Yesterday Kenyans received a glimpse of just how fast the political ball game can change when one of the most popular Christian evangelists in the country declared his interest in the highest office in the land.
Pastor Pius Muiru of Maximum Miracle Ministries launched a new political party called RAK (Republican Alliance Of Kenya) as he announced his presidential bid. He said that he would vie for the Kamukunji parliamentary seat in Nairobi.
There are many Kenyans who strongly believe that religious leaders should stay out of politics. Still, this latest development is the worst nightmare happening for the current crop of politicians and especially the political ruling class that has blackmailed Kenyans for too long now.
To start with Muiru is known to fill stadiums to capacity anywhere in the republic, a feat that only a handful of national politicians can manage at the moment. Not to mention his glitzy PR machine which in fact produced the impressive clip that was aired on national TV last night. The clip was deliberately designed to make the evangelist look very "presidential" and it succeeded. It showed Muiru being welcomed by traditional dancers (as presidents in Kenya always have) and then after the brief speech punctuated by wild cheers, the camera caught his fleet of flashy cars driving away in an extremely presidential style. It is instructive that none of the other presidential candidates so far has come anywhere near in terms of positioning themselves during their launch or ensuring that they look presidential enough.
What is important at this juncture is not whether Muiru has a chance of making it to State House. Critics will be quick to point out a number of political mistakes he made in his move to announce his bid to State House. They will further point to the rough and tumble of Kenyan politics and liken Muiru's entry to the releasing a sheep to a pride of angry Lions (not even wolves). But that is really not the point here.
The really significant thing that happened with yesterday's announcement is that the Kenyan political scene will never be the same again. Not only do we now have a candidate standing on the platform of integrity (at a time when we need it so badly in the nation), but there is also the fact that this is no tribal chief or candidate with a tribal base of any sort. What would have further caused lots of butterflys in the guts of many politicians eyeing the same office, is the fact that Muiru is fairly capable of fully financing a respectable presidential bid.
What all this means is that we are headed for a historical campaign where the rules are being significantly altered.
Interestingly a brief SMS survey on NTV last night showed that only 26 per cent of the respondents would vote for Muiru with those who said they wouldn't vote for him giving various interesting reasons why. One person even said that people of other religions would feel alienated by a Christian president, given the evangelists' high profile religious activities.
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I strongly state that the entrance of christian leaders in politics is more than welcomed we have suffered so much under the tyranny of our selfish political elites.Kenyans have died of hunger,poverty and so on.Pius should be a mentor to many of us wishing to bring change to our society today.
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