Sonkorism: How voter rebellion against the norm could hurt Kidero

Nearly everyone outside America but with keen interest on it and its role in global politics vouched for Ms Hillary Clinton’s candidature last year. To them, there was no way a human being with obnoxious credentials such as Donald Trump could beat such a polished lawyer and former Secretary of State, to the helm of global leadership as US President. Dark secrets of gender abuse, a retinue of divorces and a disgusting portrait of a randy sexist could not stop the American voter from electing Trump.

Just this week, the French preferred a social example of “weird love brewed at the theatre hall”. Faced by two distinct choices; polished lawyer Marine Le Pen, 49, and former civil servant, Emmanuel Macron, they chose the latter.
It is not about credentials. It is only that Macron, 39, was “a sugar boy” to his 64-year-old former teacher, Brigitte Trogneux. She was Macron’s arts teacher and play director when he was only 16. This was enough juice for French as well as globally circulating tabloids. With a scrutiny of family life, Macron would not pass as a good example for French young adults.

Earlier, tales of sexual exploitation by former Italy President Silvio Berlusconi never stopped the man from rising to the highest office. In 2009, Madagascar shot to the global map of countries with “queer presidents” when they plucked a music events organiser and former disc jockey from the hustles of the world to their State House. In Africa, South Africans dumbfounded many when they discarded Thabo Mbeki, a gentleman with economic recovery credentials, and elevated a serial sexist Jacob Zuma.

These are examples of how the ordinary voter is rebelling against conventional intellectual credentials in picking leaders. The quiet rebellion is an indicator that the rising middle class leader has lost touch with the needs of the low income earner and, as such therefore, this angry voter is rooting for these “characters” with a hope that they will discard the conventional way of doing things and deal with their problems head on.
Closer home, this is the thinking that has got into Nairobians. In 2013, Ferdinand Waititu, a street political player, lost the gubernatorial race to the corporate Evans Kidero, whose gentlemanly mien made people believe he was the right man for the job.

Four years down the line, the Nairobian is disappointed at the lack of solutions to basic challenges such as garbage collection, water provision and smooth traffic. Majority of Nairobians look like they have little regard as pertains the corporate way of solving their problems. Every year, during the reading of the status of the county address, Dr Kidero reads out “measures that have been undertaken to ensure a clean city and which includes purchase of more garbage trucks”.

The ordinary voter doesn’t seem to understand this language of streamlining garbage collection. He or she just wants the damn garbage and its oduor out of his sight and nose. When the Jubilee primaries came, Nairobians overwhelmingly preferred Senator Mike Sonko to the corporate-faced Peter Kenneth. Sonko and Kenneth are two worlds apart; the former with alleged unsolved criminal cases to conclude but an impressive short-term record on social work. The latter has a quotable record of constituency funds management, mannerisms, and general acceptability by the middle class. In a ballot encounter between Sonko and Kidero, I will cast my dice with the Senator. The Kidero way of corporate management of the city’s long held challenges is what has caused a raucous across the globe. The voter at the grassroots doesn’t want to follow long processes to, for example, follow a garbage collection tender.

Erratic action plans

This voter would be more at peace if the governor just woke up one day, summoned jobless youth and told them to clear the heaps of garbage at a fee. No need for tenders or uniformed supervision of garbage collection. Change requires ruthlessness. Mr Sonko would fare well in a system that does not require order. Order has been expensive to the daily struggles of ordinary urban dwellers. They have become impatient. They have become apathetic to bureaucracy. They have become angry. They have continued to suffer more. They just want solutions. Asking about sustainability of these kind of actions are the questions that are leading to loss of votes for gentlemen. It is not about tomorrow. It is about today.
Mr Sonko’s erratic action plans is what our city dwellers need even as the technocrats work out long term solutions. Sonkoism is the new fashion in global politics. No need for long CVs. The voter cares the least. Unfortunately, politics is about getting the votes. Period.

- The writer works for UN in The Gambia. The views are personal. [email protected]