At the height of the 2022 presidential campaigns, the mobilisation machinery behind Raila Odinga’s candidature was visibly energetic but strategically hollow. While Azimio invested heavily in rallies, coalition building and elite endorsements, it failed at the most fundamental level of any serious presidential contest: Organising a professional, disciplined and coherent campaign secretariat capable of translating political capital into electoral victory. Azimio la Umoja’s failure did not begin with polling agents, logistics or voting day operations. It began much earlier, with its inability to institutionalise the presidential campaign as a professional entity driven by research, strategy, narrative and message discipline. Any campaign worth…
Author: By Manasse Nyainda
At the height of the 2022 presidential campaigns, the mobilisation machinery behind Raila Odinga’s candidature was visibly energetic but strategically hollow. While Azimio invested heavily in rallies, coalition building and elite endorsements, it failed at the most fundamental level of any serious presidential contest: Organising a professional, disciplined and coherent campaign secretariat capable of translating political capital into electoral victory. Azimio la Umoja’s failure did not begin with polling agents, logistics or voting day operations. It began much earlier, with its inability to institutionalise the presidential campaign as a professional entity driven by research, strategy, narrative and message discipline. Any campaign worth…
Military officers during the burial of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga in Bondo, on October 19, 2025. [PCS] Following his ascension to the Office of the Prime Minister in April 2008, one of Raila Odinga’s earliest official tours was to my hometown Nandi Hills. The country was then reeling from the bloodbath that followed a disputed presidential election: A nation scarred, divided, and tentatively stitched together through a quick-fix grand coalition government meant to restore sanity. .fade-out-overlay { position: absolute; top: -80px; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 60px; z-index: 1; background: linear-gradient(to bottom, rgba(255, 255, 255, 0), rgba(255, 255, 255,…
The National Assembly during a past session. [File, Standard] When Kenyans bequeathed themselves a new Constitution in 2010, the country sought to cut links with patronage that had plagued its body politic for almost half a century. With the concentration of power and resources at the centre, development and social services had effectively become tools of campaign, vote-buying and blackmail. That the extent and magnitude of resource allocation was heavily influenced by political benevolence, especially of the presidency, was a gaping drawback. To cure this malady, the people opted for a pure presidential and devolved system of government, where separation…