Jubilee bungled its own initiatives to gain political traction in Western, and it will be a rough ride for the ruling party in the region during August polls, political expert Amukowa Anangwe has said.
He attributed Jubilee’s ejection in Western Kenya to use of wrong strategy and “arrogance” by Deputy President William Ruto.
The pundit said the DP scuttled the little support Jubilee would have built on to endear itself to the Luhya electorate.
Anangwe was a Jubilee Party member and was to contest the Kakamega governor seat. But he dropped his bid after what he described as Jubilee’s preference for
businesswoman Mabel Muruli.
Ruto has made several visits to the vote-rich region to try and persuade the people to support Jubilee’s reelection.
But his tours, on most occasions, have been met with hostility, a clear indication the electorate is yet to feel at home with JP.
On Saturday, NASA supporters burnt Jubilee Party’s T-shirts in Mumias town after Ruto’s function.
The DP was in the region to hand over nomination certificates to nominees who won in the primaries.
“Jubilee needed to approach the Luhya community through a bottom-up approach, and engage with the local community and its leaders in a participatory manner on why the Jubilee government behaved the way it did since 2013,” Anangwe said.
“Jubilee needed to demonstrate credibly that it would do things differently in its second term if it was reelected.”
Anangwe said the Jubilee administration failed to be responsive, and instead adopted an ad hoc approach spearheaded by Ruto.
He said the strategy was wrongly premised and insensitive in the local context.
“Failure by Jubilee to meaningfully implement pledges it belatedly made for public goodies, and restoration of the region’s key economic assets and infrastructure collapsed its attempts to change the negative perceptions by the locals about its leadership,” he said.
He said the bulldozer style of leadership by Ruto proved to be counterproductive and improper.
Anangwe said the DP appeared to stage-manage impromptu and haphazard harambees, donating huge sums of money that ended up in the pockets of a few beneficiaries.
“The DP turned a deaf ear to genuine local concerns on what needed to be done to effectively connect with the electorate in a structured manner and build trust,” Anangwe said.
“Ruto’s disdain for honest situational analysis of the political undercurrents of the Luhya nation, and his know-it-all mindset even when his understanding of pertinent Luhya issues is superficial and pathetic, made the situation worse for Jubilee.”
Anangwe said the initial momentum to sell Jubilee Party in the region collapsed and no serious effort has been made to consolidate even the small gains that had initially been made.
In December last year, President Uhuru Kenyatta and the DP visited Western and commissioned tarmacking of the Ibokolo-Shianda-Nambacha and Lurambi-Nambacha-Bungoma roads, but nothing has been done.
Uhuru also commissioned the revived Rai Paper Mills (formerly Pan Paper), but only one line is working.
Factory manager Naga Shankar in February said operations at Rai were still on. He dismissed claims the factory had stopped functioning barely two months after it was relaunched by President Uhuru.
Uhuru reopened the factory after it was placed in receivership 10 years ago.
The management said it will take about two years for the mill to operate fully as most of the machines will have to be replaced.