President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto after being declared winners in last month's elections. [Photo/ PSCU]
Political analysts have predicted that President Uhuru Kenyatta will defeat NASA’s Raila Odinga by more than 3 million votes in the October 17 election.In last month’s general election, President Kenyatta got 1.4 million votes more than Mr Odinga, but errors made by IEBC officials led to the Supreme Court nullifying the election. During the court hearing, the NASA candidate did not dispute President Kenyatta’s total votes. The Jubilee Party supporters, who like to turn out in record numbers — more than 90% in most strongholds — are angry with the Supreme Court’s ruling, which they see as dismissing their will. They are excited to go back to the ballot and vote for their candidate again, just to prove the court wrong and assert their authority. A number of NASA leaders have in the past week vowed to back the re-election of President Kenyatta. Among them are former Wiper Party chairman David Musila, former Vihiga Governor Moses Akaranga, ODM’s Bungoma gubernatorial candidate Alfred Khang’ati, former presidential candidate Cyrus Jirongo, just to name a few. Those new entrants into the Jubilee camp will likely boost President Kenyatta’s numbers in NASA strongholds.Immediately after IEBC declared presidential election results, a number of Mr Odinga’s supporters vowed never to vote again, saying they were tired of supporting a candidate who never wins. The ODM leader has already lost four presidential elections. Analysts predict that such supporters are either going to boycott the elections or vote for President Kenyatta so that they are part of the winning team.