Is Ekuru Aukot the mouse among two horses?

Thirdway Alliance presidential aspirant Dr Ekuru Aukot 

On a drizzly Wednesday evening, eight days before elections, Thirdway Alliance presidential aspirant Dr Ekuru Aukot landed in Nairobi from what he termed an intense campaign tour at the Coast.

He projected the image of an exhausted man, yet excited at what he had achieved.

On his Twitter account, under the hashtag #FreshElections! Aukot shared photos of his team addressing groups, media, and doing door-to-door campaigns. Not even salty comments on social media insinuating he was wasting time slowed him down.

“What a day! I am so exhausted. I hope your interview will not take long,” he says as we settle down with the Sunday Standard.

He is appalled that people underrated him when he threw himself in a pool of political big wigs. What he finds more confounding is how they refer to him as a ‘nonstarter’.

“Calling me a nonstarter is an oxymoron – as long as my decision creates an impact, you cannot call me a nonstarter,” he says, slightly agitated.

Another group that irritates him to no end is media. If they are not placing a small photo of him that fades in comparison to those of Raila and Uhuru, they are completely ignoring him.

He feels he deserves a splash, nay, several mentions in the narrative shaping the country as Kenyans head for another election. Local journalists, he says, have sunk so deep into the pockets of some politicians that they cannot look at a newcomer who challenges them when they step outside their mandate which is to report without bias.

Some members of the press differ, saying Aukot has a sense of entitlement and pride. “Why can’t he call his supporters for a rally and see if we will ignore him?” says a political journalist who has covered Aukot on several occasions.

Aukot is convinced the problem is not his content. He thinks media uses him to get ratings. “I demand to be respected and not used,” he says.

He is unmoved by trolls on social media. With more than 100,000 followers on Twitter, and many more on Facebook, keyboard warriors have attempted to lash at him.

When controversial lawyer and scholar Makau Mutua tweeted: No one should question Dr Ekuru Aukot’s constitutional - democratic right to be a busybody.

Aukot hit back by saying Makau is an offshore self-exiled man, implying that he does not understand the reality of local politics.

He has been called a mouse in the race among two horses, man who cannot get enough votes to chair a cattle dip committee in the village, a traitor being led by desire to get rich, among other derogatory names.

‘Twitter stronghold’

Others have said Twitter is his stronghold; having more followers than the actual votes he got during the August 8 elections.

“People who say Twitter is my stronghold are traditional thinkers. Social media is a powerful tool. Obama and other leaders have used it,” he says.

He vows to remain unbowed in the face of relentless criticism and protect the dream he birthed many miles away, when he was invited to give a talk at Yale University in 2014 – that of vying for presidency.

After the talk, he had a brief conversation with Clare Lockhart, co-author of famous book “Fixing failed states.”

As they talked, Aukot says he realised the only solution for Kenya was on a person with sober mind stepping up to lead the state. That person was himself.

“When I told my wife Lorna Wanjiru that I had decided to run for presidency, she gleefully responded she knew the day would come, she just didn’t expect it to be so soon,” says Aukot.

He has shielded his family from publicity, but lights up when talking about his two daughters. His excitement also shows when he talks about the ring on his finger.

The silver ring he wears embodies what he believes in. He got inspiration to design it when he visited Essakane in Timbuktu eight years ago. Aukot gets uneasy when his arrogance is mentioned. Talks with his former colleagues paint him as an extremely arrogant man.

“He constantly made people feel small,” says a woman who worked with him when he was secretary of committee of experts that drafted the current constitution.

Aukot says he is many things, but arrogant is not one of them.

“I am straight forward. I don’t mince my words and I tend to state my position strongly. People mistake that for arrogance,” he says. The team that previously worked on his campaign before Aukot did a complete overhaul and fired them differ strongly. They call him temperamental, while others say he is too suspicious; almost paranoid.

Aukot believes his biggest weakness is ability to trust people; a mistake he did when hiring a campaign team, only to realise they were stealing his strategies and selling to his competitors.

“What beautiful strategy did he have that can be stolen?” one former team mate pauses.

On allegations that he was paid by Jubilee to go to the polls,  Aukot says: “I don’t even like Jubilee. Why would I accept to be bought?”

He believes the false rumours stem from Raila’s supporters.

“Did NASA pay me when I was supporting some of the changes they recommended?” he says.

In all this, he has learnt lessons. The biggest being that Kenyans have fixated minds and it is hard to change them.

Still, he keeps hope alive.