The slim prospects of Lee Kinyanjui comeback

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Worldwide, its not unusual to see leaders, once having tasted the trappings of power, will look for ways to cling to that office, and if its the highest in the land, to force constitutional amendments, or even rule through proxies. 

Close home, we're seeing those who served at different elective offices reinventing themselves for a political comeback. Be it the first cohort of MCAs to governors and senators. 

A look at Nakuru county political landscape illustrates this. Lee Kinyanjui, the second governor of Nakuru county, has set his sights for a political comeback, this time to recapture the seat he lost to the incumbent governor, Susan Kihika.

The prospects of his reelection aren't promising. The online streets could be where his candidacy is highly amplified, but the ground is telling a different picture.

The business community, for instance, is the unforgiving one. It vowed to send him home in 2022 and mobilized support for then senator Susan Kihika, who resoundingly trounced him out of the office. 

Like his predecessor Kimani Mbugua who rubbed the business community the wrong way, Lee should have learned a lesson from that debacle but instead chose not. Mbugua had running battles with street traders whom he evicted out of all busy streets and consigned their operations to peripheries of the CBD. Most businesses closed.

Kinyanjui, on the other hand, evicted matatus and traders out of town, with bus parks designated long way out of commuter convenience. It wasn't unusual to see businesses like eateries pleading with passersby to be their customers as foot traffic had thinned out, especially if said premises are located where once busy matatu terminals vibrated.

There are those who cheered his policies, like the eviction of matatus out of town, claiming it gave the town that was awarded a city charter under his watch a clean, peaceful look. But critics saw it as giving the town a ghostly look, and strangulating businesses leading to an economic slowdown.

The business community is apprehensive of his likely return to carry on with his painful policies to give the town the city model look of his blueprint. He'll likely undo the gains of his successor, Susan Kihika.

Commuters crossing sections of the George Morara Road to access matatu park on railways ground along the busy Nakuru-Eldoret highway will be having a delicate dance with death contending with speeding vehicles. In his lack of foresight, Lee didn't see the wisdom in building elevated footbridges to ease these concerns.

According to the chairman of a matatu sacco, the return of Lee will see matatus kicked out, and this will all of a sudden create a headache both to commuters and transport operators. 

"When Lee Kinyanjui was in power, we were allowed to pick passengers at our former stages after the end of business. Only two matatus at a time would be allowed to get to the stage," he says.

Operators have vowed not to go to this formula once evicted again, but will be fighting for their spaces or to be allowed limited vehicle access at all the times, not at the end of business hours.

Susan Kihika may be blamed for clawing back on the Lee Kinyanjui ban on matatus access to the CBD, but traders and businesses depending on commuters see her policy to reverse same as a saviour to their lifelines.

It can be said by going after matatu operators and other businesses, Lee Kinyanjui purchased a political rope he hanged himself with at the 2022 ballot, and is trying to untangle the noose unapologetically, and carry on with his vision of his model city from where he left off, and in effect step on more toes.

His is a political suicide attempt appealing to same people he nearly drove bust to reelect him!


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