[President Uhuru Kenyatta in a past event. His support in Kisii and Nyamira is said to be on downward trajectory. Photo/Nation]
Despite pulling a remarkable result on August 8 in Nyamira and Kisii Counties, President Uhuru Kenyatta may be forced to go to drawing board to redeem his diminishing image in the regions.
Believed to be opposition strongholds, not only did Uhuru’s national tally surprise many but also produce incredible number of representatives in various electoral seats.
Rightly earmarked as swing regions, Uhuru scored 52 percent in Nyamira and a whopping 35 percent in Kisii, figures which superseded his 2013 record.
But his recent outbursts with the Chief Justice David Maraga and Governors James Ongwae [Kisii] and John Nyagarama [Nyamira] may have negatively impacted on Uhuru’s ground performance.
“People have been condemning him particularly after openly waging war against Maraga and the two governors,” says political scientist Vincent Moracha.
He further adds:”The protests we have seen shows the major negative impact on his own actions. This will severely affect his performance.”
At Nakuru last week, Uhuru maintained that he will continue questioning Maraga’s verdict that nullified his victory besides promising an epic court battle with the two governors.
Predictably, his support was once put on test on Wednesday when hundreds of locals took to streets to condemn what they termed as ‘voter ID buying’ by officials attached to the Jubilee administration.