mechanism of listening to the ground , then all the reports must have been curated to let Baba hear only what he wanted to hear that he was the undisputed fifth .
So confident were the reports of a sure win that Azimio actually held a victory meeting at KICC the day before the result was announced . All this was happening while the IEBC public portal was displaying figures that contradicted their position . How more inept can a secretariat get ?
A neutral bystander would actually believe that Azimio was trying to lose the election since the saying is that in politics nothing is over until it is over . The secretariats were an epitome of incompetence if they failed to feel the pulse on the ground . Was it Azimio ’ s plan to fail to the top ?
There is a political adage that elections are not won by those who vote but by those who count the votes . As cynical as that may sound it is true that at the counting level extra votes can be introduced or votes can be diverted .
It borders on criminal negligence to ask people to wake up early and go vote and you don ’ t have a mechanism to protect your votes . True , it is the duty of IEBC to ensure the integrity of the elections but this is Kenya and as we earlier stated this was a war .
The laissez faire attitude with which Azimio treated its agent is tantamount to handing over the election to a wolf to guard the sheep . Agents had been recruited and trained but they were not paid which made them easy prey to compromise .
The biggest issue which sounds unbelievable , were it not true , is that instructions came from one of the various secretariats giving names of new agents on the eve of the elections . The polling stations were in disarray and if this is not a clear indicator of self-sabotage , I don ’ t know what is .
You would imagine that in that truck load of evidence that was supposed to prove that forms 34A had been manipulated in favor of one group , there would have been party agents with evidence of the original forms compared to those posted to the portal at Bomas .
What we find extraordinary is that there was a lot of interest in the forms received at Bomas and even those reported by the media but how come Azimio did not give us their tally or did they eventually realize that their figures were works of fiction .
It is beyond strange to imagine that people who were chasing the highest office in the land could not have been bothered to have a parallel tally to ensure that their votes were safe . They did not do so because they did not have the figures because they did not have agents on the ground .
It is a lot more incredible to imagine that Azimio actually expected the government to be their agents and collect the data for them . You get the food for free and a cook for free and expect another person to eat on your behalf but it is you who gets full , how bizarre ?
On querying Azimio about this glaring anomaly the men behind the campaign astounded us by telling us that they expected the party candidates to supervise the presidential elections at their constituencies since their party leadership held precedence by sponsoring them .
This actually means the presidential election was largely on autopilot and it is even a wonder that Azimio did not lose by a wider margin . It is political suicide to imagine that a person fighting for his own survival at a different level will prioritize Baba ’ s agenda .
What shocked us is that Azimio were genuinely shocked that they lost . The writing was on the wall all along the way . The standard response to anyone that raised concern that the campaign was not on the rails was ‘ don ’ t worry everything is under control ’.
In marketing the route to market , in this case the route to statehouse would have been a detailed plan with preset critical milestones that indicated that everything was on track . When you claim things are under control , who was the controller . In Kwanza , the controller was evident and his focus was for that extra vote and evident in all his moves . He had long secured his strong support areas and then sent his brigade out to undermine and chip away at the competitor ’ s backyard . Every vote was precious to him ; democracy is a game of numbers .
In Azimio the controller was not apparent , if there was any . Baba even took his eyes off the ball to go and antagonize his home tuff . By imposing his candidates of choice ignoring the people ’ s wishes thereby causing unnecessary anger and frustration . His brother was imposed on the electorate , he won , Baba lost votes , he imposed his sister , she won , he lost votes . The resultant apathy of using undemocratic tactics to impose his will on his people caused a low turnout and he threw away precious votes he so desperately needed .
Even vociferous ardent supporters of Baba like Atwoli managed to arrogantly abuse the Mulembe nation leaders and lost crucial votes and the venomous haughtiness of Murathe simply cancelled any goodwill Martha may have created in Mt . Kenya among the women . Azimio was actively bleeding votes .
Nobody , especially Baba likes the moniker ‘ serial loser ’ attached to his name and in this last election the stars had aligned for him and his quest for the golden chalice came a cropper due to hubris , ignorance and incompetence .
Some smart Alec was heard quipping that if this is how Baba organizes his presidential campaign aren ’ t we lucky that he is not running the country . His best stub at the presidency was disastrous and lackluster at best and a case study in disorganization .
It is no wonder that his die-hard supporters who in the past were more than willing to take to the street and lay down their lives for him were not moved by his loss . His confidence in the power of the state machinery alienated him from his power base and hence the indifference .
It was actually quite amusing to see his people stop the motorcade of the current deputy president and require him to address them . This was the man that vanquished their hero and the captain of their ship to the Promised Land .
The world is all about branding and marketing and we are satisfied that the team with the better marketing strategy and execution won the election . We might never know who really won the election but we do know who triumphed .
There are far too many question marks about the just concluded elections and the uneasy feeling that it was manipulated and perhaps even hacked but it is hard to protest the election when the loser did everything in the book to lose the election . Perhaps losing has become a habit for them !
The cover piece was pieced together by the Marketing Africa editorial crew . For feedback or any more discourse please drop us a line at : Info @ marketingafrica . co . ke .