Changing tides in the Mountain ahead of polls
This weekend, I took a trip to the mountain. From Nairobi to Nanyuki in Laikipia county via Murang’a and Nyeri, I must say that the mountain counties are beautiful, and the people of this region are indeed blessed with beautiful flora and fauna.
One thing that I learnt in my fairly deep engagements with different groupings, is the shifting political leanings of most locals. Well, our engagements were not political, but politics is the in thing now. Everything now revolves around who will win the August 9, General Election.
The Deputy President (DP) is fairly popular from Murang’a, all the way to Nanyuki in Laikipia. However, the shift in political leaning is cutting his political clout at a rate that is irking. The emergence of Martha Karua has aroused very pertinent conversations.
In fact, the political discourse around Karua and Rigathi Gachagua has seriously dis-inspired most of the hitherto DP supporters. Karua has introduced real issues that speak to the core of the plight of the folks in Mt Kenya and they are beginning to see beyond politics.
Conversations have moved beyond the Hustler nation inspired blames of the current regime to conversations around what the Jubilee administration delivered in terms of infrastructure and reforms in the tea and coffee sector.
Juxtaposition of what the Ruto/Gachagua and Raila/Karua bring to the fore is seriously thawing Mt Kenya and the mountain, I can say is sliding away from the Hustler nation.
Karua’s pinpoint articulation of their stake in what Azimio has to offer coupled with the reality of what President Uhuru Kenyatta has delivered to the people in this region is increasingly coming out clearly.
Put simply, there is a sense in which the recent conversations spurred by the Jubilee scorecard as espoused by luminaries like Francis Muthaura, and the galvanisation of top Mt Kenya leaders like Peter Munya, Peter Kenneth, Governors Kiraitu Murungi, Lee Kinyanjui, Ndiritu Muriithi, Francis Kimemia and other luminaries- after the appointment of Karua as the running mate; has awoken the silent majority.
The folks who have all along been silent now, have enough reason to speak boldly about what Jubilee has done and what the Raila Presidency with Karua as the second in command-means for the region. Their voices are increasingly muting the Hustler narrative.
Kalonzo Musyoka’s return, the support from top leaders from all over the country has put Azimio, on a pedestal and this explains the latest behaviour by the Hustler nation. From a chest thumping juggernaut that once told Kenyans that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) can even instal Dr Oburu Odinga as the chair, to a lamenting formation.
When a competitor starts complaining about credible institutions and throwing their supporters into believing that their win is likely to be stolen, then it can safely be concluded that the great dancer has broken his leg before the real dance.
All Kenyans want free, fair and transparent elections and some of these claims should ideally put IEBC on the spot. After the sensational claim was made to European Union ambassadors, the IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati dismissed the claims.
You see, winning an election is not necessarily a function of addressing mammoth crowds in markets and it is ludicrous to even imagine that a political formation and a leader who has been covered comprehensively by the media in Kenya would allege that the media is biased against him.
Granted, the media is loved and loathed by politicians in equal measure. The media gives politicians the platform to put their best foot forward to convince the electorate with their track records and agenda in an election. But the same media also has a public interest duty to hold the same politicians accountable on the things they do. Pre-empting rigging and accusing the media, when official campaign period has just began, is not right.
—The writer is a PhD student in Political Communication and Media Studies
