The campaigns for the 2022 Presidential Elections in Kenya are in overdrive; and at this point in time, if there is anyone who hasn’t made up her mind on who she’ll vote for, or whether or not she’ll vote at all, that’s an individual that’s very hard to persuade. I am one of those people who used to stand on the fence but immediately after Kenya Kwanza and Roots Party launched their manifestos I decided to make my mind – and my mind is made up to vote for Raila Odinga. Sadly, I only have one reason to support my decision to vote for the guy. Before I get into that reason, however, let me share with you the reasons that could have persuaded me to vote for the other candidates.
Reasons to vote for William Ruto
There are two reasons why I will not vote for William Ruto, the first being the reason that I will vote for Raila Odinga, and the second being that I do not believe that Ruto can be trusted to keep his promises. For example, if Ruto were to be trusted, I would vote for him for his promise to deliver free fibre Internet in every household that is connected to Kenya Power. We all know that Kenya Power has the infrastructure to deliver high-speed fibre Internet to every household that uses its lines, but making a promise that the said Internet will be free is on another whole level.
Apart from the free Internet for every household, I would also vote for Ruto for his promise to experiment with a bottom-up economic model. This is because studies have demonstrably shown that the trickle-down economic model does not drive economic growth, or what Raila would like to call upward social mobility. In the US for example, significant economic growth has been found to happen only when democrats are in power, recently being Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Whenever the Republicans take over, however, their economy experiences stagnating growth or goes into recession altogether – and that’s because Republicans believe in the trick-down model. Right now the economy of the US has stagnated but that’s because of COVID-19 and the Russian-Ukraine debacle.
The bottom-up economic model that has been promised by William Ruto is however outweighed by the reason I will vote for Raila Odinga, by the fact that William Ruto cannot be trusted, and also by the fact that there are indications that William Ruto’s key motivation to be Kenya’s President is so that he can also transform himself into one of the dynasties. The urge Ruto has for becoming a dynasty implies that the rate at which corruption will be done under his watch will be such that Kenya will collapse economically to a point where only a miracle will undo the damage. This is a risk I am not willing to take.
Reasons to vote for Wajackoyah
Wajackoyah is someone only those who are lazy at thinking can take seriously. I watched his Interview on Citizen once and the dude couldn’t even answer a simple question of how he would deal with CBC. During the launch of his manifesto which was simply a reggae party function, the dude couldn’t get his numbers right. On more than one occasion he confused the shilling with the dollar and vice versa.
Also, although he likes throwing the prices of medical marihuana around, he hasn’t been able to quantify the market demand now and the viability of that market in the near future. Even if his proposals for hemp, venom, snake meat, and penises of hyenas can be shown to be viable, he doesn’t appear to be someone who can be trusted to implement any meaningful policies that can actually work. Actually, whenever I listen to him, he reminds me of myself when I was in high school answering the question, “if you were a President for a week, what would you do?” The dude hasn’t grown past that high school mentality.
Though his promises are kiddish, the proposal that would make me vote for him is the 24-hour economy coupled with working for four days a week. In addition to that, I like the idea of paying salaries every two weeks. An economy that is operated in shifts of 8 hours per shift three times a day already promises to triple the workforce, just by ensuring that the same job has at least three people to work on it. With a formal workforce of about 3 million Kenyans, working for 24 hours would create a possibility of having a workforce of 9 million Kenyans – and that’s 6 million new jobs straight on.
But as I have already said, Wajackoyah is not someone to be taken seriously.
Reasons to vote for David Waihiga Mwaure
I must confess that Waihiga Mwaure is someone I haven’t followed closely to know exactly what he actually stands for. From the few news clips I have caught about him, he seems to be someone whose campaign is centred on anti-corruption and the need to give Kenyans that fresh alternative. In addition to eradicating corruption, the guy also seems to be proposing that pastors will be on government salary maybe because he thinks pastors perform important duties like teachers and doctors; although I am not sure how he intends to achieve that given the doctrine of separation of church and state. Even if he were one of the main contenders, or even if in the future he will be a serious contender, this is the one proposal that makes me never ever think of voting for him. In my books, religious leaders are con men that ought to be eradicated from the face of the earth.
