Voters are now wiser; it will not be business as usual in 2027

Police officers guard ballot papers at Mvita tallying centre in Mombasa. [File, Standard]

There are very interesting developments on the political front. The United Opposition is chipping off its pillars one after the other. At the same time, the UDA-ODM government is harbouring in-house suspicions about who intends to bolt out of the broad-based government. The common factor in all the happenings in this garden of political shame is the gaze on the 2027 General Election.

I call it a garden of political shame because election campaign rhetoric is back to the good guys versus the bad guys. It is back to ethnic mobilisation as a major factor in choosing a candidate. After all, the fallacious argument goes, an election is about numbers. Everything else is hot air. So what will make 2027 unique from previous elections?