Moyale is a constituency that is also a district. It borders Ethiopia to the north, Wajir and Mandera to the east and Marsabit to the south.

According to the district population growth rate for 1989-1999 the constituency has about 60,000 people with an eligible voter estimate of 29,747. By last February, the Electoral Commission had registered 27,860 voters.

Moyale Town is basically a cosmopolitan area although the Borana are still the majority. Other communities resident to the town are the Burji, Garre, Gabra and the Ejis, who constitute the Somali, Barawa and Asharaf.

The Borana exclusively occupy Obbu division that comprises Sololo and Uran. They have about 10,000 voters.

Moyale residents are faced with both internal and external insecurity. Internally, they clash with the Gabra of North Horr in Marsabit while externally both the rebels from Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and the Ethiopian security forces raid them.

Successive MPs including the late Dr Guracha Boru Galgalo had failed to adequately address the security issue.

Due to insecurity from Ethiopia, many Kenyans, including police officers and members of the provincial have lost theirs lives through landmines planted along the Isiolo-Moyale road.

The residents also have to contend with poor infrastructure like bad roads and lack of water even in Moyale town.

The Isiolo-Moyale road was a campaign pledge of the Narc Government. According to even President Kibaki, the road project to be funded by the African Development Bank was to start last year.

Eighteen months down the line, the project is yet to take off in spite of the Government having secured the loan from ADB.

Residents and leaders from the area do not believe that the project would take off even with announcement by the ministry of Roads and Public Works announcement that tender for construction had been advertised last month.

Other than insecurity and development, the voting pattern would heavily be influenced by sympathy votes, clannism and the differences between Borana and some non-Borana living in Moyale town.

The battle for Moyale would be a three-horse race pitting the younger brother of the late Dr Galgalo, Wario Malla against Haji Adan Wachu and Mohammed Malicha Galgalo.

Malla, a 27-year-old Bachelor of Commerce graduate from the University of Nairobi will carry the Kanu hopes, Haji Wachu, the Narc-Kenya flag while Galgalo will vie on a Ford-Kenya ticket.

Like other aspirants from the neighbouring constituencies, Malla also says he was proposed by elders to complete the mandate the late Dr Galgalo was given by voters in 2002.

The idea of him standing emanates from the common belief among the pastoralists that in the event of death, widows or relatives of the deceased should 'inherit' the seat.

"The late MP was elected and his term ends next year. He died while on a peace mission. This is why we asked other potential candidates not to vie and instead leave it (the seat) to the younger brother," said an elder Ibrahim Bakata in an interview in Sololo.

Heavyweights Mohamud Ali and Chachu Tadicha also succumbed to the 'traditions' and opted out of race. The duo said they would be there in next year.

Ali who ran against the late in 2002 on a Ford-People ticket after allegedly rigged out during the Kanu nomination received 5,063 against the winner's 10,507.

Ali is a Nairobi-based quantity surveyor while Chachu heads an NGO operating in Marsabit and Moyale. They successfully led the Orange campaign to victory in last November's referendum on constitution. The 'Yes' side garnered 5,535 votes while the 'No' side got 4,981 votes.

Malla, from the dominant Borana clan of Karayu has adopted his late brother's baliti (oneness) slogan, meant to bring together all the Borana clans and the non-Borana.

Before 1997, adds Malla clannism in Moyale was at its peak where some ethnic communities felt left out of mainstream development of the district.

He says clannism had been a big setback to development in the district and hopes the baliti principle would curtail that. On insecurity, the younger Galgalo says, OLF bases are no longer in Moyale following the operation carried out by the military in 2004.

He adds that their neighbours in North Horr for allegedly hosting the OLF have accused Moyale people wrongly.

"In Sololo, we have lost four chiefs, an OCS and several civilians as a result of raids carried out by the OLF and the Ethiopian army. We have no reason whatsoever of hosting the rebels," Malla said.

He chose to remain in Kanu because most of the residents identify themselves with it.

"Delegates drawn from elders, youth and women group from various Borana clans and tribes living in Moyale chose Kanu after a series of meetings. That's why I picked Kanu as my party ticket," he said.

He also relies heavily on sympathy votes, especially from the populous Borana and their allies who live in Moyale town and supporters of Ali and Tadicha who are not contesting.

He has retained the same aggressive campaign team used by his late brother in the last two general elections.

He also hopes to woo voters using the development projects initiated by Dr Galgalo like Obbu Girls' Secondary School in Sololo that is now called Guracha Galgalo Memorial School. Malla says he is ready to take the challenges of leadership head-on and dismisses those calling young and inexperienced.

"It is my late brother who brought me up. I grew up at his place and was part of his campaign team. I was in-charge of the youth group during his last two campaigns for this seat," he says.

His strongholds include Sololo where he was born and the neighbouring Uran.

Those who oppose him say he retained 'bad' people in his campaign team.

They complain that money sent to the district benefited only a small clique.

The same clique, those interviewed said, were the ones who comprise the inner circle of the youthful Malla.

"We don't see Malla as his own man. He is a project of this small clique who, include councillors. If they to misappropriated funds during Dr Galgalo's days and went unpunished what about if this young man becomes the MP? I am not going to vote for him just because of that," said Ibrahim Dambe, a fomer Tana River county clerk who hails from Moyale.

Dambe, who now heads Halcha, a community-based organisation that deals with civic education, among others, also dismissed Moi's recent visit to the area terming it a mockery of the highest order.

"If he (Moi) did nothing for us for 24 years while in power what can he do for us now? The Narc Government has put in place policies to develop northern Kenya," Dambe added. The Narc-Kenya aspirant, Wachu is the secretary general of the influential Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims.