Photo Credit: Courtesy
This is a cry, a cry for my motherland Kenya. A country is full of potential, a great nation endowed with numerous natural resources and human resources to the envy of its neighbors. Its dubbed a major economic hub and a giant in the Eastern Africa region. Its democracy has grown over time, from a time when the political class was marred with dictatorial characters, to bungled elections which put the country in a dark state in 2007 to an era when the electoral grievances can be taken to court and be addressed to the overall benefit of the normal citizen. It became the first country to have its presidential election results nullified in 2017, prompting a repeat sixty days later. As we speak, the just concluded 2022 elections have followed the same trajectory and the case is in the supreme court awaiting the verdict on Monday, 5th September 2022. It's been a journey, an exciting journey, but one question that always lingers on the mind of the mwananchi is when the election period ends.
As early as 2018, a few months after the inauguration of President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy Dr. William Samoei Ruto, the deputy hit the ground running with numerous campaigns guised under the launching of government projects. During those events, the deputy president would use the chance to drum support for himself and his bid to be the next statehouse occupier post-August 2022. At some point, when the president toured the vote-rich Mount Kenya, he said "...huyu kijana Ruto atakuwa ana tangatanga..." (interpreted as this young man will be roaming around). From then on, the country had two factions, one tagged as TangaTanga and the other Kieleweke. Surprisingly, these two factions paid their allegiance to the two top officials of our country, one was for the president and the other, for the deputy president. Did it pay off? We shall have a credible answer to this question come Monday. We can say with utmost certainty that since 2018, less than a year since the 2017 election, the country has been in an election mood. If it pays off, then it will not be a surprise if we see the incoming deputy president adopting the same trick. Aren't we likely to see the same thing happen in the other elective posts? Who will it benefit? Has Kenya become a country of endless election cycles? Will we ever get to exploit our country's full potential? Kenyans, we need to rethink!!
Photo Credit: Courtesy
Tags:
Politics;Elections
