Recently one of the national TV stations did one of the most insightful pieces on the nature of our political campaigns. Political formations pay too much attention on pulling crowds and then leverage on their social media warriors to go viral with images from the campaign trails.
The objective as rightly captured in the feature is to capture the imaginations of voters, create a wave and ride on the attendant bandwagon effect. The bandwagon effect can potentially sway the undecided towards a formation that frames its campaigns as though they are the winning side.
Granted, there is a good number of undecided voters who have a higher proclivity to go with the side perceived to be winning. Recent opinion polls buttress the reality that a significant percentage of voters are still undecided in most parts of the country including the populous Mt. Kenya region and one would understand the posturing on the social media pages with vintage and panoramic shots of political rallies and the drive to get them to go viral.
But the bubble has been busted and it is the very politicians who pay Kenyans to crowd these rallies who affirmed the crowd-for-hire phenomena. Nonetheless, one would then expect that these political rallies are overdosed with substantive political agenda from their manifesto. I mean, it is needless to pay a crowd and instead of speaking to them, you attack other politicians at worst or sloganeer at best.
Simply put, we are still looking forward to the two major political coalitions in the run up to the August 9th elections stepping it up as far as addressing issues is concerned. And as the citizenry it is about time we got value for attending these rallies. Not just the physical crowd but the audience watching these rallies on TV or on social media live streaming.
Other than Raila Odinga and probably Hon Mishi Mboko who has her ways with words and almost always infuses a great deal of the Azimio la Umoja ten-point agenda items, there is nothing much we get from other perennial speakers in these rallies. The Kenya Kwanza side would also do well if they stopped their unwarranted attacks on personalities. Kenyans need to see what distinguishes these two political formations and their public rallies need to be platforms for illuminating their agenda for this country.
The good news is that at the county level there is a positive side to these two major political formations. In Kenya Kwanza, for instance, there are many parties fronting candidates at different levels.
This is good for democracy and the contest is even interesting and likely to be a lot more engaging and elevated because you have Governors supporting William Ruto as the president, but contesting against each other at the gubernatorial level.
The import of this is that at the county level we are poised to listen to contending ideas on how these candidates are planning to change lives. How they will distribute, allocate resources and address the plight of the common folks in different counties. In Kiambu for instance, within Kenya Kwanza as it is now, you have William Kabogo, Moses Kuria and Patrick Kimani Wainaina aka Hon Jungle all on different political parties but supporting the Deputy President. This is a triad of choices that offers the folks in Kiambu a divergence of leadership traditions to interrogate and choose the best.
Coming ten years since the advent of devolved governments, the citizenry is now a lot more informed and one hopes that we will use the experience we have had with electing governors based on party popularity to know better and go for substance regardless of party. That’s a lot more straightforward now with parties aligned to either the DP coalition or the Uhuru, Raila, Kalonzo triumvirate.
In my native Migori it does appear ODM will have a run for its money because the coming together of ODM and Jubilee plus other vibrant parties has saved the party of the normally contested primaries that have cost Baba some support. Today Senator Ochilo Ayako is poised to carry the ODM flag given that his main opponents Dalmas Otieno Anyango and and John Dache Pesa have since joined Jubilee and DAP-K respectively.
The import of this is that they have all saved the popular party in that region the acrimony that has always characterised the primaries. These three top contenders are all very clear on their support for Azimio la Umoja and Baba.
None of them will be accused of fighting Baba and to win they will have to run a campaign that captures the aspirations of the people of Migori with practical solutions to Migorians socioeconomic and cultural problems. As a believer of devolution as the answer to our socioeconomic and political challenges, the contest for gubernatorial positions need to be as critical to Kenyans as the presidential race.
The author is a PhD Candidate in Media Studies and Political communication.
