Voters in Kiambu line up to vote. [Photo/ allAfrica.com]
In the last general election, President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee Party earned more seats in the National Assembly, Senate and county assemblies countrywide more than any other party. The candidates on a Jubilee ticket did not just ride on President Kenyatta’s high popularity or superior development record. They sold to voters a better plan to develop their areas. And the electorate, being highly unforgiving to non-performing leaders, picked them to lead for the next five years. In last month's election, voters from Central Kenya kicked out more than 90% of the MCAs and 8 out of 10 governors. That is very different from what happened in NASA strongholds, such as Luo Nyanza, where 3 out of four governors won re-election. The Nyanza governors did not win because of their development record. No. It is because they over-relied on the near-fanatical following of Raila, who they bribed to get the ODM tickets. When Raila tells the people who to vote for, they do that without questioning why they are electing thieves, election riggers, and poor performers.
As veteran journalist Gordon Opiyo has noted, to the GEMA voters, it does not matter who funded President Kenyatta, or whether one defended the Jubilee leader to near madness — such as Mbita MP Millie Odhiambo on the other side. To them, all that mattered was: did you deliver on your campaign pledges. If you did, you get re-elected. If you didn’t, you go home.
During the campaign trail, ahead of last month’s polls, NASA principals Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetangula issued tribalist abuses to the GEMA voters. Kalonzo, who’s Raila’s running mate, said the Kikuyu community to lie low if NASA was to win. Wetangula, the leader of the Ford Kenya party, said that NASA will not develop any part of Central Kenya were his coalition to win.
The voters, knowing that the NASA coalition did not have any development agenda, rejected Raila at the ballot, just like they did their local leaders who had failed to fulfill their pledges.
Now that counties are receiving billions for development each year, Central Kenya will continue to be ahead of other regions — because the leaders chosen make better usage of the funds — until the day voters in NASA strongholds stop doing anything that Raila, or any other leader for that matter, asks them to do. People need to know that voting determines one’s future. You make a bad choice and your future is ruined.