Why emotional appeal will carry the day rather than ideas

By Dismas K Mokua

Nairobi, KENYA: The first-ever presidential debate in Kenya is unlikely to be won on a demonstration of superior understanding of Kenya’s problems, top being high unemployment and cost of living, but on the ability to create emotional connection with voters.

A solid understanding of how to convert the challenges facing Kenya to opportunities informed by Vision 2030, commitment to implement the Constitution, a pleasant persona, a dark business suit for male candidates and an African dress for the female candidate will be added advantages.

The winning candidate must create an emotional connection with voters by appealing to their pain and pleasure points. Voters will only wake up early to go and vote if and only if the idea of voting for a candidate is pleasurable. In which case, they will be whistling away and building castles in the air because they know their candidate is an indispensible proposition in their path to self-actualisation.

On the other hand, some folks will vote because the prospect of not voting creates the fear of God. It evokes pain and torture because if they don’t vote, a candidate they don’t support will win.

In 2002, President Kibaki won not because majority of Kenyans loved him, but the prospect of a metamorphosed Moi presidency in the name of Uhuru Kenyatta made them nervous. Folks on the streets and politicians alike belted the ‘Yote yawezekana bila Moi’ tune even if former President Moi was not in the race.

Voters will, therefore, look at a candidate who will make voting either pleasurable or painful. In creating the emotional connection, the candidate will need to demonstrate he/she can keep his/her word. Folks will be asking what the candidates have done in the past to convince us we can trust them to deliver tomorrow.

In “Things fall apart” Obierika was a celebrated wrestler and he was known never to lose a wrestling match, never mind his back never touched the ground. He had a solid reputation for success and that reputation made him beat stronger opponents.

This will be especially challenging to the candidates who have been in Government for a long time and have nothing to write home. They must look for signature programmes with their fingerprints to create emotional appeal with voters.

It is unfortunate that Kenya will not examine policy issues because the nation is not sufficiently matured to vote on issues and our presidential candidates do not have any fundamentally different ideological philosophies around the management of the nation. Policy issues are a common denominator hence immaterial in the debate.

What Kenyans will be looking for is a track record of success and signs of trust in all candidates. This is why candidates must communicate trust and believability in their answers.