The Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya coalition party presidential flag bearer Raila Odinga has on three separate occasions come close to occupying the house on the hill without Mt Kenya votes.
In 2007, Raila who was vying under the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party ticket garnered 44.2% of the total votes cast even though the results were highly disputed.
In the 2013 General Election, the ODM leader managed to garner 5,340,546 votes which represented 43.7% while in the 2017 elections, he got 44.7%.
Speaking on K24 TV, political analyst Mark Bichachi opines that Mt Kenya has always been the missing link in Raila Odinga’s quest for the presidency.
According to Bichachi, the former Langa’ata MP has always had votes from all corners of the country apart from the populous central region.
“Raila Odinga has thrice come within a hair’s breadth of the presidency because of how many votes he was unable to get from the Mt Kenya region,” Bichachi said.
“If you look at Raila’s worst results in 2017, you see the guy has enough support across the country but is unable to cross the 50% mark thanks to the Mt Kenya votes.” He added.
The political analyst says that both United Democratic Alliance(UDA) presidential flag bearer and the ODM leader are putting more energy into the hunt for Mt Kenya because no one can win without it.
According to him, the former prime minister needs 30% of the central Kenya votes to win the August presidency.
But the analyst opines that William Ruto’s chances to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta diminished to the point he failed to secure his backing.
“Ruto’s strategy coming to this election was to secure Mt Kenya plus Kalenjin votes and get a few more votes from the periphery of the two constituencies to get into office,” Bichachi noted.
According to the political commentator, President Uhuru’s influence and the decision to pick Martha Karua as his presidential running mate opened the way for Raila to easily climb Mt Kenya.
Recent opinion polls have also indicated that Raila Odinga’s popularity In Uhuru’s backyard has increased since he named Karua as his running mate.
