The Parklands Diary

Courtesy of The Star The end of an era has arrived. New wineskins to replace the old wineskins Our galleries are about to be filled with beautiful posters of serious men and women who seek to take over the mantle. With the language of poets, they will sing their promises each day and night. So sweet will be their promises that we will forget their natural characters. Project after project, party after party, alcohol everywhere—all to woo us, the voters. But before we are consumed by the forthcoming campaigns, how about we reflect on your past vote? Let us inquire and evaluate. Did that vote mean anything to you? What has changed in your life since then? The promises were as sweet as liquor. The aspiring leaders, clothed with the confidence of comrades marching to a demonstration, sang to us their manifestos. Debates, arguments, discussions, and conversations in our class groups made their manifestos clear. It was crystal clear that you were convinced that the leader you were voting ...

Courtesy of Nairobi News First and foremost, I would like to dedicate this article to all participants in the incoming UNSA elections, wishing them a peaceful, free, and fair election as they exercise their political rights. Secondly, this piece is in no way a campaign instrument for any of the prospective contestants; it is a non-aligned project. Nonetheless, this article attempts to highlight how the electoral atmosphere has drastically changed under the current UNSA electoral regulations and how it has affected student politics, especially in Parklands.  This week, I had an illuminating conversation with Ben Odhiambo, a former KU student leader; the conversation was peppered with nostalgia for the glory days when politics was politics. Vote hunting was a do-or-die venture, and the actual vote hunting was done on the ground, not on the keyboard. We were reminiscent of the days when we used to campaign vigorously, through mass public addresses, door-to-door campaigns, and even, to...