The former prime minister Raila Odinga today brought Kisumu City to a standstill as he took his Azimio la Umoja gospel to his political bedroom of the Nyanza region.
The ODM leader held a mega rally at Jomo Kenyatta Mamboleo stadium in Kisumu County where thousands of Raila supporters field the ground.
The ODM leaders’ arrival at the stadium received heroic reception from the crowd that had eagerly waited for him.
Speakers after speaker urged the Nyanza region to turn out in large numbers during the August polls, most saying Raila’s win will depend on the voter turnout in his stronghold.
We, Mt Kenya region usually ensures a 98 percent turnout in all elections, but you people of Nyanza sometimes you have led Raila down with your low voter turnout,” Kieni MP Kanini Kega said.
Addressing the enthusiastic crowd, the ODM leader pledged to build more factories if elected Kenya’s president in the August 9 elections.
The ODM leader said the factories will be built in all sub-counties to provide job opportunities for the millions of unemployed youth across the country.
“We will build factories…each sub-county will have its own factory…one sub-county, one product…that will bring a lot of jobs to our unemployed youth, as well as farmers. We will also bring Baba Care so that everybody will have medical insurance…even you do not have money but you’re sick, you will be able to go to hospital and get treatment,” Raila said.
Raila who largely spoke in his Luo dialect reiterated his social welfare protection proposal saying all poor households in the country will be entitled to a Ksh.6,000 stipend every month from his government.
Raila Odinga’s political base voter turnout
As Raila awaits to be unveiled as the Azimio la Umoja presidential candidate, his Nyanza political base has traditionally been blasted for not turning out in numbers to cast their votes.
In the 2013 presidential election, the Nyanza region performed poorly as compared to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s strongholds where the turnout was over 98 percent.
In the Luo Nyanza counties of Homabay, Kisumu, and Siaya, the turnout was at 94.14%, 90.45%, and 92.4% respectively.
In the other counties of Kisii, Nyamira, and Migori, the voter turnout was at 84.43%, 83.66%, and 92,02 % respectively.
In the 2017 presidential elections, even though the results were nullified, the turnout in Raila Odinga’s political base mirrored that of the 2013 elections.
For instance in Homabay County, out of 476, 932 registered voters 402,998 turned out to cast their votes.
While in Siaya County the home county of the ODM leader, only 379,080 voted out of the 457,957 registered voters. In Kisumu, only 378,903 out of 539,593 turned out to cast their votes.
