By: Onyikwa Onyakundi
Contrary to the ‘two horse race’ scenario that one of the candidates for Presidency has been painting, a third horse has emerged. This follows Restore and Build Kenya’s candidate Prof. James Ole Kiyiapi’s naming of Winnie Kaburu Kinyua as his running mate. This, in a move seen as calculated at eating into the core support base of one of the top two contenders for the house on the hill, Kingwa Kamenchu of the Labour Party of Kenya. The striking similarity between the names Kaburu Kinyua and Kamenchu Kingwa provides a clue to Prof. Ole Kiyiapi’s game plan. However, it is the ethnicity and gender of the two ladies that leave no doubt on anyone’s mind as to who the sly Professor had in mind when picking on Ms. Kinyua for a running mate. The Kiyiapi-Kinyua ticket is already being described by commentators as the winning formula for its potential to tap into the massive vote blocks of storekeepers, body builders as well as that of masons and other construction workers.
Mr. Kiyiapi’s move seems to have thrown Kamenchu’s Labour Party into panic mode if the press conference that the party addressed at the Kencom Stage yesterday is anything to go by. At the press conference that was abruptly convened as Ms. Kamenchu and several of her top party officials waited to board a bus on their way to a rally at Gikomba Market, the LPK flag bearer claimed that Mr. Kiyiapi’s RBK has hatched a plot to instigate a month long Matatu strike with the aim of grounding her Presidential bid. In a tearful narration that was punctuated by wailing from her and several of the party officials on the queue at the bus stop, Ms. Kamenchu alleged that the plot also involved the introduction of a new tax on underwear. this, she ‘weeped’ would drastically increase the poverty levels of her core support base ‘the affordable underwear lobby’. Unfortunately, just as she was about to pull out from her hand bag the dossier she claimed had all the prove she needed to unmask the RBK, the bus that her party had been waiting for pulled up at the stage and the press conference ended as abruptly as it had begun.
However, even as the vicious war of words between the RBK and the LPK rages on, the LPK’s main challenger at the poll, the Placenta Party of Kenya (PPK) has not been having it easy either. According to a leaked ‘See-no-vet’ opinion poll whose results are set to be released on March 5th, the PPK’s flag bearer Joseph Hell On Earth‘s popularity seems to have taken a nose dive in the recent weeks. His running mate Hehehe! Star Are Unga has not been fairing any better. According to the poll, the Hell On Earth-Hehehe! Star Are Unga ticket is still the most popular among Kenyans, and still holds sway among the Christian Community, Musicians and Comedians, but has lost some ground in its ethnic bastion of Nyanza where a nondescript coalition of small parties called Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) is beginning to register its presence in the opinion polls radar. However, the Placenta Party of Kenya (PPK) remains the most popular political party in Kenya, particularly among healthcare professionals, and specifically midwives.
The dynamics of the race could however change radically if the merger talks ongoing between between the two coalitions of CORD and Jubilee bear fruit. If the two tiny coalitions ~ which are essentially two untidy collections of several briefcase parties ~ merge, they could be in a position to negotiate with one of the top three horses, for the position of Senate Majority leader. They say in politics, two months is a life time, and anything could happen. This is Kenya, and this is politics. Don’t quote me because i’ll deny it. This is strictly off the record, but a hunch tells me that one of the two jokes ~ CORD or Jubilee ~ could end up producing Kenya’s fourth President.
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