Miguna Miguna is slowly emerging as a formidable candidate for Nairobi county gubernatorial seat. His passionate performance on TV, radio talk shows, and Twitter has earned him a portion of the critically important electorate: young professionals. He says he is the man to restore the Nairobi’s lost glory and rescue city hall from the slough of despond. But is Miguna Miguna “under the Similitude of a Dream”? Here are five things he must do to win in 2017.
1. Tone down the bombast
In a political scene dying for levity, Miguna Miguna, who brands himself as fresh blood adds to the ludicrous by his combative, no-holds-barred, shoot-from-the-hip, take-no-prisoners style. The first words of his website “Make No Mistake” speak volumes about his sanctimonious approach to political issues. He says he is a revolutionary, out to defeat the cartels at City Hall. And he repeats this message every day, everywhere and to everyone who cares to listen. Nikita Khrushchev said: “If you feed the people just with revolutionary slogans they will listen today, they will listen tomorrow, they will listen the day after tomorrow, but on the fourth day they will say, "To hell with you."
2. Get a party
Miguna needs to realise that the power brokers and wealthy influential individuals (whom he dismisses as cartels) work twice as hard to ensure he fails. While he evokes historical examples to explain his candidature as an independent, it’s a fact in Kenyan politics that a political party or tribe provides the axis onto which a candidate spins to victory.
3. Learn some people skills
It has never been lost on anyone that Miguna Miguna has no time for an opposing point of view. Challenge him on salient issues in his campaign, as Star Columnist Patrick Gathara, and KTN commentator Betty Waitherero learnt, and he counters with strong-worded vitriol that alienates rather than endears him to people. His social skills are, well, aloof. Bigot per excellence. Kidero may be the “dean of looters” and Sonko a “small-headed drug peddler” as Miguna alleges but constantly harping about it portrays deep-seated juvenility and passion for revenge. As one sage said, “Making other people look bad doesn’t make you look good.” Here’s another quote from Benjamin Franklin: “If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.”
4. Find a sponsor
Running a successful campaign is an expensive undertaking. The minimum you can donate through his website is Ksh1, 000 and even if his 25,000 Twitter followers (the only followers we can talk of now) were to give at least this amount, this would amount to Ksh25million, hardly enough to run a campaign. Miguna can wear a nice suit and knock into the offices of wealthy barons who are political power brokers also striving for a turnaround, and sell himself as their candidate.
5. Go out meet the people
“Although I visited every village, market place and primary school in Nyando, and spent Sh5m in less than two months, I soon realised that I hadn’t given myself enough time to campaign,” he writes in Peeling Back the Mask. Its self-advice he’s should sit down and internalise. Miguna Miguna has so far not championed for any other cause apart from his own. He wrongly thinks that re-tweets equates to votes. Ask Martha Karua with her 524,000 Twitter followers. She only got 43,881 votes – less than 10%. By the same matrix, Miguna will likely get only 2,000 votes from his 25,000 followers. Miguna must get out and meet real people in the slums and offices, ran races that sell his image to people (such as the Stanchart Marathon), get involved in society causes such as those of Mama Mboga and the girl child. That’s how Mike Sonko scores a figure like 814,184 votes as he did in 2013.
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