• Intelligence information shared by Interior CS Fred Matiang’i speaks to this issue that Kenyans must be worried having ‘wash wash dealers’ at the ballot.
• The winner of the August polls will certainly be elected by illiterate masses who are confused and convinced.
In two months’ time, Kenyans will be Heading to the ballot to elect their leaders and representatives. This will be the third group of elected leaders under the 2010 Constitution.
Various candidates and running mates have been fronted by political parties, coalitions and independents.
Considering elections provide voters with once-in five years opportunity to elect their leaders in the six elective positions, political discourses are turbo-charged. Social media networks are flowery with hashtags, handles of political narratives and massages.
‘Keyboardpreneurs’ are tirelessly working to increase online presence of their candidates and by extension enhancing party popularity.
Studies that have focused on Kenyan elections and the increasing role of the internet suggest end-to-end encrypted applications are used to plan before messages are exported to other social networks like Twitter and Facebook and their virality spiked by use of retweets, comments, handles and hashtags.
As country navigates this difficult terrain, rallies, advertisements and propaganda have gained an all-time oomph of momentum. Some analysts have observed that election results will also be too close to tell and have speculated the likelihood of a merger through another ‘handshake’.
Party primaries did not spare Kenyans of drama. Young and inexperienced contenders floored tycoons. Outlandish party exoduses were witnessed.
Recent pollsters suggest it is Azimio or Kenya Kwanza that will form the next government, a pointer to a divided nation. As Kenyans agitate for ‘the mother of all’ elections in August 8, there is a wind of discord and distrust that is blowing across the country.
Already one formation has implored the electoral commission to be fair.
But it is the lack of policy congruence by the leading contenders that signals August polls may not attract the 2002 reverberation of ‘Vote Kibaki to save Kenya’ under Narc, which removed Kanu from power.
Kenya’s poverty-illiteracy mix that is characterised by low civic voter education, make electoral processes somewhat of a mockery. It aids unfitting individuals whose character is highly questionable to win elections and make retrogressive decisions that are difficult to discern and implement for the wellbeing of the people.
Intelligence information shared by Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i speaks to this issue that Kenyans must be worried having ‘wash wash dealers’ at the ballot.
The winner of the August polls will certainly be elected by illiterate masses who are confused and convinced. Signals are when that time comes, none of the leading formation will implement the Constitution as it is but playing in a ploy to meander its sanctity. At least, this is what promises directed to Azimio and Kenya Kwanza ‘generals’ signal.
If Singapore is our independence economic peer, there’re is range of worthwhile lessons a Kenyan voter should borrow as we walk down the homestretch avenue. It ranges from philosophical decency as espoused by the People's Action Party and mimicked by Narc, continuity in implementation of the national development plan, character and energy of choices they make.
As it is, we are embroidered in a game of numbers but without morals and sound development vision. We can only develop railways to nowhere, spend heavily on road infrastructure for the rich and improve health and medical services to a select few.
We can only forever cry for reforms, foreign aid and grants and when we get that aid or grant, divert it.
Stay woke. Meditate. Your vote will surely shape the future of this country.