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?