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Hii ni kujituliza…, ama ni nini?

[B]This one is what has inspired my question.

[SIZE=4]No billboards, no caps, no T-shirts. Is Raila’s campaign cash-strapped?[/SIZE]
By Geoffrey Mosoku
Updated Wednesday, July 12th 2017 at 00:18 GMT +3
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The National Super Alliance (NASA) is yet to stage a well-oiled campaign with just 26 days to election day in what insiders term as a fresh strategy ‘to put resources where it matters’.
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Although the Opposition chiefs have been traversing the country hunting for votes, their campaigns are devoid of the campaign hardware that Kenyans are accustomed to.

NASA is yet to procure caps, T-shirts, branded reflector jackets and flyers. It has not printed and distributed campaign posters and its billboards are nowhere to be seen.

Protecting the vote

The Raila Odinga team has also not started media buying for adverts in both print and electronic platforms, raising fears that the Opposition chiefs maybe facing a cash crunch.

Raila’s advisor Salim Lone says they are late in running the traditional campaigns for strategic reasons.

According to the advisor, NASA’s priority was to invest in what he terms as enormous resources needed in protecting their vote.

“We know our numbers and we know the breakthrough we have made in the so-called Jubilee strongholds. We are putting foremost resources to protect the vote as we have learnt lessons from the last two elections on how the votes are stolen. We have invested in agents and trained them to guard our votes,” Lone says.

He however argues that NASA supporters will soon see NASA’s campaign muscle when it deploys resources to protect its vote.

“You will be seeing that very soon. We are coming to the stage where we will be comfortable and can deploy those resources,” Lone adds.

Several months after Raila was named the Opposition presidential candidate and the announcement of his campaign team led by Musalia Mudavadi, NASA has failed to show its financial muscle, which could either be a strategy or a symptom of lack of money.

Other than fears of cash crunch, insiders insist that the lack of colour in their campaign is informed by the notion that voters have already decided and adverts or campaign materials do not in the end add to the numbers.

This, they said, was a deliberate decision to divert campaign money to the recruitment of agents who will help in not only securing their vote but also mobilising supporters to cast their votes.

There is no single ‘Raila for President’ poster countrywide, unlike in 2007 and 2013. His images are only seen on campaign posters of the various NASA party candidates including governors, senators, MPs and MCA candidates. The only major billboards are those featuring the five Nasa leaders together with the change slogan.

Raila’s campaign is also yet to witness branded campaign vehicles and caravans bearing his image and running mate Kalonzo Musyoka’s.

Branded T-shirts

This is in total contrast to what their main rivals President Uhuru Kenyatta and his DP William Ruto are running where they literally paint their rallies read with branded T shirts and other merchandise.

In the ongoing campaigns, only the five principals Raila, Kalonzo, Mudavadi, Moses Wetang’ula and Isaac Ruto don branded shirts bought from the campaign kitty. A few leaders such senators, governors and MPs have privately bought theirs.

“The lack of campaign material is strategic for us since we don’t want to appear like we lure supporters with free caps or T shirts to attend our rallies,” NASA secretariat head Norman Magaya says.

According to Magaya, NASA will invest its resources in any form of campaign where it is sure of returns. The team is planning to begin advertising albeit lately to counter the Jubilee juggernaut. The party has not been advertising directly but the Presidential Delivery Unit has been advertising the successes of the Jubilee government.
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Hehehehe.

Jubilee is better organised. I wouldn’t trust NASA guys to run a department in my company.

2 Likes

An obvious explanation is that JaKuon believes that his mouth can substitute for the usual campaign strategies. Hardley a day passes without another sensational accusation coming out of him. This is obviously meant to keep his name in the news as a presidential candidate. This is also what billboards, T-shirts, caps and other campaign materials are supposed to do, and it’s infinitely cheaper. The downside is that JaKuon has a fatal flaw because every second word puts his big foot into his mouth.

Your comparative example is something different. When people say that you don’t have money because you didn’t buy anything, they are expressing their frustration because they so desperately wanted to make a sale. It has nothing to do with strategy, or so I think.

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Niko na feeling they expect 8/8 to be extended… #Smh

So, what you are saying, in a nutshell, is that ikiwa media houses want campaign cash from these misers ni wawape coverage blackout, sio?

My comparison is justified by the fact that the Standard are citing cash crunch as the reason for their reduced campaign spending. The Standard is not awake to the fact that nasa is very visible on the ground where visibility to the voters matter. Raila’s picture is on every nasa aspirant’s poster. Besides everyone in the world knows that Raila is the other presidential candidate after Uhuru. Why pay for what you already have?

To the Standard, you must pay for televised advertisements to achieve their threshold of having enough cash!

Amesema kuwa prezzo is planning to reject results and am like wtf,who has admitted that he will respect the outcome of the election regardless of the outcome. I am still waiting to hear the same from baba.
Also for those in the know,what are the consequences of a candidate allegations that the security apparatus are planning to rig him out? Assuming he wins?

1 Like

That’s an interesting way of looking at it.

washeni gukunia kwa thread

Don’t shoot the messenger.
Truth is Nasa is broke. Perhaps even Jimmy Wanjigi’s money is not enough to mount a strong campaign. And I’m sure the people/foreigners who have given Raila money for the last 2 elections have probably concluded its a waste of time coz he never wins.

Even if I don’t think buying TV or newspaper ads is necessary for Uhuru and Raila, there are other areas where you can see a clear cash crunch. Their rallies are mostly very disorganized. Sometimes the public address malfunctions, even during manifesto launch they could not hire a proper event organizer with the right amount of hype. Plus they failed to pay TV stations to show live.

You can rest assured that when they say that they are reserving cash for the agents, that’s just an excuse. This time round they might actually have the least number of agents ever.
In short, Raila is a rich man, but he is too mean to put his own billions into his own campaign. He prefers others donate their money. Very different from the Kenyattas, especially in 2013.

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I am a Tumbilee, and so it would be music in my ears…, yaani, I would love to believe that nasa are broke! However, I know very well that that would be to live a lie, just like naswads love to live a lie. I think it’s strategic. They know they can’t win first round. They believe there will be a runoff.

About the media, having had a bumper harvest in 2013, they had anticipated even a huger windfall in 2017. That is why they have been whipping emotions throughout the four years, just like Hollywood does by showing trailers to market a new release. Now, they are disappointed since the campaigns are drawing to an end. Today the same The Standard is whispering about how Sonko is broke. Well, he might be, but the media didn’t get their windfall. And that could be what disappoints them!

On the run off I disagree. I don’t think either side think there will be a runoff.
For a runoff to realistically happen, the other candidates (Dida, Aukot etc) need to get something like 2% so that they eat into Uhuru and Raila’s support. But I don’t think they’ll even get 1% combined.
Remember 1% will be something like 200,000 votes.
Last time, Peter Kenneth + Dida + Karua + Kiyiapi + Muite cumulatively only managed 1.8% of the total votes.