Ol Kalou chronicles: Of Kikuyu songs, Ruto's response and trending headline

The Ol Kalou Constituency by-election in Nyandarua County was marked by all kinds of humour, drama and reactions before, during and after the poll.

The high-stake election was a fierce contest between President William Ruto, whose United Democratic Alliance(UDA) party fronted Samuel Muchina and former impeached Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.

Gachagua’s Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) candidate was Sammy Kamau(often called Kamau Ngotho), who won with 35,440 votes against Muchina who got a mere 5,450 votes.

This is despite the State using all kinds of machinery and even bribing voters through goodies like gas, mattresses, power posts, boats and money ahead of the by-elections.

By Friday morning, the defeat must have hit Ruto hard that he had not posted anything on his social media handles related to the elections.

The President, ironically did not visit Ol Kalou before elections to campaign for his candidate but only relied on his officers and allies, including Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and Members of Parliament, some from the Mount Kenya region.

The events before, during and after the by-elections that have thrust Ol Kalou by-election into a national limelight, created political and social media fodder to talk about for the next few days.

They also offer lessons and warnings for politicians in future by-elections.

This was in addition to the violence that was witnessed where armed, masked men travelling in black Prados were seen disrupting the by-election polling, leading to injuries and robbing of journalists.

Kikuyu songs like Aririkana (also commonly titled "Handu Hau") and originally sang by Charles Njoroge were very essential in driving the people of Ol Kalou to vote for DCP candidate.

The song was frequently used by DCP’s secretary general and Nyandarua’s Senator John Methu, who became the soloist and would lead the locals in singing it.

"Ruto aririkana Ol'Kalou atahahùka aririkana handû haû,"(When Ruto remembers Ol kalou he gets frightened when he remembers the loss.”)

Former Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria’s demeaning reference to DCP candidate as “chokora”(street boy)  during the campaign and urging residents not to elect him, seems also to have worked for him.

After the remark, the Ol Kalou residents responded in kind and started a fundraiser to support Kamau to fund his campaigns as thousands contributed Sh 10 each to buy the candidate a new suit for his potential swearing-in.

Ironically, after Kamau was declared the winner, he is seen posing with his certificate with a DCP-branded T-shirt with his photo printed on it and words Chokora Wa Olkalou, perhaps showing he has accepted it.

After the elections, netizens dug out past videos of UDA leaders before the elections, including Deputy President Kithure Kindiki.

The now viral video on social media shows how Kindiki promised to show Gachagua dust.

“Ngojeni iko by-elections inakuja Ol Kalou, Nyandarua. Tutakutana na huyo mwanaume hapo Nyandarua.

I am telling you. Mimi nangojea tutakutanana na huyo mwanume Nyandarua na hio kifua yake anajipiga...Tutamnyorosha mbaya sana, mbaya, hapo ndio heshima itapatikana. Niseme nisiseme, ni leo sio leo,” said Kindiki.

However, that was not possible and sensing defeat in the early hours of Thursday night, he was among those UDA leaders including Head of Presidential Special Projects and Creative Economy Coordination Dennis Itumbi and Kapsaret MP Oscar Sudi, who conceded in  posts on their social media handles, congratulating DCP’s candidate for the win.

“Congratulations Sammy Douglas Waweru Kamau on your imminent victory in the by-election held today for the MP seat for Ol Kalou constituency. Unite the residents and serve them all without distinction. Congratulations Samuel Muchina our UDA Party candidate for a good show and a mature, issue-based campaign devoid of insults. You may not have succeeded today, but your star shines bright into the future,” posted Kindiki on Facebook and X.

And on Friday morning, he posted: “Back to the drawing board.”

Itumbi, in a post, acknowledged both the winner and the efforts of the UDA candidate.

"Congratulations Ngotho. Well fought. Well won. Serve Olkalou well. Good campaign Muchina Samuel Nyagah, - we had a great race. We did what we could. We lost today. There is tomorrow. Tuonane in the next democratic process. Senator Methu your campaign won, the future awaits...sasa get confirmed as SG. Sina mengi ya kusema kwa sasa," ...” posted Itumbi on X.

Had UDA’s candidate won, Kindiki, who comes from Tharaka Nithi County in Mount Kenya East, would have used the victory to rubberstamp his authority in Mount Kenya West and entire Central region, few months after narrowly winning in the Mount Kenya East’s Mbeere North by-elections in Embu County in February this year.

In the by-elections, Kindiki beat Gachagua after UDA’s candidate Leo Wamuthende won with 15, 802 votes against Democratic Party's Newton Kariuki 15, 308  and who was being supported by DCP.

And on Friday, when President Ruto changed his Facebook profile photo, the majority of netizens responded negatively, mostly with comments about the Ol Kalou loss.

The Standard’s “Whitewashed” headline on Friday also went viral on Thursday night and throughout Friday, with most comments directed towards Ruto for his failure to win the highly contested seat.