I have never seen a mere single constituency confuse Baba as Kibra did. He always towers over such small things. His word has built careers and killed others. Here he was at crossroads. And the lessons of Ugenya lingered somewhere in his subconscious.
First, the candidature of Mwalimu Orero fixed him in a tight spot. There is something that ties Raila Odinga to Orero. If he had his way, as he always does, Orero was the man to get the certificate. By fiat. Anyang’ Nyong’o way. Thurdibuoro.
But these were not ordinary times.
Secondly, his long serving friend and fixer Lumumba Owade entered the race, his own party youth coordinator Musungu, his former PA Ketta, the man who knelt for him Christine Darling and a host of other close buddies. And he felt, remotely though that he owed the family of Ken Okoth something.
Then the advent of Eliud Owalo threw a spanner in the works. Owalo went to fellow NASA comrade Musalia Mudavadi, carrying with him the entire heavily loyal and lethal ODM online blogging brigade that within weeks threw him into the front line. And William Ruto moments later threw in Mariga. Baba was caged!
He immediately knew if he didn’t do the right thing, as he is used to, Kibra would fall. And they knew the fact that behind Ken Okoth’s success in Kibra was Imran. In a fair contest he would win. He knew each and every household that had benefitted from CDF bursaries. By name. Every woman, man and youth Ken had interacted with was known to Imran. By name. He knew the grievances of the Nubians, the Luhya and the youth. He sat threw it all and wrote them down as they shared with Ken as he was Ken’s implementer in chief. Which foolish voter will throw such an asset to the dogs and bring in a newbie you have to tell your problems again?
ODM knew he was a hard nut to crack and paid bloggers to run the cremation mudslinging posts for weeks on end to clip his wings and throw him to the dustbin. Then a quick thinking man at the Secretariat suggested the online.
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