Attacking journalists will not win UDA votes

Democracy for the Citizens Party candidate Douglas Kamau Waweru wins Ol Kalou parliamentary by-election.[Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

Following Uda's huge loss in Ol Kalou, the party's SG hassan omar decided to vent his spleen on The Standard during a press conference.

In an unwarranted attack, he suggested that a ktn reporter, who had requested to ask a question had been told to do so by one of the shareholders of the company, who he claimed was behind The Standard headline 'Whitewashed', which described dcp's victory against Uda in the mini poll.

Indeed, the dcp victory in Ol kalou was nothing short of a whitewash. Alternative words that would have been used to describe the victory are trampled, defeated, humbled and trumped, among others.

This is because the defeat was resounding defeat for a coalition that had poured immense resources in the constituency in bid to retake the seat. In no other by-election has uda lost with such a huge margin. From money said to run to over Sh1 billion to government branded goodies ranging from mattresses, gas cylinders the government deployed all manner of voter bribery to win the seat. It was a case of goliath vs david as the other parties had no resources with which to placate the voters.

The frustration in uda after losing a seat they had invested so much in is therefore understanble. But it doesn't give Omar the licence to direct his anger at the standard, which he is clearly unhappy with for exposing and condemning Uda's odious voter bribery during the by-election, which the sg seems to regard as 'strategy'. Indeed, if uda is to regain its foothold in Mt kenya, it  must discard this illegal strategy that it has deployed since the 2022 election campaign for Kenyans are now much much wiser.

Omar should go back to the drawing board and come up with better strategies of winning over voters instead of needlessly attacking Kenya's oldest media house. And physically assaulting journalists by uda allied  hooded security officers as happened in ol kalou will not win uda votes. Attacking journalism, just like bribing voters, will boomerang on Uda.

Which perhaps is part of the strategy alluded to by the sg.