President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga. [Photo/The Standard]
With the current trend, Raila has no chance against Uhuru in the October 26 elections observes political analyst Michael Atwete a Kisii University don.
He says a Uhuru victory is inevitable saying Raila is repeating the same mistakes he made in 2013.
“I don’t understand who advises the opposition leader for he or she is advising him the same way as in 2013 when he lost,” he says.
He claims Raila is trying to hold the country at ransom instead of focusing on campaigns.
“Politics of holding the Country at ransom are over and Raila with a lot of experience in politics should realise that with a country of such democracy such tactics backfire miserably,” he added.
“Raila was misled in 2013 that the campaigns he had done were enough to grant him victory but see what happened? Giving way for Uhuru to win. Uhuru did his campaigns to the last minute and he should have learned something from that,” he says.
He confirms that even if the current IEBC goes home and elections are conducted now, Raila will lose.
“I can confirm that if elections are held now with a new IEBC team, Raila will fail simply because he has not campaigned," he added.
“Raila should concern himself with campaigning and seek votes. This should be easy for him for he already controls a good number of supporters in the country. He should be taking advantage of the fact that Jubilee has messed up the country to get a hold of more supporters," he says.
He says the secret to winning an election is being able to convince the people to vote for you.
He adds that the current call for demonstrations downplays his chances of being elected president.
“The frequent demonstrations result in damage to property and closure of businesses and worse loss of lives. Raila should re-think his strategies well,” he says.
He adds that the IEBC stalemate should be handled by his lawyers and Raila should focus on campaigns.