By Kepher Otieno
With opinion polls predicting a tight contest, Prime Minister Raila Odinga is trying to win over key regions that could swing the race in his favour.
Recent polls have suggested no candidate can secure a first round victory. The latest Infotrak Harris survey has raised the stakes even higher, however, predicting that Raila would tie in a second round of voting with his closest rival Deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta. Other pollsters and political rivals have disputed this view, saying the number of undecided voters remains larger than indicated by the Infotrak poll.
That said, the findings have spurred ODM efforts to break away from the competition.
Raila’s camp is working to secure support in Kisii, Meru, Bungoma, Trans Nzoia and central Kenya reckoning these regions could prove the tiebreaker. Yesterday, Raila addressed a rally at Dol Dol in Laikipia County after Kenyatta.
Other pollsters and political rivals have disputed this view, saying the number of undecided voters remains larger than indicated by the Infotrak poll. That said, the findings have spurred ODM efforts to break away from the competition.
Raila’s camp is working to secure support in Kisii, Meru, Bungoma, Trans Nzoia and central Kenya reckoning these regions could prove the tiebreaker. Yesterday, Raila addressed a rally at Dol Dol in Laikipia County after visiting the families of two freedom heroes in Nyandarua County. The two-day tour had started on Thursday with visits to the families of the late Dedan Kimathi and Josiah Mwangi ‘JM’ Kariuki whom the PM feted.
Raila’s engagements in Nyandarua build on an older strategy to tap into the Kiambu-Nyeri divide, and other historical divides in central Kenya between the perceived “sons of the Mau Mau” and the sons of home guards and the elite. Instructively, former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga, lately a fierce critic of Uhuru, was in the PM’s entourage.
Njenga and retired Anglican Church Archbishop David Gitari, backed by the PM’s camp, recently convened a regional meeting to counter Uhuru’s influence. Dubbed Limuru 2B, it followed an initial gathering of leaders of the Gikuyu, Embu and Meru Association (Gema) that had endorsed Uhuru.
To counter the influence in western Kenya of his deputy Musalia Mudavadi, Raila appears keen to tap into the Sabatia MP’s differences with Justice Minister Eugene Wamalwa. Mr Wamalwa is thought to have Trans Nzoia and Bungoma counties behind him and there have been reports he could be warming up to the PM. Some in Raila’s camp have read more into his recent forays in Kisumu with talk of an alliance with the New Ford-Kenya man.
Raila’s strongest rival, Uhuru, has already pledged to work exclusively with Wamalwa in western Kenya, and is believed to see him as his running mate.
In Meru, Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara is the PM’s point man and deputy patron of Friends of Raila (Fora), a lobby group supporting his presidential campaign.
