Head of Uhuru re-election think tank Mutahi Ngunyi sponsored a twitter poll which so far has attracted over 4000 Kenyans.
The results, going by the wording of the opinion poll, seems unexpected. It has backfired on him and will give Jubilee wankers new headache.
Ngunyi, known to use toxic language while describing opposition leaders asked Kenyans who have been ‘victims’ of the ‘lord of poverty’, a term Ngunyi coined to refer to ODM Leader Raila Odinga, whom they would ‘vote for’, if elections were called ‘today’.
Ngunyi went ahead to provide the choices as (1) Raila na Pang’ang’a (2) Uhuru na Kazi (3) Man with the coconut head (4) None of the above.
With this kind of openly biased framing, Ngunyi had expected that Kenyans would vote for “Uhuru na Kazi”.
By framing Raila with such negative connotations as “poverty” and “pang’ang’a”, Ngunyi hoped he already psychologically rigged the polls.
There is always inherent danger in subliminal messaging. Kenyans are wiser.
Marshall McLuhan coined the term “medium is message”.
Mutahi Ngunyi hates Raila Odinga because Raila did not push for his appointment during the formation of the grand coalition government. He has openly said he felt cheated.
Men, spurned and snubbed, coil more than women. It takes ages to overcome rejection. Ego hates disdain.
In rejecting Ngunyi, Raila appointed the more sober Paul Mwangi.
More recently, Raila exposed the corruption and public theft at the National Youth Service at a time Ngunyi had been contracted to “offer consultancies” for the institution, then under cabinet CS Anne Waiguru.
It is estimated that Ngunyi amassed within months more money than he had made all his life. He is 63.
In the wake of it, the taxpayer has a sh25 billion hole. The NYS remains a massive rip-off by so few, doing so little, in so short a time.
Even at the height of the NYS Scam, Ngunyi furiously defended Anne Waiguru and the NYS programme, particularly putting emphasis on the NYS work in Kibera, the low income Nairobi estate associated with ODM Leader Raila Odinga who represented it as part of the larger Lang’ata constituency after the advent of multi-partyism for nearly one a half decade.
What is least said is that for nearly 30 years after independence, from 1963 to 1992, Lang’ata, including Kibera, had been represented by dyed-in-the-wool KANU politicians, including Mwangi Mathai, ex-husband of Nobel Laureate Wangari Mathaai.
The notoriety that the constituency gained, particularly the slum, only arose after Raila Odinga started representing it.
Before then, Kibera slums had no humanity and no public face; and it remained a criminal hotbed for decades, until it acquired political significance, by virtue of the enigmatic embrace of one man.
This history provides a context, for it is now much cheaper to talk about Kibera under Raila than under the men before Raila, all who represented it while being loyal factotums of the government of the day, and had the opportunity to develop it before the winds of change swept motherland in the restive 1990s.
Mutahi Ngunyi is among those who would rather bury this past; and focus on a ‘lord of poverty’ whose time in office coincided with massive improvements in the human condition of the inhabitants of Kibera, if not consequentially nationwide.
Ngunyi’s increasing frustration, now laced in a penchant for insults and personal diatribe directed at Mr. Odinga, is what pro-Odinga supporters need to celebrate.
It is always intriguingly refreshing to see a primitive man, full of self-righteous pride, humbled by humiliation.
In a Ngunyi poll that was designed to bury Raila Odinga, and make the case that a feckless failure, Uhuru, has served Kenyans, Odinga won.
Get to twitter, search for Mutahi Ngunyi and let your voice count too.
Here is the tweet:
If ELECTIONS were held today, and you are a VICTIM of LORD of POVERTY, whom would you VOTE FOR?
— Mutahi Ngunyi (@MutahiNgunyi) January 12, 2017
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Dikembe blogs on the nexus between Politics and Ethnicity in Kenya.
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