Most Winners Of By-elections Will Lose The General Elections - Advice Mundalo

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]And welcome to the agenda issue. Advice.

[00:00:02]As you comment on the process, your view on the process. Do you feel this was a win for the party or for the people? In that if the candidate that won was in another party, Yes. would still would have been the people's choice or did he win because he was in that political formation? Uh that's quite an interesting question. I think let me start with the your question process.

[00:00:23]And uh election process is very very important. If no one better than the Supreme Court has actually assured us that, because at one point we have had our election nullified on the basis of not the numbers but the process. So it's a very very important thing. But then what does the process mean? Process actually is about three people in an election, the IEBC, the political parties, and the candidate.

[00:00:45]The person with the highest responsibility among all these people is the IEBC. The IEBC is the body that we all put our money to so that they can be able to manage the election. And therefore they must be able to inspire sufficient levels of confidence in the voter. And I've kept saying that as we move towards the general election, it is not about sometimes how fair the election will be. It's about how the people will perceive the referee to be fair. So they must actually do a lot of work in that. And number two is the political parties because they are the ones who are the custodians. They are the ones who take people to the election. One of the things that I give it to you DA that they have really tried to do is that in all the by-elections, they have always had nominations. So they have always tried to take this power back to the people to pick the candidates. This one of the things that ate us very badly when I was in Jubilee that in every by-election we actually picked candidate the candidates by consensus and it came back to bite us. So the moment you keep taking the responsibility of choice back to the people, it speaks about how much you are actually you actually want to value their opinion. And on that one in comparison to other political parties, they are really doing very good at that.

[00:01:58]ODM has also been having that teething issue of direct tickets and giving people directly. And then there's the third issue of the politicians. And we must understand that politicians always take a political stand, not necessarily a factual stand. And that's why there will always be an excuse for an election lost according to a politician. First of all, there's no politician who loses election fairly. All politicians in fact are always positioned to in the election. I have run for election before and not many people know the position I came. They just know I was second. Because at the end of the day you must give your people an argument that sustains you for the next election.

[00:02:35]And that's why you'll realize that miraculously in the Murang'a by-election we are not talking about the votes having been rigged.

[00:02:44]Why? Because there's a better conversation on percentage. So opposition would rather have a conversation on percentage because they feel like this percentage, perception-wise, it paints a good After all, the people didn't even expect us to win. So why can't we have this conversation about percentage? But when you go to Mbere where they are expected to win, when they lose they tell you no, the election was rigged.

[00:03:07]>> [laughter] >> So that is the selective amnesia that politicians will always operate with.

[00:03:11]That when it favors them they will always look for the point that will favor them. When it doesn't then that is exactly the That's why today you're not going I remember I was here I think it was after we one of the by-elections and the cornerstone of the conversation here was that uh there was state machinery. The election was rigged and all that. So I wonder, where has state machinery disappeared to in the Murang'a? Where has money disappeared to in the Murang'a? It is because people politicians always argue the point that gives them the premium at that particular level. And that's why I've always argued that Kenyan elections are not rigged. There's even no possibility.

[00:03:47]There is no possibility. The truth is that those ones who prepare the best for election will win. And that's where UDA has continued to beat opposition. That UDA has continued to be better prepared for the by-elections. And there's a question that Ndu talked about that we might be speaking from both ends of our mouth when we when we are saying there's ideology-driven politics and then you ask but where was the change?

[00:04:09]>> Mhm. Uh in the vote result.

[00:04:13]And I thought that was very interesting because number one, change does not always mean, Ndu, that people must vote out government.

[00:04:19]>> Mhm.

[00:04:20]Sometimes that is the change that they have actually voted for. So, sometimes there is change according to what we think and what the people actually think. And when you talk about ideology-driven politics, which is the cornerstone and you said you'll get to that, people are asking themselves who exactly when I'm voting for these people, what is their driving force?

[00:04:40]They're asking themselves, this DCP, what is their ideology on education?

[00:04:45]What is their ideology on health? What is their policy on foreign relations?

[00:04:49]And they can't see. And the moment the conversation goes that way, still government and the ruling party continues to be the one leading the conversation in terms of the ideology.

[00:04:59]They can be able to say, this is what we have done. This is what we plan to do.

[00:05:03]You Some might not like it, some might like it, but at least this is our plan.

[00:05:07]And so, people are asking, what is the alternative plan? And then you ask me about who is the winner? Is it the political party? Is it the candidate? And I'll tell you that in all by-elections, the winners are always the political parties in all by-elections because the contest there majorly is always about the political parties because the political parties are always preparing for the general election. And so, every by-election is a litmus test. And that's why when you look at the percentage level, most winners of by-elections lose general elections because when it comes to general elections, the story now centers down to you and it moves then away from uh the political party most of the time.

[00:05:45]>> Most winners of by-elections