Oswago plans book about his tenure at IEBC

Until five years ago he was unknown. James Oswago would comfortably hit the streets of Nairobi and mingle with friends without a fuss.

Today, just months after he was hounded out of the top seat of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) as chief executive, the retired military officer has not known peace.

Since 2013 when he was arrested in Naivasha by the anti-corruption watchdog, the old boy of Aquinas High school and Kisumu Boys High School is fighting to clear his name in a series of controversies that have even landed him in court.

The trouble, he acknowledges, is a dent on the name of a man who came from the disciplined forces where he served as a military lawyer. It also has had far-reaching implications on his social life.

For instance, at one time when media carried stories on a controversial Sh1.3 billion polls equipment tender, Mr Oswago suffered social ridicule from his peers.

“One of my club members who is a senator requested me to foot his bill, joking that the money was too much and the bill wouldn’t cause a dent,” he reminisced.

Mr Oswago has also been caught up in another controversy over an ongoing case in a UK court. The case now popularly known as the “Chicken Scandal” in which one of IEBC’s vendors, Smith & Ouzman allegedly paid kick-backs to top officials to win contracts to supply ballot papers.

READ: UK court exposes corruption ring at Kenya poll agency

But despite the negative publicity, Mr Oswago is happy that he left the polls body and says he would never take up that job again.

The commission, Mr Oswago says, deprived him of personal life. He would report to work at 6.30am and leave at 10pm “if lucky.” Election days would see him spend the whole day and night at the office. The only break was to freshen up and have a change of clothes.

Mr Oswago was also forced to shelve his passion for books while at IEBC. The avid reader who devours books, mostly biographies, daily had to live with the reality of managing to read only three titles: Game Changer, Team of Equals and Odyssey of Hope during his five-year tenure.

Since he left IEBC in 2013, he has watched tens of documentaries and read more than five books. He is also keen on writing his biography on election. He says it will be out in 2016 or 2017. He is compiling materials for the book.

The father of five who separated and re-married also wants to set up a law firm. “I’m doing it for my daughter who has shown interest in being a lawyer.”

Mr Oswago’s desire to give his daughter a soft career landing is engraved in his personality as tenacious.

As an ideologist, he has always wanted to see positive change in society right from his student days at University of Nairobi where he acted as secretary general of the students organisation and as a representative in the law student union.

At the time, the student organisation had no elections, so he served in acting capacity. It was while in the university that Mr Oswago made up his mind to join the army upon graduation.

He says that there were issues he was not comfortable with in the government and it was only a new crop of enlightened military officers that would help achieve it. He also knew that at the time he had to be politically correct.

While he was eligible to enrol as a specialist, he chose to go in as a cadet, becoming the first fully trained combat lawyer. This, he says, had its own merits and demerits.

The advantage was a lot of travel, though he enjoyed career acceleration as a positive side to it. He also broke the military record when he was promoted to be a major two years into his employment. It often takes at least five years.

He attended Marshall Courts as regularly and was sent for overseas training extended to either combats or cadets because he was both.

Such privileges saw him travel to the US to pursue a Master’s degree in Public Administration at the University of Illinois.

“We felt that to be a leader, one had to have a myriad of skills and qualification,” he said. US military service, he observed, was a perfect example of what combats in Kenya envisioned. There was also a high level of admirable professionalism.

But while Mr Oswago respected that aspect of US forces, he was also taken aback by the “monolithic” nature of Americans. While they agree on certain issues, there was undercurrents where some things went unquestioned. This made him uncomfortable.

Mr Oswago was in the US during the 1982 coup attempt. While this could have well served as an opening for the ‘enlightened’ combats to spur change, it never served its cause.

“The coup was botched, badly done with no mission,” he said. He adds that there was also no replacement in case they succeeded and was discriminatory because it only involved high ranking officials in the force.

More of the details Mr Oswago provides are from the Marshall Court sessions he oversaw on his return from the US.

Private sector

Mr Oswago left the army about eight years later to join Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) where he served for 12 years as a senior consultant.

The retired major’s transition to private sector, he says, was easy because the military then, like now, borrowed much from best private sector practice.

After PwC, he worked as chief executive officer of Outward Bound Trust of Kenya, a management training and consultancy firm for eight years. While at the organisation, he enrolled for a Master’s in Business Administration.

He was paid handsomely, earning Sh2 million a month, but the job later would taint his name. Some claims, he says, are decisions made by former officials before he joined the commission, like the purchase of by-elections and referendum equipment.

Mr Oswago agrees that there are issues at IEBC that need fixing, especially provision on the Act for commissioners and CEO’s role.

The commissioners’ and chairman role in the Act is reserved to policy yet they are all full-time. This in many ways creates duplication of roles, he said.

Competing vendor interest on the part of the tender committees is another challenge. Such systems are not devoid of manipulation from interested parties from all quarters.

Mr Oswago is a man of style. He built a palatial rural home in Bondo from 2005 to 2008 and has several properties in the city. “I had things even before I joined the commission,” he says.

He is a gym fanatic in his fifties, chatty, and loves taking tea.