DON’T BE FOOLED BY POLITICIANS AT YOUR WEDDING OR FUNERAL

The general elections are approaching and politicians have started to play mind games on the electorates as they always do when an election is approaching. They are beginning to portray themselves as loving, caring and compassionate, die hard defenders of our rights as they pretend to know best the solution to our economic and social problems. For the past four years, they have been playing boss while the electorates played spectators. The elections are upon us and the roles are now changing. Politicians now want to be seen as servants who are at the service of the electorates. They are all over unveiling the same manifestos before the last general elections.

The voter is now assuming the role of master. As has always been the case with election time, the role of the master will be short-lived for the electorates. Once the politicians are elected and sworn into office, the electorates will revert back to their place of servant-hood and the master, being the elected politicians will head back to Nairobi to fatten his pocket and wait for the next election. The campaigns have slowly begun and they will intensify in the New Year. Politicians are now attending all funerals and weddings, begging for slots in funeral and wedding programs and announce their intentions. They will take credit for one or two projects but also explain to you how they have been frustrated by their opponents both real and imaginary.

For years politicians have successfully crafted the art of manipulating the electorates. Next year’s election won’t be different and the period leading to it will see them cashing in our gullibility.

A few years ago I was in Lukume during the campaign for the election of 2007; in that dusty, tiny village of the vast Kakamega County. I was shocked at the gullibility of the voters in that village. I was saddened by the apparent ignorance displayed by the people of Lukume. Politicians had invaded the village to lure the electorates to their respective parties. The campaigns were crazy; and politicians were busy with outdoing each other in funerals and sports events. Some showed up with helicopters to the amusement of the villagers while others arrived in convoys of posh cars never seen before in by the villagers.

They know what to do where and what to say to whom. For instance, the tactics used by politicians in villages such as Lukume are different from those applied to entice electorates in, say Kibwezi. They will arrive in choppers to the excitement of the poor villagers. They disappeared as soon as they were elected but now they would come back with goodies because they know the easy way to the electorate’s heart.

We must remember politicians are coming back to the villages at this particular time not necessarily for the love of the people but solely for the votes of the villagers. The politician will come with big plans for education, farmers, roads and a plan to build a local dispensary in every village. Politicians will be busy distributing T-shirts, lessos, free alcohol and free rides to villagers and all these political rallies are guised as gestures of benevolence. You can’t blame the politicians entirely. We have proved to them that our vote is worth those T-shirts and alcohol. We have proved to them that a free meal on the eve of elections is all it takes to have us vote them into power even when it’s an election malpractice. We are that cheap and we deserve such treatment.