This is how Migori politicians should pick social media henchmen…

Today I will take time to post on my blog, a personal column like writing out of the structured pieces I do for the Star newspaper from Migori county.

Morning rain clouds have been flirting with Migori town, and knowing my home town for being wet it’s now raining with the horizon clouded in white rain sheet as I write this.

The long rains have arrived along with the quickly rising political temperature as Migori is quickly shaping up ahead of national elections slotted for next year.

Aspirants have tentatively tried to test the ground by having spontaneous harambee, meet the people tour or strategizing as they pick their teams ahead of official campaign kick-off.

Since the campaigns are yet to fully take shape, politicians have hired henchmen and little political spanner boys to test the ground on social media. Facebook, through popular groups have turned up as a favorite spot with WhatsApp coming second.

A few savvy politicians and aspirants have launched websites and hired bloggers to propagate their agenda to shape their national image.

The 2017 political jumbo has fallen and like hounds political spanner boys are already picking the carcass first, if constant Facebook and WhatsApp posts celebrating their paymasters are anything to go by.

Some have taken up multiple aspirants through all five posts of Governor, Senator, Women Representative, Legislators and MCAs.

The only unifying post is presidency where Raila Odinga from the most populous Orange Democratic Movement party brings together disparate views.

This overzealous social media posturing will be the down fall of many aspirants as their spanner boys’ multiple ‘endorsement’ and jumping across aspirants will be their main undoing.

Let me explain: spanner boy X, for example, has vowed support for Governor Okoth Obado, Women Representative Dennitah Ghati and Suna West MP Joseph Ndiege. This is just an example.

Mr. X will constantly attack everybody against Obado including spanner boy Y who supports, let us says, governor aspirant Anne Omodho Anyanga. Already there is bad blood between the two at governor position.

Later Mr. X and Mr. Y find themselves supporting Ghati at Women Representative position. The two guys end up differing again sharply at constituency level as Mr. Y supports, let us presume former Migori mayor Peter Masara.

As the two continue asserting their power through exchange of abuses and counter-attacks through multiple Facebook and WhatsApp groups posts it is politicians who suffer the most.

To avert this Migori politicians should pick up their social media ‘gurus’ selectively, reservedly and ensure they stick to a single level and post in elections campaign. This will create uniformity and avoid scuttling other voters.

A governor aspirant will seek votes from supporters of politicians (aspirants and elected) in other posts, this should never be compromised by an overzealous social media spanner boys.

Above all they should never bank on these antics as there is no polling station called social media. If social media was that powerful then Martha Karua and Peter Kenneth could’ve been presidents by now.

(Follow me on Twitter @ManuelOdeny)

Of #Mollis' tape, a high school girl’s nude photos and Kenyan deviant sex attitude

VIOLATED: A school girl after police officers arrested her and colleagues on a drug fuelled sexual binge in a public service vehicle. She was arrested with drugs concealed in her panties 

Kenyans have a history of reacting with shock, self-loath or utter humour to pubic sexual debates, a trend that shows how deep and diverse individual opinion on the subject.

In Kenya sex is a private matter often taken in strict privacy and never talked about openly in public due to taboo which creates controversial when we are faced with immediate public debate.

Takes for example in the past two days when Kenyan social media scene was awash about a sexual tape of a man called #Mollis (Morris) having sex with a girl who is unwilling.

In the tape, the girl is heard asking the #Mollis why he did not show up the previous day, before the man callously retorting if she needed sex then. The girl briefly requests #Mollis to come back tomorrow.

In the heat of sex the woman is heard groaning and pleading with #Mollis to stop citing being tired, pleas which are ignored.

Already #KOT has been awash with the tape with Kenyans creating funny memes while other condemning the tape as a show of the country’s intolerant rape culture and disrespect to women.

In the same day, a photo of a nude school girl arrested by police while on a binge in a bus has been circulated online.

The girl, in a major disregard to her rights was photographed with her bra visible and her white and maroon panties stuffed with bhang and matchboxes pulled down exposing her pubic hair.

We were shocked how high school students heading home from school could end up in a drug fuelled sexual frenzy in a public service vehicle.

As a country, we need to embrace our sexuality and make the debate to be more open from personal relationship with our lovers, children, parents and neighbours.

In this denial we often react with shock or humour when things we think of as taboos or private fantasies come out in public to challenge acceptability and show a wider behavior as a country.

The same reaction was treated to US biologist Alfred Kinsey in 1940-50s when he published the revolutionary Kinsey Report which is a collection of two books that extensively interviewed sexual orientation of approximately 6,000 Americans.

The results shocked the nation to realise sexual behaviours considered as ‘deviant” like homosexuality, extra-marital affair in women, sadomasochism among others were active in the society.

The report shaped research and policies on sex in the country. We need a similar professional report as what #Mollis’ tape and the school girl’s nude photo is but an informal report.

Try and consider how the public reacted when nude photos of Kenyans having sex in a public park at Muliro Gardens in Kakamega or leaked lurid SMSes sent to the popular Classic FM’s morning drive show.

Or how we are quick to consider gay as a non-issue in Kenya when our country top the globe in searching for gay porn on Google.

All these should throw a gauntlet to our social scientists to pull a Kinsey move and help scientifically map the country sex report.