ON THE SPOTLIGHT: DIKEMBE DISEMBE

By Mohammed Doyo
In analyzing the performance of the 26th SGC, This week we focus on Seth Odong’o alias Dikembe Disembe the outgoing Muso Secretary General.

Dikembe, who has his beginnings in the campus media, will perhaps be remembered as one candidate who swayed the crowd in the last minute during the 2012 pre-election game changing crossfire. Thanks to a clearly articulated, electrifying speech that captured the aspirations of the comrades, Dikembe easily trounced Meshack Omega, who the opinion polls had placed as the post’s favorite in the March 17 2012 Muso elections.

Dikembe has had his successes and failures as the secretary general of MUSO. Collaborating with campus activists, he was instrumental in fighting for HELB disbursements in year 2012. At a time when HELB had declared to have no funds to disburse, Dikembe led a delegation to Nairobi which successfully negotiated for the release of the funds.

During the 2012 demonstration against the intended fare hike by the MU-84 Sacco, Dikembe was in the forefront agitating for discipline among the operators of the transport sector.

In an SGC that has been clogged with corruption and misappropriation of funds, Dikembe managed to set himself apart, often condemning the acts on the social media. He has also been a key defendant of students faced by discipline issues in the

University disciplinary meetings where he is a member.
However, the outspoken secretary general has had his fair share of shortcomings.

In year 2012, Dikembe was involved a tussle with the shamba Boy writer who he accused of painting him in the negative light in one of the articles. Quite unexpected him, He reported the matter to the dean of students. However, the Dean ruled in favor of Maalim Salaat. This incident almost toppled him out of the SGC after a section of the students, who were displeased by his move to report Maalim, decided to collect signatures to remove him from office. In an interesting turn of events, the group collecting the signatures mysteriously halted the process.

Perhaps one of his greatest shortcomings, the secretary general was unable to escape the lure of owning a shop, something he had vehemently condemned in all his scathing articles he used to write before joining the SGC.

In addition, Dikembe did little to see a new constitution in place, a task that squarely lies in his office. Considering he was part of the Collins Bett-led commission that wrote the 2011 draft constitution, a section of the students felt he was in a very good position to push for its adoption.

Others felt the secretary General of concentrating too much on national politics, SONU politics on social media in expense of MUSO issues while others felt the SG was too high handed to listen to issues of average students.

Nonetheless, Dikembe remains a figure that won’t be ignored in both student and national politics in Kenya in the near future. Going by what he does in socio-political platforms, pundits have argued that the acclaimed scribe, blogger and a social and political commentator, is among the few SGC members who have a political future after the SGC.

The writer is the Editor-in-Chief, The 3rd Eye.