Roots presidential candidate George Wajackoya Luchiri’s popularity has grown so much in the recent days thus causing a threat to some of the presidential candidates that he recently claimed one of them wanted to bribe him with Kshs200 million to drop his presidential bid.
Wajackoya’s popularity is growing thanks to his controversial manifesto that is more appealing to the youth who consist of a majority of his supporters.
Some of the things in his manifesto that have been celebrated by the younger generation include legalization of bhang, reduction of working days to 4 and among other unique things that he says will grow the country’s economy, thus making everybody a millionaire within a short period of time.
Recent polls indicated that Raila Odinga was leading in the presidential race in Nairobi with 50%, Ruto came second at 25% and Wajackoya third with 7%.
Tifa political analyst Tom Wolf however said that it is possible for Wajackoya to deny either Ruto or Raila a first round win in the August 9 polls because of his influence.
“Given the unconventionality of his offerings to Kenyans, I have to say that anything is possible. When TIFA did a Nairobi County survey about three weeks ago, he was at 3 percent. I went back and looked at the data and he has about four times more support among people in the youngest age group (18-24) than he does for people over 35,” he said in an interview with a local station.
But for Wajackoya to deny the two leader first round win, his supporters must actively participate in the polls because according to Wolf, the youths in the mentioned age bracket don’t actively participate in elections as compared to people above 35 years.
“We know, from our data also, that in terms of voter registration and the likelihood of voting based on past data that people in that younger group are less likely to vote on August 9 than older people, so will that 7 percent for Nairobi even materialize?” he posed.
Wolf further said that those supporting him currently might just be doing so for fun.
“I would put the people most likely to vote for him into three categories; those protesting the choice between Raila and Ruto, those who maybe believe in his economic model and then third, just for fun because they like the music that he makes,” the political analyst noted.
Therefore, for Wajackoya to be successful in his bid, he must put in more effort to consolidate votes from those aged over 35 years and also convince youths in participating in the general elections by voting.
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