NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga. [Photo/ Ebru TV]
As campaigns intensify for the presidency, ahead of the August 8 general election, top leaders at the NASA camp have heightened their name-calling and rubbishing of universally acclaimed development projects. NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga is increasing campaigning on a platform of hate and fear-mongering. He is refusing to say that he will accept the outcome of the presidential contest. Just like in 2007, this is in preparation for post-election chaos, in the event that he does not win. The opposition supporters are likely to take to the streets in case IEBC’s official results differ from NASA’s own election tally. If you keenly follow NASA campaigns, you will not hear any push to have peaceful elections, free from name-calling and labelling opponents as enemies. This is in sharp contrast to President Uhuru Kenyatta campaigns, whose central message is issue-based discourse during the electioneering period and why Kenya must never go back to the dark days of fighting over elections. In almost every public rally, President Kenyatta has reiterated that there is no individual who is bigger than the country, and that Kenyans should never turn on each other with weapons over political disputes. He is keen to remind Kenyans of the 2007/08 post-election violence that claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people and led to the displacement of over 600,000. Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho needs to realise there will be a Kenya after elections. In a worrying move, he is now rallying his supporters against a single community in Kenya. He makes endless attempts at demonising every development project that the Jubilee administration does. When he recently criticized the SGR project, even his own supporters from Mombasa turned against him. They saw how the historic SGR project will change the struggling economy of the people of the coastal city.To ensure the August 8 polls are peaceful, it is important for all leaders, especially NASA to call for unity of all Kenyans — and not just the supposed 10 million supporters. They should commit not to call for ‘mass action’, which often to massive loss of property and lives, in case they dispute the outcome of the election results.