Despite his unwelcome proposal of putting pastors on the government payroll, I like his proposal of doing away with PAYEE and other forms of income tax. I am of the opinion that those who pay income tax are people who are double-taxed because they still have to buy goods and services that have other taxes such as VAT already included.
Why I will vote for Raila Odinga
I have only one strong reason and several fringe reasons for my decision to vote for Raila Odinga on August 9th. I will vote for him despite having numerous reasons that would compel me not to give him my vote. One of the reasons for not voting for Raila Odinga includes the fact that he is old. At his age which is almost 78, Raila Odinga will be the second oldest person to ever rise to the presidency after Joe Biden of the United States. We all know that mental faculty deteriorates with age, and going by Raila’s increased stammering and inability to efficiently remember words, we can see that the shortcomings of old age are already catching up with him.
Raila should also not be voted for because he is Uhuru’s project. Assuming that indeed at least Kshs 2 billion gets lost every day under Uhuru’s watch, then in the last nine years, the country has lost a minimum of Kshs 7 trillion to Uhuru and his cronies thanks to corruption. Kshs 7 trillion is almost the same amount of money Kenya has borrowed over the same period of time – thus basically an amount of money that is sufficient to put up the infrastructure that Uhuru has put up all over the country including SGR to Naivasha, the revamped Mombasa and Kisumu ports, the Express Highway, and all those major highways linking counties together. In other words, Uhuru and his cronies borrowed Kshs 7 trillion over the 9 years to enrich themselves. Pandora papers come to mind.
A president that Kenya deserves is a president that will promise to retrieve the lost Kshs 7 trillion and jail every single person that was involved in its theft, and that person is not Raila Odinga, not any more. Sadly, those running to become Kenya’s 5th president cannot deliver on that wish either.
Knowing these, those of us who will vote for Raila Odinga will vote for him because he has promised to introduce one product per county agenda. This for me is a very important proposal given its viability to escalate inter-county trade (thanks to the roads that Uhuru already put in place), reduce reliance on imports and increase products for exports hence reducing our trade deficit that now stands at over Kshs 1 trillion per year, and generate numerous employment opportunities.
The other 9-point agenda including zero tolerance for corruption, baba-care, free education in all levels of education, and Kazi Mtaani can be considered empty promises but are still good enough reasons to vote for Raila.
However, the most important reason why I will vote for Raila Odinga is that he is Luo. Tribalism as a reason to vote for any person may be considered irrational, especially when such a reason is espoused by someone who appears to have gone to school. But thinking of tribalism much deeply, it doesn’t appear to be any different from gender or race.
In 2008 Obama was voted to be the 44th President of the United States mainly because he is black, and almost every black person voted for him simply because he is black. Those who voted for Obama because of his racial heritage were not vilified but were rather uploaded for making history in the US. In Kenya, Raila Odinga chose Martha Karua to be his running mate and he did not shy away from saying that he made that choice mainly because Martha is a woman. After the choice was made, Martha herself played the gender card by attending several meetings organised by Maendeleo ya wanawake to urge her fellow women to vote for her and her principal because she is a woman. A woman who sits at a decision-making table, it is argued, will work wonders to empower women.
That’s the same reason I’ll vote for Raila Odinga. His Luo tribe appeals to me because in this country it has been said that a Luo can never be President. When a Luo becomes a President, therefore, the Luos and the other marginalized communities will feel empowered to believe – to believe that they too can achieve – to believe that they too can dream – to believe that they too can someday make it to important positions this world has to offer – and to believe that the Presidency also belongs to non-Kikukuyus and non-Kalenjins. And that’s the only strong reason I have for voting for Raila Odinga this coming August.