Former Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto shares a joke with deputy President William Ruto shortly after defecting to Jubilee on September 8, 2017. [Photo: PSCU]
The public hostility being exhibited by a section of NASA leaders towards Jubilee-to-Nasa defectors will cost Nasa flag bearer Raila Odinga big time.
According to political pundits, the Nasa camp actions contrast sharply with the gesture being extended by President Kenyatta's Jubilee and his allies to poll losers within his party and in the rival Nasa coalition.
New realignments, are according to political pundits, going to impact on the October 17 repeat election depending on how the main combatants utilise the players in their corners, the Sunday Nation reports.
Former Cabinet minister, Prof Amukowa Anangwe, for instance, opines that Nasa is still distracted by the goings on at the electoral body.
"They may still be celebrating the (Chief Justice David) Maraga ruling but time is surely not on their side. In contrast, President Kenyatta’s Jubilee is busy on the ground campaigning and harvesting rejected political figures from the Nasa strongholds. In this race, it is less prudent to continue reaching out to the already converted as this amounts to seducing your wife," Anangwe says as quoted by the Sunday Nation.
According to Anangwe, a Political scientist, Nasa is losing out on many political players to the rival Jubilee camp at an alarming rate.
This trend, he observes, is dangerous considering that poll losers crossing over to Jubilee equally enjoy some support.
"I hope they can rethink their strategy and stop the leakage in their backyards, while at the same time reach out to politically hostile zones because each vote will count in this tight race," adds Anangwe.
Political affairs commentator, Prof Peter Kagwanja, the paper reports, draws a parallel between the Jubilee and Nasa campaigns.
"Jubilee believes in the popular will of the people and is accordingly reaching out to both poll winners and losers in Central Kenya and other parts of the country. Nasa, on the other hand, appears keen to capture crucial institutions like the Judiciary and IEBC, by weakening them or winning them over their side," says Kagwanja.
Kagwanja, notes that Jubilee is going flat out for the proverbial 'full loaf unlike Nasa rivals, who are spending more time in boardrooms and courtrooms lobbying for one case or the other'.
"With Jubilee numbers intact in their strongholds, the President and his deputy have over the last five years sustained the hunt for additional numbers elsewhere, hence the confidence that they will carry the day in the fresh poll," he asserts.