Sympathy vote at times can be tricky. That why in my view President Uhuru Kenyatta is not in hurry in naming his preferred choice overtly. For example, when the Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Kenya Dr Jackson Ole Sapit bared Raila Odinga from addressing congregants at Rose Nereya Okeno’s consecration in Butere, on September 12, 2021. On September 13, 2021 following day, his kinsmen [Sapit] from Narok, Samburu, Laikipia and Kajiado visited Raila in droves to pledge their support to him. And from that episode, Raila whirlwind trails in Mt Kenya was overwhelmingly successful with rousing welcome against expectation.
In South Africa, back in 2005. The then president, Thabo Mbeki, dismissed his Deputy Jacob Zuma after his financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, was convicted of soliciting a bribe. What followed, in sympathy vote, Zuma was elected two years later President of the African National Congress [ANC] on 18 December 2007 after defeating the same Mbeki who had sacked him, and led the ANC to victory in the 2009 general election where he was elected President of South Africa.
On 29 June 2021, he became the first South African president since the end the end of white-minority rule in 1994 to receive a prison sentence where his fanatics did watch meekly but caused mayhem before subdued by authority forcefully.
So, that why President Uhuru Kenyatta is mark-timely socializing progressives [“Kileweke”] and conservatives [“Tanga-Tanga”] toward 2022 general election envisaging to reform politicking in expense of development in between genera elections. But my opinion as enshrined in Kenya’s constitution.