We have entered the middle-period in the Referendum Campaigns. The mood is lazy and the campaigns are merely getting by on soundbites. We seem to be waiting for a spark to rejuvenate the campaigns and send a message that the Referendum is worth something. The lines are drawn and no one is in doubt where their 'leader' stands on the proposed draft, whether he has read it or not.
When you see the President and Prime Minister on Prime Time News, you get the sense that their campaign is flagging, hence the need to pack the dais with as many waheshimiwas as possible. It is the same with the Ruto Insurgency - it no longer has the novelty it enjoyed a month ago and it seems that the strange bed-fellowship between the politicians and the clergy is a bad marriage that will be annulled come August 5th.
Mzalendo Kibunja's outfit has somehow managed to enliven the proceedings, but not by much. President Moi and Maina Njenga seem to be getting by on opposite sides of the fence, with nary a bad word between them. This is not like the 2007 Campaigns; there is no life in this game. The passion is gone, and the only wingnuts still in it to win it are to be found on Facebook.
The debate has boiled down to those who are for the draft support abortion, 'elevation of Islam', and instability. Those against it are for the status quo, and are anti-reformists. What we need is a better narrative. What if the campaigners declared that this was their trial run for the 2012 elections. Then we could fid out how good they could be when Uhuru Kenyatta, Kalonzo Musyoka, Martha Karua, Moses Wetangula, and other small fries stated their positions unequivocally and declared the status of their sundry alliances. Make no mistake about it - 2012 is between Raila Odinga and someone else, perhaps a Ruto-led alliance or a Kalonzo divide-and-win strategy, or a money-fuelled charismatic Uhuru challenge. August 4th couldn't come soon enough.
When you see the President and Prime Minister on Prime Time News, you get the sense that their campaign is flagging, hence the need to pack the dais with as many waheshimiwas as possible. It is the same with the Ruto Insurgency - it no longer has the novelty it enjoyed a month ago and it seems that the strange bed-fellowship between the politicians and the clergy is a bad marriage that will be annulled come August 5th.
Mzalendo Kibunja's outfit has somehow managed to enliven the proceedings, but not by much. President Moi and Maina Njenga seem to be getting by on opposite sides of the fence, with nary a bad word between them. This is not like the 2007 Campaigns; there is no life in this game. The passion is gone, and the only wingnuts still in it to win it are to be found on Facebook.
The debate has boiled down to those who are for the draft support abortion, 'elevation of Islam', and instability. Those against it are for the status quo, and are anti-reformists. What we need is a better narrative. What if the campaigners declared that this was their trial run for the 2012 elections. Then we could fid out how good they could be when Uhuru Kenyatta, Kalonzo Musyoka, Martha Karua, Moses Wetangula, and other small fries stated their positions unequivocally and declared the status of their sundry alliances. Make no mistake about it - 2012 is between Raila Odinga and someone else, perhaps a Ruto-led alliance or a Kalonzo divide-and-win strategy, or a money-fuelled charismatic Uhuru challenge. August 4th couldn't come soon enough.
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