minimum reforms and then we do a lot of patching up of our constitution. We should have comprehensive reforms,” he would say.

But a few months later as ODM was commencing its primaries for parliamentary elections, the EAC minister, in his official vehicle, drove to Orange House at 5pm to seek to defect from Cabinet. He only removed the flag from the car.

After his 2007 defeat, he tried to contest the Bomet gubernatorial seat in 2013 but did not succeed.

Koech will also be remembered for shepherding the controversial EALA nomination rules in 2007 that altered the definition of nominating authorities to assembly.

While the treaty recognised parties, as EAC minister, he brought the motion that changed that to include coalition of parties, thereby advantaging the Kibaki-led party that had entered into a cooperation with Uhuru Kenyatta-led official opposition party Kanu.