Ahead of the next General Election, the President and his deputy have moved out of their offices, and using all State power, are camping in their strongholds begging their supporters to enroll as voters.
They have both dumped their expensive designer suits in favour of jeans, polo shirts or short-sleeves and caps as they move from town centre to town centre, from village to village, telling all eligible voters about the need for a vote.
The danger on the horizon for the government is a formidable uniting opposition, a run-away former ruling party secretary general spilling secrets of the 2013 campaign machine and nascent plans for 2017 and reports of voter apathy. In the mix also is an Executive that is yet to find a common rallying theme within which to lure voters.
Opposition leaders have also retreated to their political backyard on the same mission: to ask their supporters to register and have an army of loyal followers who will propel them to power on Election Day. They want to ride on the national anger about run-away corruption in government and a perception of exclusion to kick President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto out of office.
Their worry is that if they lose this time, against a government accused of wantonly looting public coffers, then they will be beyond salvage.
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“Do not be left behind, your vote matters! Ensure you register to vote. If you are tired of corruption and bad governance, register as a voter today and choose a leadership that will serve, not exploit you,” Raila Odinga, the Coalition for Reform and Democracy (CORD) leader, told voters in Nairobi’s Kawangware estate.
It was a similar message from President Kenyatta and DP Ruto, who for now have gone slow on the bravado about their vow to rule Kenya in some sort of political relay until 2032. In its place is a rare humility that emphasises their belief in the power of the vote and the influence of the voters.
No spectators
Their language is to rally their supporters to get voter cards so that “they vote in leaders of their choice, make a wise decision” and so that the supporters avoid “being spectators” on August 8, when the country goes to the polls.
“I appeal to residents, especially the youth, to turn out in large numbers and register as voters. Without registering you cannot participate in the August elections and elect the leaders you want. These should be leaders who will help you achieve your aspirations,” the President said in Meru yesterday.
The Deputy President too was not left behind.
“On August 8, Kenyans have a date with destiny. Through the ballot, they will give mandate to a leadership that will be charged with improving their lives and uniting the country. We urge them to make a wise decision,” Ruto said in Chemamit, Narok County.
Unlike in 2013 when the ruling Jubilee coalition packaged the election as a fight against imperialism and neo-colonialists, thanks to the cases against its leaders at the International Criminal Court (ICC), this time, the Executive is yet to find a bogeyman, aside from maybe Opposition leader Raila Odinga who, in the last five years, has exposed scandal after scandal in government.
In their going round the country, they have come face to face with the inefficiencies in government and the recklessness in record-keeping.
The President has had to confront the annoying bureaucracy that has for years conspired against 18-year-olds getting identity cards because perhaps a chief or an assistant chief has not been bribed or because a civil servant along the processing chain is just lazy. Now, the President has directed that IDs — which usually takes at least a month to be processed — should be out within three days after an application is made.
“We will take action against officials who ask for bribes from youth who want IDs. Chiefs and other officials who make it hard for the youth to get ID cards will be punished,” said the President in his Central Kenya tour.
“I wonder why it takes weeks to process the documents. This is a process that should take three days so as to ensure youths register as voters.”
In the rare spectacle of an incumbent working the game of numbers with the elections seven months away, President Kenyatta became the first President in the history of the country to go into a vernacular radio station, Kameme FM, switch to his mothertongue and appeal to voters, this time not to just vote for him, but to ensure they are on the voters’ roll.
That has been the domain of struggling opposition leaders, with the assumption that the President has the bully pulpit and whatever he says is covered by all media houses simply because the President has said it. But Uhuru is not taking any chances.
The President knows that he needs foot soldiers in the country, in the counti es and in Parliament. They come in handy when it comes to implementing government policy and mobilising grassroots support, but his emphatic declaration that he has no favourites is a clever way to tell those who want to ride on his name to power that they have to first get the numbers on the ground.
