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The cloud over Kenyan politics is growing thicker by the day. Worrisome though is the extent to which politicians are increasingly ethnically and emotionally appealing to their constituent voters.
The extent of drama and arrogance being exhibited in an effort to emotionally appeal to diverse support base is quite worrying.
Critical matters are quite peripheral in political positioning and scheming. As we speak, there is too much to fix in the economy and the destructive elements of corruption and tribalism, yet politics is used to relegate them.
As we approach the 2017 elections, note that the 2022 election planning is also at works. Methinks the many reported or suspected graft cases have to do with both elections.
Election campaign is an expensive affair more so in a country mired in graft like Kenya. Even the best candidates have to contend with the power of money in influencing electoral outcomes. Indeed, graft and illicit money easily influence outcomes.
With this understanding, you can see why taming graft is not easy in Kenya.
President Uhuru Kenyatta may mean well in his utterances against graft but he could be facing the fight of his life in stopping the vice within the labyrinth of structures of the government.
Certainly there are many in government looking ahead of him and would want to make money within his reign for self-riches, self-entitlement or even looking at elections ahead. It’s a tall order managing a country where graft and tribalism make a deadly combination. I’m not in any way saying he should condone the evil, nor I’m I suggesting that he should do nothing.
Obviously if graft is left unchecked, the ruin will obviously be seen in the destruction of innocent lives due to poverty and breakdown in essential services. Of course taming graft is and will remain among the top priorities of current and a series of future presidents. He must do something about it as he is the president.
Nonetheless, we must look at the context of the coming 2017 elections and that of 2022 in light of the many happenings in the country. Most of what is going on today have a direct correlation on these two elections. As all these and more are happening, one needs to also look at the demographics. Remember that young people today aged around 11 years will be eligible to vote in 2022. This is a huge shift in the political dynamics if you look at the structure of the Kenyan population in terms of age.
There will be very many young voters with different desires and who have lived in a quite changed political economic landscape. These people have their desires and mostly love the fast life which has also been engineered by the new, media and a more globalised world. The biggest headache is having very many of them unemployed.
If you keenly research the working population ages levels of unemployment, it would show there is so much that need to be re-engineered. The huge number of potential workers and the potential to generate wealth should have been a great opportunity. Unfortunately, like in many developing countries, it is part of the problem.
With this kind of dispensation and changing demographics, the 2022 election remain a tricky one for any of the numerous possible aspirants, more so at the presidential level. The alliances at the top level for 2017 election would necessarily have an eye at that. It’s tricky and unpredictable. In the meantime, lest we forget, we have too many fixes to do.