Why recent by-election losers with integrity outshine tainted winners

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.[File, Standard]

In a season where money and criminality have begun to overshadow popularity, Kenya has entered an era where winning no longer automatically signals legitimacy. The recent by-elections made this painfully clear. Violence travelled ahead of victory, and money became the real campaigner. Power went to those willing to pay for chaos, not those who persuaded the conscience of the people. When blood becomes part of an electoral process, celebration becomes a form of moral blindness.

A win is not just a win. How you win matters. Suluhuism describes the politics of winning by suppression—an artform in which power is acquired by pressing down the will of the people and paying to obstruct their voice. It is a system where oppression is packaged as electoral success, where violence is renamed “mobilisation,” and where bloodshed becomes part of the campaign budget. In Suluhuism, strategy is simply the sanitised name for force.