Make room for more Waigurus and Savulas this year

Lugari MP Ayub Savula. [David Njaaga, Standard]

If Kenyans needed a more recent example of a politician who embodies and defines what politics is all about, then they must have found that in one Ayub Savula- MP for Lugari. Our politics is defined by its treachery, trickery, mischief, machinations and the ANC Deputy Leader became the latest politician to prove just that.

Here is a man who just a few days ago was screaming in Vihiga at how, he and other ANC members were prepared to shoot down the Political Parties Amendment Bill for threatening the survival of their leader Musalia Mudavadi. As deputy party leader, he was ready to face the Justice, Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee with his amendments without which, he was going to fight it to the bitter end on behalf of his boss.

If you watched him speak, you would be convinced he was Mudavadi’s most loyal servant. A few days later Savula was at Bukhungu Stadium in Kakamega ditching the OKA alliance for the Azimio la Umoja movement.
His action brings to memory the likes of Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru. She of the ‘you cannot buy a kikuyu’ fame. She now saunters around confidently selling the hustler agenda.

Remember Irungu Kang’ata? He led his fellow senators in bundling out Kipchumba Murkomen and Susan Kihika from their high profile roles at the Senate and even holding Kihika’s Chief Whip position briefly, only to follow them to UDA.

We are bound to see more this year as politicians keep ‘listening to the ground’. In political lingua, ‘ground’ is what the people want. In actual terms, ground means where the politician’s future is most secure or to make it better, the hands in which they are safe.

The desire of the current MPs and others is to at least be on the side of the Government and if not, then at the very least, to preserve the political clout by retaining their political seats. While at it, the voter remains a pawn. They will fools us with political platitudes while strategising for their own survival.

If there is anything Kenyans must shun this year, it is to be tossed and swayed around by political merchants. Whenever a chance avails itself please let’s ask them questions. Let the incumbents account for their five years before we can renew their contracts.

As the countdown to August 9th election begins, let’s use every chance, to also let them know what we know what are looking for. We are looking for leaders with a calling for service humanity, leaders who will be burdened by our daily plight as we seek the most basic of services; food, shelter and clothing and by extension health and education.

-Writer is an anchor at Radio Maisha