The UDA primaries have been a real eye-opener for Kenyans looking forward to the August 9th, 2022, General Elections.
There is the violence in so many areas and we have so many noisy UDA abuse machines like Isaac Mwaura, Cate Waruguru, and company who are in tears that all the effort they have put in insulting Azimio leaders has come to nothing.
But the main issue emerging in these UDA primaries is the horrific low numbers in voter turnout specifically in the Mt. Kenya region where William Ruto has been campaigning for four years now.
Look at the numbers in Kiambu county for the governor’s office. Ruto and UDA always tell Kenyans they own Kiambu which is President Uhuru’s home county and for Ruto kicking Uhuru out of Kiambu was the icing on the cake. They were ready to eat Uhuru’s lunch in his own house. Poor president. What to do now.
In Kiambu the winning UDA candidate for the governor Kimani Wamatangi got 5,678 votes. Big win right?
Except Kiambu has 1,180,920 registered voters, which is the largest number of voters for any county in Kenya. Kakamega county comes second in registered voter numbers with 743,736 then Machakos with 620,254 Mombasa 580,223, Bungoma 559,850, Kilifi 508,068, Siaya 457,953 etc.
In Kiambu, the winning UDA governor candidate Wamatangi got 0.48% of the total registered voters in the county. That would scare you even if you were in the Ruto dreamland where common sense is illegal.
Wamatangi, a senator in Kiambu is well known there.
I am a Kiambu resident many times when I am in Kenya and the last time I was there in 2018 travelling around Kiambu from Ruaka town which I love with all my heart, there were so many Wamatangi posters. In Ruaka food markets you can get anything and everything, so I like to go to those places when I am living around there.
That is how I got to hear about Kimani Wamatangi. This time he just joined the wrong party a few weeks ago. That is his problem now.
After all these years of the Ruto riot campaign in Kiambu, less than 1% of the voters in that county are interested in his party. President Uhuru and Raila with their Azimio team can talk to that 99% of the voters who have no interest in UDA affairs. That can’t go wrong, can it?
And talk about strategic moves. In Mombasa County, Suleiman Shabal has pretty much guaranteed ODM victory for the very important job of governor of Mombasa County.
Mvita MP Sharif Nassir has a clear chance to be the next Mombasa County governor. And even better for Azimio is that a coalition of voters in Mombasa and Kilifi counties are on their side.
I know the politics of Mombasa because that is where I had my first full-time job as a lecturer at Mombasa Polytechnic.
I lived in Tudor Four. Right near the polytechnic. Mvita is where I used to hang out. We were near the roots of Nyali Bridge.
In 2017 when we were there with my buddy Njuguna Mutonya the elections were on. My friend Omosh from inside Mvita, whose family has run business in downtown Mombasa for generations, told me Hassan Omar made a big blunder by going for the governor job than just running as a senator.
In Mombasa food is good and Tuk Tuk will take you anywhere mostly out of the streets and in plenty of dust.
It looks like the campaigns for the August 9 General Elections just started. Good thing finally.
Adongo Ogony is a Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada
