A night like no other in Kenya’s political history
By PD columnist, June 30, 2022Some things are inexplicable. Who would have thought, at the height of the clamour for multiparty politics, that a day would come when a presidential candidate espousing what is basically an illegal idea would capture the attention of both the media and Kenyans?
For that was what happened on Thursday, June 30 when Roots Party presidential candidate George Wajackoyah and his running mate Justina Wamae shook Kenya’s political tree during the launch of their manifesto at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi. What is more, he was competing for supremacy of the airwaves with the Deputy President, William Ruto, who is also running for the presidency on a UDA ticket.
That a candidate considered mainstream would have to fight for attention with a rival who is considered fringe – and whose ideas are as outlandish as they are mesmerising – could find himself in that situation speaks volumes about how Kenya’s political arena has expanded.
It is no longer the playing field for the formal and stiff-upper-lipped politicians but also for candidates who dare to think the unthinkable and sell ideas considered far from mainstream.
Until recently, few would have taken a candidate like Wajackoyah seriously. Indeed, when others cut from the same cloth tried their luck in past elections, they did not go as far. Abduba Dida, who was vying for the presidency in 2013 under the Alliance for Real Change, attracted considerable attention, but most of it was restricted to social media.
Prof Wajackoyah has breached that barrier, making his way into mainstream media, either by dint of his personality or his election pledges – from suspending parts of the Constitution if he wins, to smoking bhang in State House on his first day in the office or using hemp rope to hang people convicted of corruption.
Last night, as Ruto was talking about the cost of food and public debt, television screens were split to show young men in blue jeans and white T-shirts dancing to a Reggae tune with their leader, Wajackoyah, perched on a hoisted golden seat from where he acknowledged greetings with a royal wave of his hand and a wan smile lighting up from his bearded Father Christmas face, his green Safari suit reminiscent of Che Guevera.
One would have been forgiven for thinking that the youth waving green, yellow and red flags were a delegation from Jamaica. Only they were Kenyans who wanted to shake the Roots Party tree at the manifesto launch and have a great time doing it, under the watchful eye of Jaymo Ule Msee, the party’s spokesman and MC for the night.
But even as the two scenarios were playing themselves out, the one question that stood out, and which will have far-reaching implications, is how the media navigated the thin line between the two extreme political presentations, which way Kenya is heading and the choices that voters ought to make in the coming election. Clearly, we are in the fog of the campaign season’s end.
— The writer is the Managing Editor, People Daily