The Bahatian

In 2022 General Election, Nakuru county made a first in politics when it voted an all female ensemble of a trio compromising the governor, senator and woman representative. Some constituencies had female legislators and members of county assemblies. This led to coinage of the moniker Nakuru Girls to describe the rise of females in politics.   Interesting, despite the all female brigade in high echelon of the county's politics, many felt it wasn't enough to meet the two thirds gender rule prescribed in the constitution as the bicameral parliament had a high male representation, same with counties, where in the 47 counties in the geographical Kenya, there are majority male county bosses than there are females.   Of interest, since the coming of devolution, Nakuru county had produced one term governors. All have been elected on the political wave of the day. The current governor, Susan Kihika, is gearing to break the jink of the one term governor as she eyes her secon...

As Kenya's 2027 politics take shape, the race for Bahati constituency member of parliament seat in Nakuru county is attracting several candidates. Among the notable ones is Mary Justus Mannabay, who's seen as a great threat to the incumbent MP, Irene Njoki Mrembo. This writer sat down for an interview with her recently. She expressed that Bahati constituency had what it takes to be at par with Kiharu constituency but poor leadership is to blame. Here's part of the interview in question and answer format. Q : Going by the Bahati electorate sentiments that the quartet of the so called Nakuru Girls, that's the governor, senator, women representative, and the MP, should go home and male leadership return with exception of women representative position, what's your take? A : I believe not everyone subscribes to such archaic reasoning that a woman in leadership is a failure or cannot deliver. Leadership is not defined by gender. We have politicians and leaders. When peopl...

Mr Njaga has announced his intention to be a champion of the masses. By this, he intends to be elected a mheshimiwa in a top echelon position in Nakuru County. He's hardly a name that registers beyond his village and the dynamics of national politics are sheer fatigue to him. For those not averse who the man is, here's his brief. Mr Njaga was once a lowly paid primary school teacher. Those with long memory recalls the lean days he peddled his black mamba bicycle to a rundown government school ten kilometres away from his home. He was dreaded for his temper and famous for whipping ihii into 'civilized gentlemen' long before they faced the knife. Story had it the man disappeared from school for two years only to reemerge later with a headmaster's title. It was to emerge he had gone back to college to further the little training he had. From there, his fortunes changed for good. He started living large than the teacher's payslip could accord. He constructed a magni...